Assemble yourself

Hardware startups face a problem where they need a minimum order for a factory production run, but don't have the funds. Without a product, they can't generate the growth to raise the money to manufacture the product.

While crowdfunding, (pre-orders) can help a lot, it is advisable to assemble yourself if you can. The benefit is that you can tweak the design faster when you're the factory, and learn things you'd never have known otherwise.