Well, my experience is the opposite - the scheme you describe works if you get one lump sum upfront. But what normally happens is that investors are more carefu

Well, my experience is the opposite - the scheme you describe works if you get one lump sum upfront. But what normally happens is that investors are more careful and will gladly give you more money each year provided that you fullfill certain conditions (growth!). Sure, you can miss the mark a few times, but you have to at least pretend you are doing something - and firing everybody except the senior devops lead probably won't cut it.