Firstly, I'm not from the startup world, have never been in one, and dont know all the standard models, so forgive me if this sounds naive.<p>But I'm working on a startup idea. I'm looking to bring on some contributors to help with content and business development and I can't pay unless I get funded which I'm hoping to avoid for now. Offering equity feels like overkill for the type of work. I'm basically looking to get some freelance contributors to work on a risk basis, but with an overly generous upside if the business works.<p>I'm envisioning something like a revenue share type agreement.<p>Needless to say the contributors would have to strongly believe in the idea in order to take this risk. But if we could put that aside for a moment, I'm asking if there are existing models in the ballpark of what I am describing so that I don't have to try and reinvent the wheel.
You could try adding an elaborate backstory and run it as a cult.<p>Traditionally, violence was also useful to get people to work for free. If you’re really good, the first round of violence makes the mere threat of it effective for subsequent rounds / business projects.<p>Maybe say you’re hiring and make the work an “example project”. If it’s too much for a single applicant (more than a week), have a “operations management” applicant divide it into suitable sub-packages.<p>Child labor is illegal almost everywhere, so the only way they can be made to work is without pay.<p>Interns are great not just in the Oval Office.
A crypto approach could look like:<p>1. Create a token and mint 1% (10k) of them to you<p>2. Create a pair with let's say 1 ETH (or USDC) + 10k on Uniswap - this is your initial funding for your project. You now have a market for your token.<p>3. Reward your contributors with tokens - they can choose to swap these into ETH or USDC if they wish to