A very prominent investor told me that hardware founders need some sort of celebrity attached to their name to raise money. Yes, there are exceptions, but they

A very prominent investor told me that hardware founders need some sort of celebrity attached to their name to raise money. Yes, there are exceptions, but they are rare. Investors know hardware is hard and the lead times are longer, so they see that as added risk which makes them less likely to invest. Many investors, as a rule, won't even consider hardware and there are very few that specialize in hardware. It's a bit of a catch-22 with investors that say they want you to be different, because most of them really want you to be like everybody else. The majority are trying to ride the next wave, only a very small number are actually trying to find it independent of "signalling." Every investor is different, every company is different, but if you're doing something unconventional you're probably going to have a very hard time. And now that Pebble has essentially failed, that's going to make investors a lot more wary about investing in consumer electronics.