If you want to be a credible solution provider and work with...

If you want to be a credible solution provider and work with global tech giants then you need the resources.

People are needed for...

1. Tech support: Helping customer R&D people get up to speed on the technology and apply it to the proposed solution. To work with a wide number of companies you need a large team otherwise you throttle the potential licensed products that are trying to get to market. And given the 3 to 5 years needed to get through the R&D, prototyping, manufacturing engineering process - you need a tech team that can both work on existing customers and new ones when they come along.
2. Internal R&D: no good being a one trick pony in this fast moving space. While you are selling AKIDA 1000, you need to be developing future generations and variants. Further, you need to be working on developing the next big thing. Neuromorphic computing is relatively new, and the R&D team having been steeped in this new art for a number of years now will have new thoughts and ideas.
   
3. Sales team: this is a relationship business. You have to have a reasonable sized technical sales team identifying and working on the next customer opportunity. That means meeting face-to-face multiple times, presenting, discussing, proposing, and closing deals.
4. Specification selling and industry outreach: nirvana in this space is educating the next generation of engineers on the Akida technologies (core systems, software , and development environments).
5. Marketing: raising the profile of BRN in the tech market place to both generate enquiry and to soften the prospects so that when the sales team call the prospect doesn't say "Brainchip? never heard of it."
6. IP protection and license deal legals and tracking: multiple patent applications in multiple jurisdictions require people to manage. In addition, each license deal is likley uniquely tailored. When customer products start selling you need to audit sales to ensure you aren't being diddled out of license fee income.
7. The usual management team and back office: investor relations, ASX compliance, finance, payroll, human resources, training, etc.

There are no half measures in this space. You either go hard or go home.

Saving money "because you are a startup" is the wrong thinking. That's why companies list on stock exchanges so they can raise capital to achieve the scale needed to get a foot in the door.

There are multiple competitors trying to get to market and establish themselves as the industry standard Edge Neuromorphic Processor. To compete you need a large team out of the gate.

IMHO