Indie.vc's revenue-share template outlived its own website

The record

Indie.vc offered an alternative to priced equity rounds, structured around revenue sharing instead of a fixed equity-only return. Its own investment instrument, described as being 'currently on its third version,' is still published on a GitHub repository Indie.vc controls, last updated by a commit dated 4 January 2019. The template names the purchaser 'OATV IV, LP' and sets out a 'Purchase Amount,' a 'Percentage,' a 'Redemption Start Date' and a 'Redemption Amount' defined as a percentage 'of the Company's gross revenue.' A Wayback Machine capture of Indie.vc's own FAQ page from 20 July 2019 describes the mechanics in plain language: investment 'from $100,000 to $500,000,' cash distributions starting 'after month 36,' capped 'at 3x max the initial investment,' with the equity option halved if that 3x is repaid within three years.

What the documents establish

The GitHub-hosted document is Indie.vc's own template, not a third party's summary, and it is dated by its last commit rather than by a page footer. The archived FAQ, a separate document from a different date, corroborates the mechanism the template only states in legal form: a capped, redemption-based return keyed to revenue or net income rather than a priced conversion. Checked live on 16 September 2026, the current indie.vc website no longer presents this investment programme; its homepage now shows unrelated navigation, which establishes that the original structure is not being offered there today, whatever the GitHub repository's continued availability might suggest.

The operating read

This is an editorial reading of what a live template with no live matching offer means for a founder researching revenue-based alternatives to equity. A published legal instrument is evidence of what an investor structured and made public, not evidence that the fund is still deploying it. The 3x cap and the three-year repayment discount are notable design choices worth studying on their own terms — they bound the investor's total return in a way a standard priced round does not — but a founder should not approach Indie.vc today expecting to receive this instrument, since the current site gives no indication that it is accepting applications under it.

What to check before you decide

Before treating this template as available or as representative of active revenue-based investors, a reader should check the following.

• Does the GitHub repository show any commits or version changes after January 2019 that would indicate continued maintenance?
• Is the fund named in the template, OATV, still investing under any structure, and where would that be disclosed?
• Do active revenue-based financing providers, such as Lighter Capital, publish comparable terms today?

A document that is still hosted is not the same claim as a programme that is still open; this record treats them separately.