What camera to record golf swing
.I can completely understand for the range/lessons/practice area/etc... but I can't imagine ever doing so on the course itself. Furthermore, if I was holding up the people behind me on the course because I was recording my swing and then watching the replay on the camera for every shot I think my fellow club members would probably lynch me!!
I think another issue that you may run into, something a few of us have alluded to already, is your spec to price point ratio. As I understand it volume is considered heavily when targeting price point. You can (in basic terms) go after the 'money no object' crowd with high value, over engineered items that provide a hefty profit margin, allowing you to produce a product to sell in low volume while still making enough money that it is worthwhile for you to do so (your Lamborghini Aventador). Alternatively you can go after the mainstream market and produce an inferior product at a lower price point with a lower profit margin and rely on volume sales to make it worthwhile for you instead (your Vauxhall Corsa). A lot of companies will release a range of products designed to maximise their market exposure and take advantage of both markets and those in between (every non-'exotic' car manufacturer).
The product you have described on the face of it fits, spec wise, into the volume market but is priced at a point higher than the volume market is prepared to pay (I imagine - certainly from my perspective). You have said in your more recent post that, given the people who approached you, you had assumed money would not be an issue. They provided a price point that they would consider paying and, given the specs involved, I imagine you could make a reasonable profit margin but I don't think the volume would be there at that spec to price point ratio to make it worthwhile, personally (though granted, you know your figures infinitely better than I do and I appreciate that this forum thread is forming part of your market research!).
The fact that they would be willing to buy equity in a start up is also somewhat of a misnomer in my opinion (from your perspective as the engineer at least) because they'd be acting as a surrogate venture capitalist without providing the expertise and market connections that would actually help you take the product to market and get it recognised. By all means the additional monetary investment they offer eases the financial burden on yourself, however, aside from that initial capital injection what do they actually bring to the table? Nothing. You'd be better off attempting to gain support from a more mainstream venture capitalist who might have the business connections to make things happen for you once the product development cycle is complete or even during it. It might cost you more in terms of equity but once the product is finished you end up with an intermission, with the VC heading up the second half of the story, rather than a curtain fall. A small slice of a large pie is better than a mediocre slice of a small pie, relatively. If the new start-up venture subsequently fails you both end up with a loss anyway and with a smaller equity share your loss is inevitably reduced! In any event, being of a legal background, 'assurances' aren't typically worth anything until they're backed up with cash and a binding signature somewhere on a page; get them to put money where their mouth is first!
Finally, as a few of us discussed, the line between 'do want' and 'will buy' is like an object sitting under the water's surface, difficult to locate. A good golf related example of this is the new Game Golf device that came out not too long ago. Do a casual search for threads on it in any golf forum and you'll find a lot of people who say they will definitely buy one or would be 'very interested' (how many of these then have subsequent posts reviewing the same or providing first hand anecdotal comment on it? Very few indeed). The majority of people either think it is a gimmick and waste of money, or state that they would love to have one but that it is not something they would purchase themselves. This latter category is very interesting because they either provide positive feedback during product concept stages and then fail to front the money when it comes to crunch time, or they provide reasoned and convincing price point/spec feedback, based upon their assumptions about how others will react to what they perceive to be a good idea and a market hole, with no evidence for the same, whilst having absolutely no intention of ever making a purchase at that same price point themselves. The amazing thing about it is that they don't even realise this is what they're doing. GameGolf hasn't been a flop as far as I know but I imagine the above leads to the death of a lot of new start ups because, sadly, big ideas only snowball into big money if the price is right, and this group of people skews the price point/spec reality quite a bit at best and, at worst, makes it appear as though a market exists when sometimes it simply doesn't.
If there's a market for your idea then I wholeheartedly say go for it but I seem to recall reading relatively recently that the main killer for new start-ups is lack of market research. You're doing yours as we speak, which is great, but make sure you do enough before taking your product past concept stage.
Apologies if any of the above sounds patronising - it is basically a mind dump of my thought process on the issue, I haven't re-read it and it certainly isn't meant to come across that way. If it even flows or makes sense at all it'll be a miracle .
Best of luck.
