Yes I'm looking to launch. Could you share your experience?
I agree with the targeting part. Just happens that most of the English-speaking audience for tech products are American, so it's just a generalization.
Well, I just made a site and shared it on some forums and Reddit for feedback. Sometimes it's those "what are you working on" threads on HN. It was never really good enough for me to judge as marketable.
2 years later, there's regularly 2000 visitors/month. Returning users are very poor, but it's a good amount of user acquisition for something I've actively avoided marketing.
I started another startup before this, and got 1200 users in 24 hours just by posting it in an active Facebook group. Most of the users came from people sharing my post. It didn't really "click" the first time though. Specifically, it was a diet app, I did calorie counts, but it was to low carb dieters who only cared about carb counts. So we had to overhaul the app to show carbs and it got 3000 users on the second "launch".
I'm still not sure you should hard launch because of things like this - it's very likely you've done something wrong or missed. And when you do launch, make it very easy for them to give feedback. I set up a public chat for feedback the first time, a survey form this time. The public chat was better, but you have to moderate it.
I don't think you should be thinking about factories just yet. There is an ecosystem around startup hardware makers.
For custom parts, you can order 3D printing shops, or better, buy a 3D printing machine if you have the money.
For parts that are metal, get a machinist, or get the machines yourself if you plan on rapidly iterating (manual mill/lathe machines could do most thing. CNC if you could afford it).
If you make electronics, there are plenty of PCB prototyping services nowadays, where you send in a design and get a few boards to test.
A good side effect of doing it this way is you have total control and ownership of your product, no single factory owns your whole production line. And you don't need to order 10,000 for them to pick up the phone.
I'm a software engineer but have always been interested on how to make physical stuff, and I tinker with Arduino, Raspi etc projects regularly. Just my 2 cents.
