The Balancing Act

So we had a bunch of "experts" tell us a few months ago that our invention was garbage and could not be done. We are now about 85% complete with a proof-of-concept that proves we are the experts and those guys are not so much.

The problem with tight development time lines, however, is the anxiety derived when you push-push-push and you run up onto the deadline. In our case the deadline is in 2 weeks and we think things will be done...but we just do not know. The main investor (who is presenting us to his peeps) is asking how things are going and we are stuck.

Do we tell him the brutal truth that we think things are going well but that, as nobody has built anything like this before, who knows what is going to happen. Do we lie and say we are 100% on target and so overly-confident that we will make the deadline that we are offended he would question us? Where is the balance here?

I tried to go down an intermediate road in telling him that things so far were progressing as expected and that the inventive work is over. We have more typical development to complete and we should be fine unless something completely unexpected occurs.

So was that the right message?!? I guess time will tell...