> I don't want to invest money in a project that I am not sure is going to make any returns.

That's the underlying risk of being an entrepreneur. If it were a sure thing, everyone else would be doing it. This isn't a comment about Stripe Atlas but about the whole thing being a gamble. If you don't have the stomach for that kind of a gamble at large, being entrepreneur isn't for you.

It's easy to buy shares of Uber on the stock exchange after they went public, it's way harder to put down money on Uber in 2008. And you could be Flywheel instead of Uber.

Not OP, but- it seems OP is looking to test an idea and not paying unnecessary costs or setting up unnecessary entities abroad, exploring possible options for paying less does not mean she/he 'does not have the stomach for that kind of a gamble'- why pay more when you can pay less?