Hi. We are building a product where we have two main parts - hardware + software that aggregates the data coming from the hardware and provides different tools and functionality as the main value prop. Hardware is an enabler for us - it is collecting the data. In a simple form, it is a monitoring solution with sensor devices. We are working in industry 4.0. We have raised a decent amount (300k) of money for developing our solution but it is not enough. The R&D part is hard.

The development part is also hard to manage, we have firmware development, hardware development, product design development, web development for the dashboard and tools. We have to have the money in order to manufacture the devices. Manufacturing is expensive in low quantities. There are a lot of moving pieces.

B2B sales cycle is quite long, and besides that, we had some failures on the first launch. We have some traction, but no big-name companies to have that wow effect for investors. Also, it is harder to get investors, because not a lot of VCs want to invest in startups with a hardware component. Recently one investor declined us because they decided to invest in a similar company, but without hardware components (they are focusing on software for sensor devices only). I do understand that IP/patent is everything in the hardware game, we do have a patent in mind but it will add another level of complexity for our project and we do not have resources for applying for patents (not even talking about money for patent lawyers). Sometimes it feels like a big unmanageable clusterfk.

I wanted to hear some experience stories from fellow founders who have done hardware. How did you manage such a big project with so many moving pieces? How did you attract the talent? We are giving equity but it is not enough and we all know how much the engineering team costs. Hardware engineers are even more expensive than web developers. How did you approach investors? What was your approach to "this can be cheaply and easily copied by china" ? Any tops on overall scaling rather than being just a traditional company that provides service? Any story and experience will be appreciated.