> Dealing with suppliers and Chinese factories may present a logistical challenge, but it's still easier and less expensive than doing the manufacturing yoursel

> Dealing with suppliers and Chinese factories may present a logistical challenge, but it's still easier and less expensive than doing the manufacturing yourself. I sort-of agree with you there and sort-of don't. IF (and this is a HUGE if) you already know EXACTLY what your product is going to be THEN you MIGHT be able to save a bunch of money using Chinese suppliers and factories. But when you're doing a hardware Kickstarted kind of product you don't necessarily know exactly what the product is and how it will work. You might well be inexperienced too. Manufacturing in-house gives you the ability to rapidly iterate and close the feedback loop (which any good software engineer will tell you is critical) so that you can go from sorta-working to working to working perfectly. 3d printed parts are not the same as injection molded parts for myriad reasons. The screws for assembly you buy off of mcmaster carr will almost assuredly be different than the ones your Chinese supplier gives you, especially if you don't know to ask what the material is, what the tolerances are, etc. A screw is a screw right? Not even close. Software guys often have a lot of trouble understanding hardware because software is so pure. A bit is a bit and it always will be. An object has a type which often fully defines it. Bits can largely be counted on not to flip. If it passes the tests in dev and test it should work in production, and if it doesn't we can revert it. When you do all this stuff in China your feedback loop might be 3-6 months long. That means that you might spend two years (4 to 8 iterations) getting from an idea to a worthwhile product. Doing manufacturing in-house can bring your feedback loop from months to hours, days or weeks. For the same 4-8 iterations you might only spend a few months. That's the difference between "very nearly success" and "quite late, eventual delivery way behind schedule and expectations"