Work that keeps paying: residuals across 15 projects

If you contribute to several companies or products, you can end up with several small revenue shares instead of one salary. That can work well, but only if each share is set up so you and the company both understand it, and only if you can keep track of all of them.

This post is about the holder's side: which terms stay easy to run across many projects, and how to keep fifteen shares from becoming fifteen spreadsheets. For why more work is paid this way, see work should compound, not expire.

What a residual is, and isn't

Here, a residual means a share of revenue that keeps paying after your work is delivered. It's usually small, usually capped and usually time-limited.

It isn't passive income. Shares end, products fail, some work needs maintenance, and a share of nothing is nothing. Treat each residual as a small, uncertain upside on top of being paid for the work, not instead of it.

Settle each share before the work starts

Every share needs its own written terms: the work it pays for, the revenue it's based on, the percentage, a cap or end date, who maintains the work, and how you'll check each payout. Micro-residuals walks through scoping one, and the terms to write down covers the agreement. If a project can't answer these in writing, it isn't ready for a revenue share.

Terms that are easy to run, and terms that aren't

Easy: a percentage of a company's or product's revenue, with a cap and an end date. Everyone can see the revenue, the math is simple, and the obligation has a clear end.

Hard: terms based on anything that has to be measured separately, such as "savings from deflected support tickets," "$2 per active account," "incremental booked revenue" or "revenue attributed to my landing page." Each one needs a measurement both sides agree on and someone responsible for calculating it. That is where disputes start.

If you do use a measured basis, write down how it is measured, who calculates it and how you can check it. Otherwise, the cleanest structure is a share of the whole revenue of a small, focused product or company, so the thing you helped build and the revenue you share in are the same.

Keeping track of many shares

Fifteen small shares across fifteen companies are only useful if you can see them: what each one has paid, what is still owed, how close each is to its cap, and when each ends.

Priya Raman designs for several small companies and takes part of her pay as capped revenue shares. Her record at the end of one month:

Illustrative example. Three shares, three positions: NovaCraft is about halfway to its cap, Neon Labs (the checkout residual from the micro-residuals example) will reach its end date before its cap, and Acme SaaS has paid out in full. Many products earn far less than this, and some earn nothing, so the realistic range for any single share is wide.

Keep one record per share with the signed terms attached, and reconcile each payout against its receipt. On HYVV, Portfolio does this for everyone who earns from a HYVV company, with each payment's calculation behind it.

Where residuals fit

A few residuals rarely replace a salary on their own. Think of them as one layer among several:

1. Salary or client income, for stability
2. Project residuals, for upside from work already done
3. Products you own, for larger but riskier returns
4. Equity, for long-term bets
5. Cash reserves, so you're never forced to accept bad terms

For the company offering the share

If you're on the other side, Earn Links let you offer a capped revenue share as a link the contributor reviews, signs and claims, and Revenue Sharing pays it on every payment that clears, until the cap or end date.