Imagine a Venn Diagram with three interlocking circles: one of them is labeled Modern Technology; the second is labeled Great Support, and the third is labeled Favorable Terms. For years, Rainforest Founder and Chief Executive Officer Joshua Silver consulted with companies who felt that, when choosing a payments provider, there was no company in the middle of the diagram, providing all three benefits, and it was from this observation that his company was born.
The Co-Founder of medical payments platform Patientco, which was sold to Waystar in 2021, Silver built Rainforest from the ground up as a revenue-driving solution that’s easy to implement and able to help its clients troubleshoot problems with in-house underwriting and risk operations departments. “From my experience building a payments company at PatientCo, and then sitting in the buyer’s seat with dozens of software companies, I knew I could do better,” he said in an October interview.
Founded in 2022, Rainforest has grown as the industry has gotten messier and more complicated, which is perhaps why Silver’s goal of simplicity and transparency has been so warmly received. Or perhaps it’s because, unlike companies that start to overexpand once they’ve tasted success, Silver has stayed laser-focused on his mission and is not ashamed to say so. “We’re a very focused and opinionated company, we do one thing and we do it very, very well. We won’t be building 15 other products. We’re focused on being the best payments provider. Period.”
To do that, Silver needs the right people beside him. “The competition for top talent is as fierce as it’s ever been, and that applies to any business,” he said. “As a growth-stage company, we seek out A-players with deep subject matter expertise…when you’re growing fast, you find new problems every day.”
In the end, it’s how Silver and his A-team respond to those challenges that he believes sets Rainforest apart. “There are a lot of companies claiming to do embedded payments but the reality is most of them don’t. They made a lot of promises and didn't deliver,” he said. “Overcoming that distrust and showing software companies how we’re different is a day-to-day challenge. But we’re up for it.”
