[rapjr9]

Many music conferences for new music products (including both software and hardware) are open for those bootstrapping a hardware business. You can set up a booth and demo your product to create interest for when the hardware is released and to take pre-orders or just to get ideas and feedback for features/design. Might even connect with a larger company that wants to adopt your product. Some of the conferences may offer some sessions on bootstrapping a business. Some of the larger ones are Superbooth, NAMM, Musikmesse, and AES, but there are lots of smaller ones also such as SynthPlex and Ableton Loop. Knobcon might be a good one. Not sure if MoogFest still exists since Moog was bought by a mass-market conglomerate.