Ask HN: Product/Market fit Strategy for Hardware Startup with Govt Traction?
I have an early stage startup (2 man team) that makes a novel kind of antenna system that could disrupt 5G, autonomous vehicles, IoT and anything that uses antennas. I have good traction from the government (SBIRs and other contract vehicles) but I am also trying to diversify by going after the commercial sector. I’ve really been struggling to find product/market fit and am not growing my team purposely.
I’d be grateful for answers to the following questions around strategy especially from hardware folks:
1)Licensing deals: There are a lot of players in the antenna space that want to license the technology. I see this as suicide since licensing could be done at a later stage if the company isn’t doing well. The company licensing the technology could learn your know-how and building upon it. Some of these companies are big defense contractors making patents essentially useless - you won’t even know where they have deployed the copied technology. It could help further the technology and have it deployed in the licensing company’s existing product given they have the resources to do so. Licensing in other verticals makes sense assuming you know what you are going after. Pitfalls?
2)Strategic Partnerships: Should one pursue a partnership agreement that is then not a licensing model. Something more like a revenue sharing model with the commercial partner giving them exclusive rights to the technology in exchange for revenue. I think this should be symbiotic enough to help both the bigger company with resources to leverage the technology without fear that others would have an edge while also generating more $ for my company than a licensing deal. Pitfalls?
3)Continue to find product/market fit with minimal dependence on bigger companies and build something in the commercial/consumer sector. This does have greater risk and requires a lot more resources. The technology also may have to be manufactured in the US, making it more $$. Pitfalls?
4) Anything I missed?