Yeah, that's what's discouraging. For something that is effectively a hobby project, spending many thousands of dollars is too much of a risk, when you're not even sure people will buy the thing you created.
FWIW, I've done some digging and at least it's not just a mafia shakedown (like the USB-IF charging thousands for an artificially scarce numeral).
The equipment and expertise are both expensive and time consuming. DIY is possible, but would cost considerably more.
I'm a little surprised I haven't heard about a single start-up accelerator that has cert gear available...
