faq

what's the deal with this revenue sharing malarkey?

good question! we tried a few different things, and decided on the current revenue sharing model for a couple of reasons.

aligned incentives

we have found that the most productive partnerships are those where the founder(s) know a problem space inside out, and as a consequence, are often less experienced at product and engineering – which (luckily!) is our core competency. together, we have all the ingredients needed to succeed in solving the problem at hand, and we believe the best way to collectively get out of our own way and focus on building is to make sure everyone's incentives are perfectly in line
accessibility

we want to be able to work with founders of all backgrounds and means, and have found that many of the problem-focused founders we enjoy working with do not have the means to bootstrap or pay up-front development costs

we believe these founders should have the opportunity to create value for the communities they serve, and will always do what we can – within the constraints of our own business model – to create as many of these opportunities as possible

so, are you an investor? ..or a dev shop? ..or, what?

none of the above – we're trying out a new way of doing things

some of the services we provide are similar to a dev shop (and in fact we often partner with dev shops for these services), and the revenue sharing model means we incur risk and has aspects of an investment – but taken as whole, we believe the end-to-end experience of partnering with villagers is different to anything else currently out there

if my business doesn’t succeed, do I still have to pay you back?

no. we know that even the best laid plans don’t always work out, so our model is designed to absorb and amortize the cost when things do go wrong

how long will it take to repay villagers?

we target a repayment schedule of 3 years, but can accommodate some variation here – which will be factored into the total revenue share amount

if you grow faster than expected, payments end early

you guys sound awesome, can I just pay you and skip the rev share stuff?

we only accept direct payment for follow-on work from existing partners, and in cases where the project is being sponsored by a third party (eg an NGO)

ready?

Get Started