First, this sidesteps the question. The writeup implies owners will be able to buy out indie.vc, rather than feed them a perpetual stream of dividends. Regardless of how they do this, what is the buy-out amount? It will have to be an integer multiple of the money invested to reach breakeven.

Second, many companies, especially tech companies, do not pay dividends.

In particular, a growing company would be foolish to distribute dividends; dividends are for companies that have reached a steady-state. Waiting for a company to hit steady-state from inception can take a very long time.