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Market Fit Survey: An Alternative Commercial Model for SaaS, Marketplace, and Platform Engineering

We are exploring a new commercial model for founders who want to launch a recurring-revenue service through a SaaS, marketplace, or digital platform.

For this survey, we mean a professionally engineered service that is ready for real customers and commercial use. We are not referring to a prototype, proof of concept, or a basic AI-generated MVP. The build would include everything needed to run the service properly, such as the customer experience, backend, database, user access and permissions, integrations, payments where required, deployment, security, testing, monitoring, and a foundation that can grow with the business.

Under the model we are considering, the founder pays only an initial amount before the service goes live. The engineering firm funds most of the remaining build cost itself.

Once the service starts generating revenue, the engineering firm recovers the amount it funded from an agreed share of that revenue. If the service does not generate enough revenue, the firm takes the risk on the amount it cannot recover.

The purpose of this survey is to understand whether founders would consider such an arrangement and what level of initial payment and future revenue share would feel commercially fair.
1.As a founder with a viable SaaS, marketplace, or platform-based service idea that you believe can generate recurring revenue, would you seriously consider this type of arrangement?(Required.)
2.Based on the type of production-ready service described above, what would you expect a professional product engineering firm to price it at in total?(Required.)
3.If the engineering firm were willing to fund most of the build cost itself, what is the maximum amount you would realistically be willing to pay upfront before your service goes live?(Required.)
4.The engineering firm would recover the amount it funded only after your service starts making money. What percentage of the service revenue would you consider reasonable for the firm to receive until that amount has been fully recovered?(Required.)
5.The engineering firm would also be taking the financial risk of funding most of the build itself and waiting for the service to generate revenue. What additional premium, if any, above the amount it funded would you consider fair for taking that risk?(Required.)