[rubidium]

Not in the midwest, or many other parts of the country. Check Glassdoor for rough numbers. Salaries are reasonable, cost with overhead is questionable.

Long story short on all this, if you've never made hardware before and are going to make hardware, take the risk with other peoples money... if at all.

[bsbechtel]

I'd be curious to learn how VCs value hardware startups vs software considering this and all the other risks.