If they were also looking for manufacturing services, all the big EMS companies do product design (EE, mechanical, PCB layout, software, + Potpourri for $1000, Alex), too. One of the biggest value adds in EMS is DFM work, where a customer brings in the "next big thing" that turns out is impossible to reliably or inexpensively build (Bloom boxes are an item I have some personal history with, for example). This is also why there is a pretty big EMS presence in San Jose / Fremont / Sunnyvale / Milpitas, and why Flextronics decided to open their hardware incubator (Lab IX) there, too. Besides all this, even the biggest usually only have a minimum investment of a few thousand dollars.

I've spent the past 14 years in the EMS world and am happy to help/advise anyone who has a hardware or manufacturing problem.

http://www.californiaconsultants.org/Home.cfm is a good place to find reputable EE consultants in the area.

The "pitfalls" Lockitron encountered were so obvious, from the get go than a decent EE reviewing things would have been able to warn them. The similar thing holds true for ME.*

* ME = Mechanical Engineer.

I used to work at one: http://www.mindtribe.com