As far as I get the (kinda confusing) idea
Yes, I've watched a couple of the videos and don't really get the approach.
My conclusion after giving it my 15 minutes?
It appears to be a concept where the valuation of your startup (funded from Open Startup) gets locked in and if the startup succeeds 80% of the gains will be reinvested towards other projects and 20% of the gain can be cashed out.
Investors in startups are very selective on which companies they fund -- that's why they aren't instead choosing a managed fund somewhere that takes care of their money for them.
Because it is hard to attract investment with this "lock in" approach, Trout appears to think that those with proceeds from Bitcoin mining might be more willing to participate -- to invest with their rigs?. I couldn't ascertain if the funded startups had anything to do with bitcoin other than that being the currency used for receiving the funds and paying dividends.
If GLBSE and MPEx weren't around, and this was the only other option that we'ld see bitcoin-related startups get funding then getting funding through this method (and committing to reinvest 80% of future gains) might make more sense. But this approach has a lot of competition, especially now that the JOBS act / crowdfunding law has passed in the U.S. and the crowdfunding concept gains further traction around the rest of the world as well.
Maybe I'm completely misunderstanding the concept though.
