What’s stopping purple from doing retroactive funding? I think something in between is probably the best. 30% paid up front, 70% paid upon successful delivery (needs to be voted as a proposal).

Purple did retroactive funding before and will continue to do so. However, retroactive is not the only focus.
Purple also funded a few projects upfront. 

I agree with you. Not immediately paying the full amount but rather in installments is a good idea.

i think retroactive is probably the way to go, but at the same time we’ve made proposals for FC meetups before, and i know it would be very hard to do that retro-actively

Searchcaster