Comment by mariusor

If you look at some famous(ish) projects that do this, there are two main ways:

* write a piece of software that can be commodized (the SourceHut route)

* become a consultant specializing in the software you're developing (the cURL route)

None of these things are guaranteed to work though. You need a good product for the first or your project needs to be the linchpin for many other things for the second.