From our founder, Shehzan.

Since people kept asking me to write the story behind Lava, here it is:

Observing People I Care About Face Challenges in Dealing With Finance

My parents came to America with nothing, and they worked extremely hard to earn for our family. But despite their efforts to make money, they faced another challenge in figuring out how to store that money: should the money be kept in dollars, bonds, stocks, bitcoin, real estate, or another asset? This wasn't just their challenge. It is a common problem faced in the community a grew up in which is a less-educated community. Watching those I care about face challenges in managing their finances inspired me to understand and simplify finance.

Understanding the Importance of Self-Custody

Once I made some money through my ventures, I tried putting that money in every investment channel I could access - real estate, stocks, options, private equity, lending. During this phase, I discovered the many problems present in our financial system, and I realized how self-custody, and in particular bitcoin, could help address them. However, the self-custody app I wanted to use didn’t exist, so I decided to start Lava to build it.

Turning My Vision Into Reality

I started to flesh out the tech for the self-custody vault I wanted to use — one that would let me access the functionality I wanted securely and simply. During a late-night drive, I figured out how to build a bitcoin-secured loans protocol using DLCs on bitcoin. I spent some time thinking about how self-custody security should work and how to build other functionality I wanted to see within self-custody. Finishing the spec of the loans and the vault, and feeling confident in my ability to deliver on the vision, I set out to raise money to build Lava. Since then, I’ve assembled a lean but highly capable team, and together, we’ve built Lava to be a self-custody solution that can serve you.

But really, none of this would have been possible without the team and supporters we have. So, thank you.