I'm Jon Harrop. HLVM is a hobby project that I work on when I can find the time. If I could commercialize it then I would but there is no short-term way to make decent money from a VM/language that I can see.

I suggest you think carefully about when HLVM's fat references are a disadvantage compared to the alternatives and why. The real reasons are not at all what you're thinking (or what I thought for a long time).