"Hey Mark! Thanks for asking. The short answer is: that depends very much on your product. The long answer is: For our scale of production (~10K unit range) it's actually comparable in price to produce here or in other countries. This is because we save time in each phase because we can travel directly to the factory, optimize our supply chain directly and receive samples parts sooner. We also don't have a time difference to contend with between our office and the factories (although it's common for a number of European startups to relocate for periods of time to Asia just for this reason). I would say it's about pragmatism more than patriotism (although I'm American). If we found a partner that could produce a higher quality part at less cost and have ease of communication over the course of the process we would definitely select that partner. I'll be honest, yes! It's really pleasant to work with small family run companies - and still more efficient at this scale. It is unlikely that we would produce at that high a scale for a product like ours (just based on our market). Hypothetically, if we did outgrow our current partners we would probably relocate the manufacturing to Eastern Europe as parts would ship much faster to our HQ in Berlin. But we would definitely look into manufacturing in Asia as well.  You're correct that at that scale you do start saving considerable money by going to China when you look at a few cents over millions of units. However, for a higher end consumer electronic created by a startup - you select for speed of turn-around rather than the relatively small savings at medium-scale batches. I hope that shed some more light - thanks very much for asking!PS: An interesting case is actually Harry's (NYC-based for men's razor startup) because they bought an entire factory in Thuringia, Germany to produce their blades. When it comes to these 'Mittelstand' companies there really isn't anyone who can make it better.  "