I was initially very skeptical of this idea but then I thought: "Well, some of the money that investors would put into a startup would just go employees and other service providers - why not skip a step?"

There are definitely alignment issues and other landmines that may make this a bad idea, but at the same time, the best way to find out what's wrong with this model, how it can be improved, or how it could work in some form, is to try it out.

It'd be great if you posted a follow up in a month or two after you've gotten some traction.