Good luck. I worked for a start up at one point in my life. The angel investor was from the north side of Atlanta. One day he decided to stop waiting for the promises and pulled the plug while we had a $1.2 million contract if we had kept 3 people and the doors open. He said enough and pulled the plug. You need to have a solid plan for growth. You will need an independent CFO at some point to make the right decisions. They need to be concerned with the company and the product and not your ego. You need to try to self fund as much as possible. Trying to fund a start up firearms company will be hard as soon as you mention gun half of the financing options go away. You will be giving up equity in the company to get funding and potential high interest rates. If you have a real innovative idea manufacture a prototype and sell it to a bigger player. The Bushmaster ACR comes to mind. I worked for a guy who sold a couple of gun designs.