What about sharing risks between startups? You could set up a startup shares pool, in which a group of companies trade some of their stock for a share of the pool, so if some companies go under they could still receive some income from the pool.

Maybe something similar to this Artist Pension Trust. http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2007/aug/12/4

I think this would be similar to what VCs do, invest in 20 startups and hope for one big hit or a couple of good hits.