I see that many Angel investors are investing in many companies, however, it seems that most of these companies sell a software services. Is there any interest from Angels for startups with new and innovative products? Most successful tech companies sell hardware (i.e. Dell, Apple, HP, etc...)
i'm not an angel, but i would think that at least some would be. depends on the idea, just like software.
the problem of software vs hardware, though, is simply the fact that software will scale easier than an item that you must manufacture/produce/distribute. give someone $5k (for example) and a software company will probably be able to run further with it than a hardware company.
You're saying needing more money might help raise more money? I suppose. Hardware products are tough to bootstrap, and tough to flesh out issues with before having volume... and they don't get software margins. That said, I'm sure there's interest.. and it's probably inflated when the hardware is well understood, and maybe driven by software margins (Square comes to mind).
How many or what class of hardware companies would angels have enough money to make a difference in? Aren't we talking a difference between investing 5-6 figures vs. 7-8?
Remember, we are talking about seed stage companies, the money from an Angel will help get at least a prototype out the door... and some PR depending on the Angel.
Getting a processor/ASIC taped out and fabricated, even if you use MOSIS, it not cheap. As I understand it, the cost of the necessary seat licenses for the design and verification tools would be beyond what we think of normal (non-Space X/Tesla) angel investments, even syndicated.
So, again, I ask "what class[es] of hardware companies would angels have enough money to make a difference in"?
Or to repeat a question I've been pounding on, where will the next thing in the class of the FPGA come from? As far as I can tell, the answer for the US is that "the future isn't going to be invented here".
the problem of software vs hardware, though, is simply the fact that software will scale easier than an item that you must manufacture/produce/distribute. give someone $5k (for example) and a software company will probably be able to run further with it than a hardware company.