Depends on what hardware, who is developing it, and for who. Proof of concept is almost always cheap enough to make. Beauty of HW is that you get PMF straight away - even if you have the worst completely broken product, but it it brings value to someone, they will pay for it. From there you can bootstrap, take on credit etc. Capital intense part can wait - refinement, certifications, patents, packaging, documentation, mass production etc. This is of course all under assumption that the core team knows how to build everything, if you're outsourcing in the prototype phase then you're probably toast anyway.
> So the right kind of investor could add significant value if they were aligned.
I always perceived value of investors to be everything but the money. If you need just the money then get a loan.
Depends on what hardware, who is developing it, and for who. Proof of concept is almost always cheap enough to make. Beauty of HW is that you get PMF straight away - even if you have the worst completely broken product, but it it brings value to someone, they will pay for it. From there you can bootstrap, take on credit etc. Capital intense part can wait - refinement, certifications, patents, packaging, documentation, mass production etc. This is of course all under assumption that the core team knows how to build everything, if you're outsourcing in the prototype phase then you're probably toast anyway.
> So the right kind of investor could add significant value if they were aligned.
I always perceived value of investors to be everything but the money. If you need just the money then get a loan.