[scolson]

Ditto crowdfunding.

You might also consider finding a tech person who can become your CTO if you are not especially strong in technical areas. If you are thinking you might go this route, you might consider doing it before a kickstarter campaign so that you can add some degree of legitimacy (and they can hopefully hype it).

Edit: Why limit your kickstarter to a home version? Different tiers = different markets. Have a plan to not need the croudfunding route, but if you can pull it off, use it to accelerate growth.

[jralphs]

I agree with your point. I think with the crowdfunding route having a CTO is crucial. Like DevX mentioned, after raising money I would be able to find someone who is compatible and has a good track record to fill that position.

I would love to launch the commercial and home versions simultaneously. However, the components need to be different for the commercial version because the product needs to be more robust. Therefore you're essentially designing, building, and shipping two different products. It makes things more risky, but there is a possibility to make it work if the same body component (which is an aluminum extruded frame with embedded track rails)can be used for both machines.

[jmjerlecki]

This early with only you doing everything, you need to pick is your product for consumers or is your product selling to gyms. It seems you've had some success selling to gyms, so would think your traction is showing you may want to continue down that path. Not sure if you have shipped a physical product yet, but it's hard enough getting one version right, let alone two.

If you go consumer, crowdfunding for the consumer side is the way to go. I would think if you had a successful crowdfunding campaign, you would be able to convince a good technical guy to join you (as clearly you've done a ton of hustle on your own).

From the fundraising perspective, at the this early of a stage investors mostly are investing in the team (which right now is only you), unless your product/traction is through the roof. At the early stage is also when you get most heavily diluted, so want to think about how much you are giving up vs. how much do you really need the cash? Again, it sounds like you have traction, so may want to figure out how to keep bootstrapping this vs. taking a big hit equity wise.

feel free to hit me up (email in profile) - I love the space you are going after.