It might help if we had some ballpark estimate of what the product was. Is it a computer accessory? An router of some sort? A wireless device? A new kind of computer?

If it's fairly simple, you could probably get away with just buying and assembling the parts to make a rough prototype, and using some free-software (ie, linux kernel) for the initial firmware.

Once you've got the proof of concept going, you should be able to get some funding for the project and hire the folks you need.