A geographically diverse set of startup companies participated with 35 (63%) from North America, 7 (13%) from Europe, and 13 (24%) from Asia. All of the companies interviewed create hardware products, and the focus of the interview was on the development timeline leading up to the first production quality product. Almost half of the companies interviewed identified as cleantech with the remaining half including companies from medical, robotic, aerospace, and other sectors. In this sample, the majority of companies had core intellectual property (IP) in a novel application or service provided. The remaining companies in the sample had IP in novel materials, processes, assemblies, or business models. Furthermore, the competitive strategy of most companies was in the technology itself rather than customer focus or cost leadership. Over 93% of the interviewees (51) were technically trained as engineers or scientists and have an education level beyond a bachelor's degree. The position of over 90% of the interviewees (50) at the time of the interview was as an executive and/or founder of their company. The remainder of the interviewees were lead engineers or scientists.