Making Isn't Manufacturing
summary
Hardware startups require different timelines, budgets and skills than software: an accelerator that works with 74 companies sees DFMs and manufacturing drive costs (example breakdown: ~$200k prototyping, ~$500k DFM, >$1M manufacturing/working capital), so crowdfunding averages $125k and usually won’t cover true production. Typical accelerator checks are 50k for 5% or 100k for 8%. Successful product teams iterate relentlessly — one case runs 30–40 prototypes — and many early campaigns (InstaCube) miss ship dates or fail when margins don’t add up.
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