[johnny99]

To me part of the allure of a passive income project is being able to control more than just the technical aspects--to be able to define the customer-facing and business pieces too.

Perhaps more importantly, your chance of producing meaningful income goes up exponentially if it's a one-person show. A small startup has the overhead of at least ramen-level salaries for a few people, possibly an office or shared space. If they've taken seed money their investors will be pushing for growth over profitability or possibly even revenue. If you're doing a profit share, even in the best of cases it may be a looong time before there's any profit, even if there is meaningful revenue.

Every startup is a longshot. It's an even longer shot if you're taking a sliver of profit from people whose interests may not be well-aligned with yours.

[enders]

I guess the delusion I'm under is that it's possible to have the cake and eat it :) Large startups with seed money won't probably be needing my service under the conditions I described in the OP, and small startups will be struggling for so long that unless it blows up to become the next big thing (probably won't), the actual passive income I could get wouldn't be meaningful. Thanks for your input!

[unsquare]

It is possible - It's just difficult.

You have to set yourself realistic expectations of what you'll get out of it in the end.

I've recently bought a dev's app and kept him on board with a % share of ad revenue. ( + cash milestones until the advertising revenue is significant enough )

Just need to find the right person.

[enders]

Interesting! Can you share a bit on how you met this dev? Did you come up with this way of compensation upfront, or is it a deal you struck after some time working on it with him/her?

[unsquare]

He contacted me trough one of my websites and offered me his services. I already knew him before he contacted me ( through his app ) so i offered him to buy out his application that wasn't doing so well.

We made an initial call, I've pitched him several different structures of compensation and let him come up with a price for his app that he was happy with, then struck a deal the following day.

There's a few reasons the reason it got done so quickly, we both had worked with the same people within the niche.

I've also explained to him my strategy upfront to get the app back on the road, so that probably helped.

You just need to find the right match.