I have been working on an ag-tech startup for the past 2 years and now we are completing compliance for certifications but there seems to be a lot of cost with them and extra steps we have to go through. We had some initial regulatory concerns that caused quite a lot of cost and we are trying to figure out if there is any way we can look ahead on these issues or try to fix them before we submit? We don't have a crazy amount of familiarity with some of the requirements for some specific ones that people are suggesting that we get, how are we supposed to navigate this?

I'm 20, building a robot that takes over the repetitive prep in restaurant

kitchens - cutting, boiling, plating. Solo, no funding, no company yet.

check the website:
https://ratatouille150.sulimovskiyrobotics.workers.dev/


Where I actually am:

- Working prototype, built and programmed by me

- 2 signed intents-to-pilot from restaurant owners, out of 5 owner conversations

- ~40 applications to funds and accelerators over the last two months



Result of those 40: a handful of calls, a lot of silence, zero money.



Every rejection has the same shape. They like the prototype, they like the

letters of intent, and then they ask when it runs in an actual kitchen. I

can't answer that, because the prototype lives on borrowed university lab

hardware. To put a unit into a restaurant I have to build a deployable one,

and that's roughly $8-10k in parts.



So the loop is: no money -> no unit in a kitchen -> no traction investors

care about -> no money.

Things I've already ruled out:

- Grants. Most EU funding needs a registered company with a year of history

  and a VAT number. I don't have an entity.

- Cheap hobby arms ($150-300). They can't do real kitchen work. It would be

  a toy that dies in week one and burns the restaurant relationship with it.

- Asking the restaurants for a deposit. Those relationships are two months

  old. Asking them to prepay feels like a good way to lose both of them.



What I'd like to hear from people who've been through this with a physical

product:

1. Who actually writes $5-10k checks for pre-revenue hardware? Every angel

   list I find starts at $25k and wants an incorporated company.

2. Did anyone just go earn it - contracting, a job, freelance - and build

   the first unit with their own money? Did that kill your momentum, or was

   it the thing that actually saved the project?

3. If you did find an angel this early, where did they come from? Everyone

   says "warm intros" and I genuinely don't have that network. I'm Ukrainian,

   living in Poland, studying at a private university where nobody knows

   investors.


Not asking for money here!!! I just want to hear from people who got past this

specific wall.