How much money do I need for my hardware startup?

HW Startups
#1

I always hear stories of development taking longer and costing more than expected. How do I figure this out?

#2

This might sound obvious but we’re often surprised at how many HW startup founders haven’t done the following basic analysis. Fundamentally you must figure out how much your product will cost before you can calculate how much money you’ll need to raise (through VC, crowdfunding etc). The tricky part, of course, is calculating the cost.

You essentially have to investigate:

  1. How much will parts + manufacturing cost?
  2. How long will manufacturing take?

Whatever you come up with, add 6 months to it.

#3

Plan for 18 to 24 months of operations, plus the manufacturing of 5,000 units minus whatever you have already raised in pre-sales / crowdfunding.