Ask HN: Paid pilots/licensing deals in hard-tech startups? Good/Bad idea?

We have a B2B IoT startup that uses hardware technology (straight from the lab) that has been approached by companies for paid pilots and licensing.

Ideally we would like to sell a product that uses the technology, but it is hardware and more capital intensive and licensing seems like a low cost/high reward way of making $. But we run the risk of the strategic partner learning the know-how risking future royalties. Also I’ve been told that investors don’t like to invest in companies that license their technology – not sure why?

Curious if anyone has thoughts on what to watch out for when it comes to working with strategic partners particularly with regards to licensing or paid pilots.