So fun little insider baseball. My father (who was semi-retired at the time) once did a consulting gig for Solar City. The only reason he took it was because the opportunity was given to him by a friend and the money was too good to pass up, but he didn’t really have a background in solar, just in general manufacturability. It was 60,000 for a weeks worth of consulting, with flights and room paid for. This is the kind of money they were working with.

So he basically spends three days getting an idea of where they were at with their process. They had just made their final touches on the 3-D models and drawings, hadn’t even run any simulations, basically were ready for a prototype to be made. So my dad was like, idk why I am even here none of this is something I can really help with, but they are being really cagey about everything. But then he realizes why he is there on the fourth day. He goes into a general meeting to basically watch the engineers present where they are at. Some C-suite types are there and are impressed, one turns to my dad and says, what a great product, it be made in mass within a year right? My dad is literally speechless for a second, before saying, as they said, this is literally just a computer model, they don’t even know if it works. The guy looks at him confused, well yeah, but you can get us a close time line right? And my dad is like, what, no, we are talking 2-3 years minimum not even including any likely issues, plus he was not even familiar with the timelines associated with these kinds of products (he was a computer parts guys). He basically lists everything that still needs to be done in order to even get to manufacturability. The guy still doesn’t seem to understand. Then one of the other lead engineers kind looks at him kinda pleadingly and he realizes that he is supposed to give a bullshit number, sign off on it, and then have it get presented to some investors. Still taking his professional reputation seriously though, he sticks to his guns, wraps up the consultation according to the contract, and leaves. He was and has never been called back for anything like that since, but it permanently made him completely distrust any engineering project estimates coming from Silicon Valley.