In contrast to a SW startup, what metrics and milestones do HW startup investors care about?
Unfortunately, there’s no standard answer. When we make an early-stage investment at Bolt, we look for founders that really understand their customers. This usually includes some combination of subjective data (user interviews, feedback, etc) and objective data (NPS, etc). With later stage companies, CAC vs LTV is critical and really understanding how your loaded BOM + COGS costs interplay with your business model. Depending on your product, market, and distribution system they can vary HUGELY.
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There is probably a big difference between before and after pre-sales, so I’d guess thats a big milestone. If I had to map it out:
Milestones | Metrics
- Founding
- Accelerator – demand as email addresses?
- Launch – pre-sales demand
- Seed Round
- Production – sales volume, COGs, NPS