> I usually just have an investor-type relationship.

Then in a way you do get paid (eventually, I hope...).

> Yeah, maybe just consulting?

That's one way to keep it simple.

But there has to be a better way, especially because the nicest flowers grow at the edge of the abyss.

Then necessarily that requires taking risk. Do you want shares in the companies that get to the point where they need a your help?

That really is the key question isn't it? I can see some ways out of that and some sets of companies (not many) where that would be the case but it's going to be hard to turn them around once they reach that stage. Maximum risk = maximum potential gain, it's never been any different.

Sure. But consider adverse selection? The ones that need the help are in a different part of the spectrum than the ones that don't.