[jonahss]

One thing that China has, that the US does not is a marketplace like Alibaba. It's simply incredible how you can place an order for any component with a quantity slider that goes from "three" to "three full train-cars a day".

When starting a hardware product, it's so easy to buy small quantities at commercial prices, no questions asked.

In the US, it seems all sales is relationship-based. I need to fill out forms on bad websites, wait for emails from sales reps, who sniff out immediately that I only want a small order. The overhead for processing an order isn't deemed worth the time, and any US-based small-time project ends there.