RISK FACTORS

Investing in our common stock involves a high degree of risk. You should carefully consider the risks described below and all of the other information set forth in this prospectus, including our consolidated financial statements and the related notes thereto, before deciding to invest in our common stock. If any of the events or developments described below occurs, our business, financial condition or results of operations could be negatively affected. In that case, the market price of our common stock could decline, and you could lose all or part of your investment.

Risks Related to Our Business and Strategy

We have incurred net losses since our inception, and we may continue to incur net losses in the future and may never reach profitability.

We have a history of losses, and we may not ever achieve profitability. We experienced net losses of $32.8 million, $56.1 million and $47.6 million for the years ended December 31, 2011, 2012 and 2013, respectively. As of December 31, 2013, our accumulated deficit was $332.8 million and total stockholders’ deficit was $62.0 million. We expect to continue to incur operating losses as a result of expenses associated with the continued development and expansion of our business. Our expenses include sales and marketing, research and development, and general and administrative costs. Furthermore, these expenses are not the only factors that may contribute to our net losses. For example, interest expense on our currently outstanding debt and on any debt that we incur in the future could contribute to our net losses. Any failure to increase revenue or manage our cost structure as we implement initiatives to grow our business could prevent us from achieving profitability, or sustaining profitability if we do achieve it. In addition, our ability to achieve profitability is subject to a number of the risks and uncertainties discussed below, many of which are beyond our control. Failure to become and remain profitable may adversely affect the market price of our common stock and our ability to raise capital and continue operations.

We have yet to achieve positive cash flow, and our ability to generate positive cash flow is uncertain.

To develop and expand our business, we have made significant up-front investments in our manufacturing capacity and incurred research and development, sales and marketing and general and administrative expenses. In addition, our growth has required a significant investment in working capital over the last several years. We have had negative cash flows from operating activities of $24.2 million, $25.9 million and $13.7 million for the years ended December 31, 2011, 2012 and 2013, respectively.

We expect that for the foreseeable future our overall cash flow will remain negative. In particular, we will need cash to fund our significant planned future capital expenditures to expand our manufacturing capacity. We will also require significant amounts of working capital to support our growth and we will need to increase our inventories of raw materials and our products as we seek to grow our business. In addition, from time to time, we may have debt maturities that will require cash in order to repay those obligations. We may not achieve sufficient revenue growth to generate positive future cash flow and, therefore, we may need to raise additional capital from investors to achieve our expected growth. An inability to generate positive cash flow for the foreseeable future or raise additional capital on reasonable terms, if at all, may decrease our long-term viability.

Our independent registered public accounting firm’s report contains an explanatory paragraph that expresses substantial doubt about our ability to continue as a going concern.

As a result of our recurring net losses taken together with the maturity of our subordinated notes due September 2014 and the expiration of our revolving credit facility in July 2014, our independent registered public accounting firm has expressed substantial doubt regarding our ability to continue as a going concern. We plan to repay our subordinated notes and borrowings under our revolving credit facility with a portion of the net proceeds of this offering.

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We are dependent on a sole manufacturing facility. Any significant disruption to this facility or the failure of either of our two production lines in this facility to operate according to our expectation could have a material adverse effect on our business and results of operations.

We currently operate only two production lines in one manufacturing facility, which is located in East Providence, Rhode Island. Our ability to meet the demands of our customers depends on efficient, proper and uninterrupted operations at this manufacturing facility. In the event of a significant disruption to our sole manufacturing facility or breakdown of either production line, we currently do not expect that we would have sufficient inventory in stock to meet demand until the production lines return to operation.

Power failures or disruptions, the breakdown, failure or substandard performance of equipment, or the damage or destruction of buildings and other facilities due to fire or natural disasters could severely affect our ability to continue our operations. In the event of such disruptions, we are unlikely to find suitable alternatives or may not be able to make needed repairs on a timely basis and at reasonable cost, which could have a material adverse effect on our business and results of operations. In particular, our manufacturing processes include the use of both high temperatures and flammable chemicals, which subjects us to a significant risk of loss resulting from fire. We had occasional incidences of fires at our initial facility in Northborough, Massachusetts that preceded our current manufacturing facility in East Providence, Rhode Island. If our manufacturing facility were to be damaged or cease operations, it may reduce revenue, cause us to lose customers and otherwise adversely affect our business. The insurance policies we maintain to cover losses caused by fire or natural disaster, including business interruption insurance, may not adequately compensate us for any such losses and will not address a loss of customers that we would expect would result. If our sole manufacturing facility was damaged or destroyed prior to the commencement of operations at a second manufacturing facility, which is currently expected to be 2017, we would be unable to operate our business for an extended period of time and our business and results of operations may be materially adversely affected, potentially even threatening our viability.

If we fail to achieve the increase in production capacity that our continued growth requires in a timely manner, or at all, our growth may be hindered and our business or results of operations may be materially adversely affected.

Our continued growth requires that we increase our production capacity. Consequently, we are engaged in the design, engineering and initial procurement phase of building a third production line in our manufacturing facility in East Providence and also plan to construct a second manufacturing facility located in either Europe or Asia. If, for any reason, including our inability to obtain financing, the third production line or the second manufacturing facility should fail to be completed in a timely manner, or at all, or any of the production lines in any future manufacturing facilities do not operate according to our expectations, sales may be impeded, our growth may be hindered and our business or results of operations may be materially adversely affected.

Many factors could delay or prevent the addition of a third production line or the construction of a second manufacturing facility or cause us to reduce the scale or scope of the new facilities, including:

Many factors could prevent the third production line or the second manufacturing facility from producing at their expected effective or nameplate capacity or could cause us to reduce the scale or scope of the new facilities, including:

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Any such expansion will place a significant strain on our senior management team and our financial and other resources. The costs associated with our expansion could exceed our expectations and result in a materially adverse impact on our business, results of operations, financial condition and cash flows.

If we are unable to complete the projects contemplated, the costs incurred in connection with such projects may not be recoverable. For example, during 2013, we redesigned and reduced the planned scale of the third production line. As a result, we reviewed the construction in progress assets associated with the third production line and determined that $3.0 million had no future use. In addition, we concluded that an additional $0.4 million of construction in progress assets were not utilized or functional. Accordingly, we recorded a $3.4 million impairment charge during 2013 related to the write-off of construction in progress assets. A similar redesign or reduction in scale could affect the planned third production line or the second manufacturing facility and similar impairments of our assets in the future could harm our financial condition.

If the expected growth in the demand for our products does not follow each of our planned capacity expansions, then our business will be materially adversely affected.

As we pursue our capacity expansion plans, we will incur significant capital expenses and increased levels of manufacturing expenses in anticipation of expected growth in demand for our products. In particular, we expect that these substantial additional expenditures will be made by us significantly in advance of the existence of the level of demand that would ensure the most efficient use of our planned new capacity. As a result, if the expected growth in demand for our products fails to materialize within a reasonable amount of time following each of our planned capacity expansions, then we would suffer decreased levels of cash flow and our financial condition and results of operations would be adversely affected.

We will require significant additional capital to pursue our growth strategy beyond the construction of our third line in our East Providence facility, but we may not be able to obtain additional financing on acceptable terms or at all.

The growth of our business will depend on substantial amounts of additional capital for construction of new production lines or facilities, ongoing operating expenses and continued development of our aerogel product lines. Our capital requirements will depend on many factors, including the rate of our revenue growth, our introduction of new products and enhancements to existing products, and our expansion of sales and marketing and product development activities. In particular, our plans to construct a second manufacturing facility in Europe or Asia are dependent on our ability to secure grants from governments and to raise debt financing. There is no assurance of our ability to obtain either type of financing on terms acceptable to us or at all.

In addition, we may consider strategic acquisitions of complementary businesses or technologies to grow our business, which could require significant capital and could increase our capital expenditures related to future operation of the acquired business or technology.

We may not be able to obtain loans or additional capital on acceptable terms or at all. Moreover, our loan and security agreement with Silicon Valley Bank under which we have the ability to borrow up to $10.0 million and our subordinated notes contain restrictions on our ability to incur additional indebtedness, which, if not waived, could prevent us from obtaining needed capital. Any future credit facilities or debt instruments would likely contain similar restrictions. We may not be able to obtain bank credit arrangements or effect an equity or debt financing on terms acceptable to us or at all in order to fund our future capacity expansion plans. A failure to obtain additional financing when needed could adversely affect our ability to maintain and grow our business.

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The market for insulation products incorporating aerogel blankets is relatively undeveloped and our products may never be widely adopted, which would have a material adverse effect on our business.

The market for insulation products utilizing aerogel blankets is relatively undeveloped. Accordingly, our future results of operation will depend in large part on our ability to gain market share of the global energy infrastructure insulation market. Our ability to gain market share in this market is highly dependent on the acceptance of our products by large, well-established end-users, distributors, contractors and OEMs. The energy infrastructure insulation market has historically been slow to adopt new technologies and products. Most insulation types currently in use in these markets have been in use for over 50 years. In addition, there is a tendency of end-users in some of our markets to opt for the frequently lower short-term costs of traditional insulation materials. If we fail to successfully educate existing and potential end-users, distributors, contractors and OEMs regarding the benefits of our aerogel products, or if existing users of our products no longer rely on aerogel insulation for their insulation needs, our ability to sell our products and grow our business could be limited.

In particular, because we are still often a new supplier to our end-use customers, we may face concerns from these end-use customers about our reliability and our ability to produce our products in a volume sufficient to meet their supply needs. As a result, we may experience a reluctance or unwillingness by existing end-use customers to expand their use of our products and by potential end-use customers to begin using our products. Our products may never reach mass adoption, and changes or advances in technologies could adversely affect the demand for our products. A failure to increase, or a decrease in, demand for aerogel insulation products caused by lack of end-user or distribution channel acceptance, technological challenges or competing technologies and products would result in a lower revenue growth rate or decreased revenue, either of which could materially adversely affect our business and results of operations.

Our products are expensive relative to other insulation products, which could make it more difficult for us to grow our revenue and achieve broader adoption of our aerogel products.

While we believe our products have superior performance attributes and may sometimes have the lowest cost on a fully-installed basis or offer life-cycle cost savings, our competitors offer many traditional insulation products that are priced below our products. Our products are expensive relative to other insulation products and end-use customers may not value our products’ performance attributes sufficiently to pay their premium price. This could make it more difficult for us to grow our revenue and achieve broader adoption of our aerogel products. In addition, some of the benefits of our products are based on reduced installation time and related labor expense. In regions where labor costs are significantly lower than in the United States and Europe, the cost benefits of reduced installation times may not be adequate to overcome the relatively high price of our products and may make it more difficult for us to grow our revenue in such regions.

Growth has placed significant demands on our management systems and our infrastructure. If we fail to manage our growth effectively, we may be unable to execute our business plan, address competitive challenges and meet our customers’ product specifications and delivery requirements.

We may be unable to manage our growth. To manage our anticipated future growth, we must continue to:

All of these measures will require significant expenditures and will demand the attention of management. At certain points in the past, significant growth in demand for our product has put our management and manufacturing systems under strain. As a result, there have been periods of time when we have had difficulty

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consistently producing product that met our specifications. In addition, the physical expansion of our operations may lead to significant costs and may divert our management and business development resources. Furthermore, we compete for personnel and advisors with other companies and other organizations, many of which are larger and have greater name recognition and financial and other resources than we do. Due to our limited resources, we may not be able to effectively manage the expansion of our operations or recruit and adequately train additional qualified personnel or retain personnel. Any inability to manage growth could result in a loss of existing customers and revenues and delay the execution of our business plans, disrupt our operations or result in financial, contractual or other liabilities. If we fail to achieve the necessary level of efficiency in our organization as it grows, our business, results of operations and financial condition would be harmed.

We allocate our operations, sales and marketing, research and development, general and administrative and financial resources based on our business plan, which includes assumptions about current and future orders from customers. However, these factors are uncertain. If our assumptions regarding these factors prove to be incorrect or if competing products gain further acceptance, then actual demand for our aerogel products could be significantly less than the demand we anticipate and we may not be able to sustain our revenue growth or achieve profitability.

The markets we serve are subject to general economic conditions and cyclical demand, which could harm our business and lead to significant shifts in our results of operations from quarter to quarter that make it difficult to project long-term performance.

Our results of operations have been, and may in the future be, adversely affected by general economic conditions and the cyclical pattern of certain industries in which our customers and end-users operate. Demand for our products and services depends in large part upon the level of capital and maintenance expenditures by many of our customers and end-users, in particular those in the energy, petrochemical and power generation industries, and firms that design, construct and operate facilities for these industries. These customers’ expenditures historically have been cyclical in nature and vulnerable to economic downturns. In particular, profitability in the energy industry is highly sensitive to supply and demand cycles and commodity prices, which historically have been volatile; and our customers in this industry historically have tended to delay large capital projects, including expensive maintenance and upgrades, during industry downturns. Customer project delays may cause fluctuations in the timing or the amount of revenue earned and our results of operations in a particular period. Prolonged periods of little or no economic growth could decrease demand for oil and gas which, in turn, could result in lower demand for our products and a negative impact on our results of operations and cash flows. In addition, this historically cyclical demand and potential customer project delays may lead to significant shifts in our results of operations from quarter to quarter, which limits our ability to make accurate long-term predictions about our future performance. We estimate that sales to end-use customers in the energy industry accounted for approximately 87% of our 2013 revenues and we expect that they will account for a significant portion of our future revenues.

A sustained downturn in the energy industry, due to reduced energy demand or lower oil and gas prices, could decrease demand for some of our products and services, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Demand for a significant portion of our products and services depends upon the level of capital expenditure by companies in the energy industry, which depends, in part, on energy prices. Prices of oil and gas have been very volatile over the past three years, with significant increases until achieving historic highs in July 2008, followed immediately by a steep decline through 2009, a moderate increase throughout 2010 and continued volatility from 2011 through 2013. A sustained downturn in the capital expenditures of our customers, whether due to a decrease in the market price of oil and gas or otherwise, may delay projects, decrease demand for our products and services and cause downward pressure on the prices we charge, which, in turn, could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations. Such downturns, including the perception that they might continue, could have a significant negative impact on the market price of our common stock.

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A substantial portion of our revenue comes from sales in foreign countries and we may expand our operations outside of the United States, which subjects us to increased economic, operational and political risks that could increase our costs and make it difficult for us to continue to operate profitably.

A substantial portion of our sales are to shipment destinations outside the United States, including in Canada, Taiwan, Brazil, South Korea, Norway, Japan, Germany, Singapore, India and the United Kingdom. Total revenue generated from outside of the United States, based on our shipment destination or research services location, amounted to $30.8 million or 67% of revenue, $43.5 million or 69% of revenue, and $55.9 million or 65% of revenue, in the years ended December 31, 2011, 2012 and 2013, respectively. In addition, we may expand our operations outside of the United States, including our manufacturing operations in connection with our planned second manufacturing facility expected to be located in Europe or Asia. As a result, we are subject to a number of risks, including, but not limited to:

Our success will depend in large part on our ability to manage the effects of continued global political or economic uncertainty, especially in our significant geographic markets.

Because of our significant international operations we could be materially adversely affected by violations of the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and similar anti-corruption, anti-bribery and anti-kickback laws.

We operate on a global basis, with 68% of our product sales in 2013 being made to destinations outside the United States, including Canada, Europe, Asia, South America and the Middle East. Our business operations and sales in countries outside the United States are subject to anti-corruption, anti-bribery and anti-kickback laws and regulations, including restrictions imposed by the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, or FCPA, as well as the United Kingdom Bribery Act of 2010, or UK Bribery Act. The FCPA, UK Bribery Act, and similar anti-corruption, anti-bribery and anti-kickback laws in other jurisdictions generally prohibit companies and their intermediaries and agents from making improper payments to government officials or any other persons for the purpose of obtaining or retaining business. We operate and sell our products in many parts of the world that have

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experienced governmental corruption to some degree and, in certain circumstances, strict compliance with anti-corruption, anti-bribery and anti-kickback laws may conflict with local customs and practices. We train our employees concerning anti-corruption, anti-bribery and anti-kickback laws and have policies in place that prohibit employees from making improper payments. We are implementing internal controls and procedures designed to ensure that we comply with anti-corruption, anti-bribery and anti-kickback laws, rules and regulations and mitigate and protect against corruption risks. We cannot provide assurance that our internal controls and procedures will protect us from reckless, criminal or other acts committed by our employees or third-parties with whom we work. If we are found to be liable for violations of the FCPA or similar anti-corruption, anti-bribery and anti-kickback laws in international jurisdictions, either due to our own acts or out of inadvertence, or due to the acts or inadvertence of others, we could suffer criminal or civil fines or penalties or other repercussions, including reputational harm, which could have a material and adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition.

A failure to comply with export control or economic sanctions laws and regulations could have a material adverse impact on our business, results of operations or financial condition. We may be unable to ensure that our distributors comply with applicable sanctions and export control laws.

We operate on a global basis, with 68% of our product sales in 2013 being made to destinations outside the United States, including Canada, Europe, Asia, South America and the Middle East. We face several risks inherent in conducting business internationally, including compliance with applicable economic sanctions laws and regulations, such as laws and regulations administered by the United States Department of Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, or OFAC, the United States Department of State and the United States Department of Commerce. We must also comply with all applicable export control laws and regulations of the United States and other countries. Violations of these laws or regulations could result in significant additional sanctions including criminal or civil fines or penalties, more onerous compliance requirements, more extensive debarments from export privileges or loss of authorizations needed to conduct aspects of our international business.

In certain countries, we may engage third party agents or intermediaries, such as customs agents, to act on our behalf and if these third party agents or intermediaries violate applicable laws, their actions may result in criminal or civil fines or penalties or other sanctions being assessed against us. We take certain measures designed to ensure our compliance with U.S. export and economic sanctions law and we believe that we have never sold our products to Iran, Cuba, Sudan or Syria through third party agents or intermediaries or made any effort to attract business from any of these countries. However, it is possible that some of our products were sold or will be sold to distributors or other parties that, without our knowledge or consent, re-exported or will re-export such products to these countries. Although none of our non-U.S. distributors are located in, or to our knowledge, conduct business with Iran, Cuba, Sudan or Syria, we may not be successful in ensuring compliance with limitations or restrictions on business with these or other countries subject to economic sanctions. There can be no assurance that we will be in compliance with export control or economic sanctions laws and regulations in the future. Any such violation could result in significant criminal or civil fines, penalties or other sanctions and repercussions, including reputational harm, that could materially adversely impact our business, results of operations or financial condition.

We rely on sales to a limited number of direct customers, including distributors, contractors and OEMs, for the substantial majority of our revenue, and the loss of one or more significant direct customers or several or our smaller direct customers could materially harm our business. In addition, we understand from our direct customers that a substantial majority of their sales of our products are to a small number of end-use customers and the loss of one or more significant end-use customers or several of our smaller end-use customers could materially harm our business.

A substantial majority of our revenue is generated from sales to a limited number of direct customers, including distributors, contractors and OEMs. For the years ended December 31, 2011, 2012 and 2013, total revenue from our top ten direct customers represented 60%, 59% and 65% of our revenues, respectively. In 2011, Enershield Industries Ltd. represented 13% of our total revenue and Aerogel Korea Co., Ltd. represented 10% of our total revenue; in 2012, Distribution International represented 13% of our total revenue; and in 2013, Distribution International, Inc. represented 15% of our total revenue and AllTech Consulting Co., Ltd.

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represented 11% of our total revenue. For each of the periods discussed above, there were no other customers that represented 10% or more of our total revenues. Although the composition of our significant distributors, contractors and OEMs will vary from period to period, we expect that most of our revenues will continue, for the foreseeable future, to come from sales to a relatively small number of direct customers. In addition, we understand from our direct customers that a substantial majority of their sales of our products are to a small number of end-use customers.

Our direct customer concentration also creates risk for accounts receivable exposure. As of December 31, 2013, three of our direct customers accounted for 20%, 14% and 11% of our accounts receivable, respectively.

The majority of our sales to distributors are effected on a purchase order basis. The contracts we enter into with our direct customers generally do not include long-term commitments or minimum volumes that ensure future sales of our products. In addition, we understand that our direct customers’ contracts with end-use customers also generally do not include such commitments or minimums. Consequently, our results of operations may fluctuate significantly from period-to-period based on the actions of one or more significant direct customers or end-use customers.

A direct customer may take actions that affect us for reasons that we cannot anticipate or control, such as reasons related to an end-use customer’s financial condition, changes in business strategy or operations, the introduction of alternative competing products or as the result of the perceived quality or cost-effectiveness of our products. Our agreements with these direct customers may be cancelled if we fail to meet certain product specifications or materially breach the agreement or for other reasons outside of our control. In addition, our direct customers may seek to renegotiate the terms of current agreements or renewals. The loss of, or a reduction in sales or anticipated sales to, one or more of our significant direct customers or end-use customers or several of our smaller direct customers or end-use customers could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

If we are unable to maintain our technological advantage over our competitors, our business may be adversely affected.

We are researching, developing, manufacturing and selling high-performance aerogel insulation products. Rapid and ongoing changes in technology and product standards could quickly render our products less competitive, or even obsolete, particularly if we fail to continue to improve the performance of our insulation products. We are currently developing new applications for our existing products as well as new aerogel technologies; however, we may not be successful in doing so and new applications or technologies may not be commercially useful. Other companies that are seeking to enhance traditional insulation materials have recently introduced or are developing other emerging and potential insulation technologies. These competitors are engaged in significant development work on these various insulation products. Competing technologies that outperform our insulation in one or more performance attributes could be developed and successfully introduced. We are also aware of certain companies that have developed or are developing products using aerogel technology similar to our technology and these or other companies could introduce aerogel products that compete directly with our products and outperform them in one or more performance attributes. As a result of this competition and potential competition, our products may not compete effectively in our target markets.

The energy infrastructure insulation market is highly competitive; if we are unable to compete successfully, we may not be able to increase or maintain our market share and revenues.

We face strong competition primarily from established manufacturers of traditional insulation materials. Large producers of traditional insulation materials, such as Johns Mansville, Saint-Gobain, Knauf Gips, Owens Corning and Rockwool, dominate the insulation market. In addition, we face competition from other companies seeking to develop high-performance insulation materials, including aerogel insulation. For example, Cabot Corporation manufactures, markets and sells a different form of aerogel insulation that is competitive with our products, particularly in the offshore oil and gas sector for use in pipe-in-pipe applications. Many of our competitors are substantially larger and better capitalized than we are and possess greater financial resources. In

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addition, we are aware of competitors in China that manufacture and market aerogel insulation products. Our competitors could focus their substantial financial resources to develop new or additional competing products or develop products that are more attractive to potential customers than the products that we offer.

Because some insulation manufacturers are substantially larger and better capitalized than we are, they may have the ability to sell their products at substantially lower costs to a large, existing customer base. Our products are expensive relative to other insulation products and end-use customers may not value our products’ superior performance attributes sufficiently to pay their premium price. In addition, from time to time we may increase the prices for our products and these price increases may not be accepted by our end-use customers and could result in a decreased demand for our products. Similarly, we may make changes to our products in order to respond to customer demand or to improve their performance attributes and these changes may not be accepted by our end-use customers and could result in a decrease in demand for our products. Any of these competitive factors could make it more difficult for us to attract and retain customers, cause us to lower our prices in order to compete and reduce our market share and revenues, any of which could have a material adverse effect on our financial condition and results of operations.

Negative perceptions regarding the safety or other attributes of our products or a failure or a perceived failure of our products could have a material adverse effect on our results of operations and could make us unable to continue our business.

Given the history of asbestos as an insulation material, we believe that there is an elevated level of attention towards perceived health and safety risks in the insulation industry. As a consequence, it is essential to our existing business and to our future growth that our products are considered safe. Even modest perceptions by existing or potential distributors, contractors or end-use customers in our target markets that our products are not safe could have a critical impact on our ability to sell our products and to continue as a business. There is risk of an actual or perceived failure of our products or other negative perceptions regarding our products, such as perceived health hazards. For example, dust is produced by our products during their installation and use, which increases the likelihood of the perception of hazard. Another example is the potential for material failure in very high temperature applications. Like most insulation products, our Pyrogel XT and XT-E products will normally go through a controlled burn-in process immediately after exposure to very high temperatures. If installed improperly, the burn-in may proceed too rapidly and the material may become damaged. Further, our competitors have in the past, and may in the future, seek to perpetuate such perceptions. We are currently taking steps to educate our distributors, contractors, OEMs and end-use customers on the nature of our products and the proper installation procedures in order to mitigate these risks. Such an event, or the perception of such an event, could quickly result in our direct and end-use customers replacing our products with traditional insulation materials which could have a material adverse effect on our results of operations.

Our activities and operations are subject to numerous health and safety laws and regulations. If we violate such regulations, we could face penalties and fines or be required to curtail or cease operations.

We are subject to numerous health and safety laws and regulations in each of the jurisdictions in which we operate. These health and safety laws and regulations apply to us including with regards to hazardous substances that we use in our manufacturing process and that certain of our products contain. These hazardous substances include titanium dioxide and carbon black, each of which has been determined, in certain forms and at certain levels, to be possibly carcinogenic or otherwise harmful to humans. Our processes also require the use of other regulated substances in raw material delivery and manufacturing, including among others, ethanol. These laws and regulations require us to obtain and maintain permits and approvals and implement health and safety programs and procedures to control risks associated with our operations. Compliance with those laws and regulations can require us to incur substantial costs. Moreover, if our compliance programs are not successful, we could be subject to penalties or to revocation of our permits, which may require us to curtail or cease operations of the affected facilities. In particular, the construction of our third production line in our East Providence facility will require us to obtain new permits from various regulatory authorities and if the issuance of such permits was delayed or denied, it would slow or potentially prevent the expansion of our manufacturing capacity. Violations of laws, regulations and permit requirements may also result in criminal sanctions or injunctions.

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While we use hazardous substances, including titanium dioxide and carbon black, in forms and at levels that are subject to current rules and regulations, such rules and regulations may become more stringent such that we are required to modify our manufacturing process and such that our customers’ use of our products may be impacted. In addition, changes in our production or manufacturing process may result in uses above currently permitted levels. Such uses or changes in rules or regulations could materially adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Health and safety laws, regulations and permit requirements may become more stringent or otherwise change. Any such changes could require us to incur materially higher costs than we currently have. Our costs of complying with current and future health and safety laws, regulations and permit requirements, and any liabilities, fines or other sanctions resulting from violations of them, could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Our revenue may fluctuate, which may result in a high degree of variability in our results of operations and make it difficult for us to plan based on our future outlook and to forecast our future performance.

Our revenue may fluctuate from period to period due to a wide variety of factors. Since we rely on sales to a limited number of direct customers and end-use customers, changes in demand from one or more direct customers or end-users can significantly impact our revenue from period to period. In addition, the sales cycles for our products, including their qualification for use, are long and can result in unpredictability in our revenues. We expect to have an increasing percentage of our products sold for use in capital projects, which orders tend to be larger and more sporadic, that will further increase this unpredictability and the difficulty for us in forecasting quarterly or annual performance. Because of these factors, we have a limited basis on which to predict our quarterly revenue. Our profitability from period-to-period may also vary due to the mix of products that we sell in different periods. These factors may result in a high degree of variability in our results of operations and will make it difficult for us to accurately evaluate and plan based on our future outlook and to forecast quarterly or annual performance.

Our results of operations could be adversely affected if our operating expenses incurred do not correspond with the timing of our revenues.

Most of our operating expenses, such as manufacturing facility expenses, employee compensation and research expenses, are either relatively fixed in the short-term or incurred in advance of sales. In addition, our spending levels are based in part on our expectations regarding future revenues. As a result, if revenues for a particular quarter are below expectations, we may not be able to proportionately reduce operating expenses for that quarter. Our reliance on sales to a limited number of direct customers and end-use customers, the length of our sales cycles and the potentially increasing percentage of our products sold for use in capital projects each can cause sporadic demand for our products which would limit our ability to predict future sales. This limitation could result in our being unable to reduce spending quickly enough to compensate for reductions in sales and could therefore adversely affect our results of operations for any particular operating period.

Shortages of the raw materials used in the production of our products, increases in the cost of such materials or disruptions in our supply chain could adversely impact our financial condition and results of operations.

The raw materials used in the production of our products consist primarily of polyester and glass fiber battings, silica precursors and additives. Although we are not dependent on any one supplier, we are dependent on the ability of our third-party suppliers to supply such materials on a timely and consistent basis. While these raw materials are available from numerous sources, they may be subject to fluctuations in availability and price. In addition, fluctuations in ethanol prices may affect the cost of silica precursors. Our third-party suppliers may not dedicate sufficient resources to meet our scheduled delivery requirements or our suppliers may not have sufficient resources to satisfy our requirements during any period of sustained demand. Failure of suppliers to supply, delays in supplying or disruptions in the supply chain for our raw materials, or allocations in the supply of certain high demand raw components, could materially adversely affect our ability to meet our delivery schedules on a timely and competitive basis and results of operations.

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Fluctuations in the prices of these raw materials could have a material adverse effect on results of operations. Our ability to pass increases in raw material prices on to our customers is limited due to competitive pricing pressure and the time lag between increased costs and implementation of related price increases.

In particular, we purchase silica precursors from several suppliers, mostly pursuant to individual purchase orders and not pursuant to long-term contracts. We do not have a secure, long-term supply of silica precursors. We may not be able to establish arrangements for secure, long-term silica precursors supplies at prices consistent with our current costs or may incur a delay in supply while we seek alternative sources. Any inability to continue to purchase silica precursors pursuant to purchase orders, without long-term agreements in place, or to otherwise establish a long-term supply of silica precursors at prices consistent with our current costs, would have a material adverse effect on our ability to increase our sales and achieve profitability.

If we do not continue to develop and maintain distribution channels for our products and to meet our customers’ demand for our products, our results of operations could be adversely affected.

For a significant portion of our revenues, we rely on sales to distributors who then sell our products to end-users in our target markets. Our success depends, in part, on our maintaining satisfactory relationships with these distributors. Our distributors require us to meet expectations of delivery, quality and pricing of our products, at both the distribution channel level and at the level of the end-user of our products. If we fail to meet expected standards, our revenues would decline and this could materially adversely affect our business, results of operations and financial condition. In addition, we have been unable at times to produce sufficient amounts of our products to meet demand from our customers and we may not be able to avoid capacity constraints in the future if demand exceeds our expectations or we fail to bring into operation as planned the third production line at our East Providence facility or the second manufacturing facility to be located in Europe or Asia. If we are unable to deliver our products within such short timeframes, we may be at risk of losing direct or end-use customers. Accordingly, shortfalls in sales could materially adversely affect our business and results of operations.

The qualification process for our products can be lengthy and unpredictable, potentially delaying adoption of our products and incurring significant expense.

Qualification of our products by many of our direct and end-use customers can be lengthy and unpredictable and many of these direct and end-use customers have extended budgeting and procurement processes. This extended sales process requires the dedication of significant time by our personnel and our use of significant financial resources, with no certainty of success or recovery of our related expenses. Furthermore, even after an extensive qualification process, our products may fail to meet the standards sought by our end-use customers and may not be qualified for use by such end-use customers. Such a failure to qualify may result in us losing such companies as end-users of our products, which would cause a decrease in our revenue or revenue growth rate either of which could materially adversely affect our business and results of operations.

We may enter into agreements that may limit our ability to broadly market our products or could involve future obligations, which could make it more difficult for us to commercialize certain of our products and negatively affect our business and results of operations.

In order to commercialize our products, we may enter into commercial arrangements with distributors, OEMs or other customers. These agreements have contained, and may in the future contain, exclusivity, ownership and other terms that may limit our ability to commercialize any products or technology developed in connection with such agreements, including in ways that we do not envision at the time of entering into the agreement. These agreements may contain technical specifications or minimum volumes that must be achieved. However, these agreements may not obligate either party to make any purchases. As a result, our ability to commercialize products in a certain region or for a certain application may be limited and as a consequence our business, financial condition and results of operations could be materially adversely affected.

We are exposed to the credit risk of some of our direct customers, including distributors, contractors and OEMs, which subjects us to the risk of non-payment for our products.

We distribute our products through a network of distributors, contractors and OEMs, some of which may not be well-capitalized and may be of a lower credit quality. This direct customer network subjects us to the risk

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of non-payment for our products. Although we have not experienced a significant incidence of non-payment for our products, such non-payments may occur in the future. In addition, during periods of economic downturn in the global economy, our exposure to credit risks from our direct customers may increase, and our efforts to monitor and mitigate the associated risks may not be effective. In the event of non-payment by one or more of our direct customers, our business, financial condition and results of operations could be materially adversely affected.

Our working capital requirements involve estimates based on demand and production expectations and may decrease or increase beyond those currently anticipated, which could harm our results of operations and financial condition.

In order to fulfill the product delivery requirements of our direct and end-use customers, we plan for working capital needs in advance of customer orders. As a result, we base our funding and inventory decisions on estimates of future demand. If demand for our products does not increase as quickly as we have estimated or drops off sharply, our inventory and expenses could rise, and our business and results of operations could suffer. Alternatively, if we experience sales in excess of our estimates, our working capital needs may be higher than those currently anticipated. Our ability to meet this excess customer demand depends on our ability to arrange for additional financing for any ongoing working capital shortages, since it is likely that cash flow from sales will lag behind these investment requirements. To meet any ongoing working capital shortages, we may rely on our revolving credit facility; however, the credit available under this facility at any given time may not be able to meet our needs for working capital. In addition, the facility will mature on July 27, 2014 and we may not be able to extend or replace the facility upon expiration. See “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations — Liquidity and Capital Resources.” In addition, we plan to increase our inventory in order to meet our expected future demand. This would result in an increase in our working capital requirements that could harm our results of operations and financial condition.

Breakdowns, security breaches and other disruptions of our information technology systems could compromise our information and expose us to liability, which would cause our business and reputation to suffer.

In the ordinary course of our business, we collect and store sensitive data, including intellectual property, our proprietary business information and that of our suppliers, customers and business partners, and personally identifiable information. The secure maintenance of this information is critical to our operations and business strategy. Despite our security measures, our information technology and infrastructure may be vulnerable to breakdowns, attacks by hackers or breaches due to employee error, malfeasance or other disruptions. Any such breakdown or breach could compromise our networks and the information stored there could be accessed, publicly disclosed, lost or stolen. There can be no assurance that our management or diligence efforts will prevent such breakdowns or breaches in our systems. Any such access, disclosure or other loss of information could result in legal claims or proceedings, liability under laws that protect the privacy of personal information or other laws, disrupt our operations and damage our reputation, which could adversely affect our business.

We may incur significant costs complying with environmental laws and related claims, and failure to comply with these laws and regulations could expose us to significant liabilities, which could adversely affect our results of operations.

Costs of compliance with regional, national, state and local existing and future environmental laws and regulations could adversely affect our cash flow and results of operations. We are required to comply with numerous environmental laws and regulations and to obtain numerous governmental permits in order to operate our facilities and in connection with the design, development, manufacture and transport of our products and the storage, use, handling and disposal of hazardous substances, including environmental laws, regulations and permits governing air emissions. We may incur significant additional costs to comply with these requirements. If we fail to comply with these requirements, we could be subject to civil or criminal liability, damages and fines, and our operations could be curtailed or suspended. In addition, certain foreign laws and regulations may affect our ability to export products outside of the United States. Existing environmental laws and regulations could be revised or

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reinterpreted and new laws and regulations could be adopted or become applicable to us or our products, and future changes in environmental laws and regulations could occur. These factors may materially increase the amount we must invest to bring our processes into compliance and impose additional expense on our operations.

Among the changes to environmental laws and regulations that could occur is the adoption of regulatory frameworks to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, which a number of countries, particularly in the European Union, have adopted, or are considering adopting. These include adoption of cap and trade regimes, carbon taxes, restrictive permitting, increased efficiency standards, and incentives or mandates for renewable energy, any of which could increase the costs of manufacturing our products and increase our compliance costs, which could materially adversely affect our business and results of operations.

In addition, private lawsuits, including claims for remediation of contamination, personal injury or property damage, or actions by regional, national, state and local regulatory agencies, including enforcement or cost-recovery actions, may materially increase our costs. Certain environmental laws make us potentially liable on a joint and several basis for the remediation of contamination at or emanating from properties or facilities we currently or formerly owned or operated or properties to which we arranged for the disposal of hazardous substances. Such liability may require us to pay more than our fair share and could require us to address contamination caused by others. For example, the site of our East Providence facility contains certain levels of contamination caused by prior third-party activities on and near the site. Such contamination remains in place under a state-approved deed restriction, and we are required to comply with such deed restriction and the accompanying soil management plan. In general, the deed restriction prohibits the residential use of the property and the use of groundwater as potable water, and requires the maintenance of engineering controls and annual inspections to help prevent exposure to contaminated soils. The soil management plan requires us to notify the state environmental agency with respect to any soil excavation, stockpiling, sampling and off-site disposal of excavated soil. Although we have not had to make material expenditures to satisfy these requirements to date, in the future, we may incur additional costs to comply with these requirements and failure to do so could disrupt the operation of our facility or could subject us to liability for environmental remediation. We may incur liability relating to the remediation of contamination, including contamination we did not cause.

We may not be able to obtain or maintain, from time to time, all required environmental regulatory approvals. A delay in obtaining any required environmental regulatory approvals or failure to obtain and comply with them could materially adversely affect our business and results of operations.

We may face certain product liability or warranty claims from our products, including from improper installation of our products by third parties. As a consequence, we could lose existing and future business and our ability to develop, market and sell our insulation could be harmed.

The design, development, production and sale of our products involve an inherent risk of product liability claims and associated adverse publicity. We may be named directly in product liability suits relating to our products, even for defects resulting from errors of our distributors, contractors, OEMs or end-use customers. These claims could be brought by various parties, including distributors, contactors, OEMs and other direct end-use customers who are purchasing products directly from us, or end-use customers who purchase our products from our distributors. We could also be named as co-parties in product liability suits that are brought against the distributors, contractors, OEMs and end-use customers. Our products are often installed in our end-use customers’ complex and capital intensive facilities in inherently hazardous or dangerous environments, including in the energy, petrochemical and power generation industries, where the potential liability from risk of loss could be substantial. The failure of our products to perform to customer expectations, whether or not because of improper installation, could give rise to warranty claims against us. We are currently taking steps to educate our distributors, contractors, OEMs and end-use customers about the proper installation procedures to mitigate the risk of an uncontrolled burn-in for very high temperature applications of Pyrogel XT and XT-E. However, installation of our products is handled by third parties over whom we have no control and errors or defects in their installation may also give rise to claims against us, diminish our brand or divert our resources from other purposes. Any of these claims, even if without merit, could result in costly litigation or divert management’s

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attention and resources. In addition, many of our products are integrated into the final products of our customers. The integration of our products may entail the risk of product liability or warranty claims based on malfunctions or hazards from both our products and the final products of our customers.

A material product liability claim may seriously harm our results of operations, as well as damage our customer relationships and reputation. Although we carry general liability insurance, our current insurance coverage could be insufficient to protect us from all liability that may be imposed under these types of claims. Insurance coverage is expensive, may be difficult to obtain and may not be available in the future on acceptable terms or at all. Our distributors, contractors, OEMs and end-use customers may not have adequate insurance coverage to cover against potential claims. This insurance may not provide adequate coverage against potential losses, and if claims or losses exceed our liability insurance coverage, we may go out of business. In addition, insurance coverage may become more expensive, which would harm our results of operations.

Our contracts with U.S. government agencies may subject us to audits, criminal penalties, sanctions and other expenses and fines.

We perform contract research services for U.S. government agencies and our products are sold to customers that may incorporate them into government projects. U.S. government agencies, including the Defense Contract Audit Agency and the Department of Labor, routinely audit government contractors. These agencies review a contractor’s compliance with contract terms and conditions, performance under its contracts, cost structure and compliance with applicable laws, regulations and standards. The U.S. government also may review the adequacy of a contractor’s systems and policies, including a contractor’s purchasing, property, estimating, billing, accounting, compensation and management information systems. Any costs found to be overcharged or improperly allocated to a specific contract or any amounts improperly billed or charged for products or services will be subject to reimbursement to the government. As a government contractor, we are required to disclose to the U.S. government credible evidence of certain violations of law and contract overpayments. If we are found to have participated in improper or illegal activities, we may be subject to civil and criminal penalties and administrative sanctions, including termination of contracts, forfeiture of profits, suspension of payments, fines and suspension or prohibition from doing business with the U.S. government. Any negative publicity related to such contracts, regardless of the accuracy of such publicity, may adversely affect our business or reputation.

Our contracts with U.S. government agencies may not be funded by future appropriations and are subject to modification or termination at any time prior to their completion.

Our contracts with U.S. government agencies are subject to the availability of appropriated funds. The U.S. government funds our contract research work through a variety of funding programs that rely on monies appropriated by Congress. At any point, the availability of funding could change, thus reducing the opportunities for new or continued revenues to us from government contract work. Revenue from contracts with U.S. government agencies constituted 7.0%, 4.8% and 4.7% of total revenue in 2011, 2012 and 2013, respectively. We expect that our revenue under such contracts will continue to decline due to the recent trend toward tightening of federal spending guidelines and programs.

In addition, under our contracts, the U.S. government generally has the right not to exercise options to extend or expand our contracts and may modify, curtail or terminate the contracts at its convenience. Our government customers may not renew our existing contracts after the conclusion of their terms and we may not be able to enter into new contracts with U.S. government agencies. Any decision by the U.S. government not to exercise contract options or to modify, curtail or terminate our contracts or not to renew our contracts or enter into new contracts with us would adversely affect our revenues.

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Our revolving credit facility and subordinated notes contain financial and operating restrictions that may limit our access to credit. If we fail to comply with covenants in our revolving credit facility or subordinated notes, we may be required to repay our indebtedness thereunder, which may have an adverse effect on our liquidity.

Provisions governing our revolving credit facility and our subordinated notes each impose restrictions on our ability to operate, including, for some of the agreements and instruments, but not for others, our ability to:

Our revolving credit facility and subordinated notes also contain other customary covenants. We may not be able to comply with these covenants in the future. Our failure to comply with these covenants may result in the declaration of an event of default and could cause us to be unable to borrow funds under our revolving credit facility. In addition to preventing additional borrowings under our revolving credit facility, an event of default, if not cured or waived, may result in the acceleration of the maturity of indebtedness outstanding under the revolving credit facility, subordinated notes and convertible notes, which would require us to pay all amounts outstanding. Such an event may also lead our lenders to exercise their security interest in our assets, including all of our intellectual property and all of our real property and equipment at our East Providence facility. If an event of default occurs, we may not be able to cure it within any applicable cure period, if at all. If the maturity of our indebtedness is accelerated, we may not have sufficient funds available for repayment or we may not have the ability to borrow or obtain sufficient funds to replace the accelerated indebtedness on terms acceptable to us, or at all. We intend to use a portion of the proceeds from this offering to repay our subordinated notes and amounts outstanding under our revolving credit facility.

If we lose key personnel upon whom we are dependent, or if we are unable to successfully recruit and retain skilled employees, we may not be able to manage our operations and meet our strategic objectives.

Our continued success depends to a considerable degree upon the continued services of a small number of our employees with critical knowledge of our products, our manufacturing process, our intellectual property, our customers and our global operations. The loss or unavailability of any of these individuals could harm our ability to execute our business plan, maintain important business relationships and complete certain product development initiatives, which could harm our business. In the event that any of these key individuals leave their employment with us or take new employment with a competitor, our business and results of operations could be materially adversely affected. In addition, our continued success depends upon the availability, contributions, vision, skills, experience and effort of our senior management, financial, sales and marketing, engineering and production teams. We do not maintain “key person” insurance on any of our employees. We have entered into employment agreements with certain members of our senior management team, but none of these agreements guarantees the services of the individual for a specified period of time. All of the agreements with members of our senior management team provide that employment is at-will and may be terminated by the employee at any time and without notice.

Although we do not have any reason to believe that we may lose the services of any our employees with critical knowledge of our products, our manufacturing processes, our customers and our global operations or any of our senior management, financial, sales and marketing, engineering and production teams in the foreseeable future, the loss of the services of any of these individuals might impede our operations or the achievement of our strategic and financial objectives. The loss or interruption of the service of any of these individuals or our

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inability to attract or retain other qualified personnel or advisors could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations and could significantly reduce our ability to manage our operations and implement our strategy.

Our ability to use our net operating loss carryforwards may be subject to limitation, which could result in a higher effective tax rate and adversely affect our financial condition and results of operations.

We performed analyses pursuant to Internal Revenue Code Section 382, as well as similar state provisions, in order to determine whether any limitations might exist on the utilization of net operating losses and other tax attributes. Based on these analyses, we determined that it is more likely than not that an ownership change occurred on June 10, 2008, resulting in an annual limitation on the use of our net operating losses and other tax attributes as of such date. Generally, a change of more than 50% in the ownership of a company’s stock, by value, over a three year period constitutes an ownership change for U.S. federal income tax purposes. An ownership change may limit a company’s ability to use its net operating loss carryforwards attributable to the period prior to such change. We also determined that we had built-in gains of $29.5 million at the date of that ownership change. Built-in gains increase the limitation under the Internal Revenue Code Section 382 to the extent triggered during the five year period subsequent to the date of change, which period ended in June 2013. As a result, the entire $29.5 million of net operating losses expired unutilized in June 2013.

At December 31, 2013, we had $173.3 million of net operating losses available to offset future federal income, if any, which expire on various dates through December 31, 2033. We expect to have another ownership change occur in connection with this offering. Accordingly, we expect a significant portion of these net operating losses will likely expire unutilized.

Risks Related to Our Intellectual Property

Our inability to protect our intellectual property rights could negatively affect our business and results of operations.

Our ability to compete effectively depends in part upon developing, maintaining and/or protecting intellectual property rights relevant to our aerogel product forms, applications, manufacturing technologies and brand names. We rely principally on a combination of patent protection, trade secret laws, confidentiality and nondisclosure agreements, trademark registrations, common law rights and licensing arrangements to establish and protect the intellectual property rights relevant to our business. However, these measures may not be adequate in every given case to permit us to gain or keep any competitive advantage, particularly in those countries where the laws do not protect our proprietary rights as fully as or where the enforcement tools are weaker or less effective than those in the United States. In particular, since aerogels were developed approximately 80 years ago, there has been a wide range of research, development and publication related to aerogels, which makes it difficult to establish intellectual property rights to many key elements of aerogel technology and to obtain patent protection. Accordingly, much of the general technology that we use in our manufacture of aerogel blankets is not protected by patents.

Where we consider it appropriate, our strategy is to seek patent protection in the United States and other countries on technologies used in or relating to our aerogel product forms, applications and manufacturing technologies. As of April 15, 2014, we had 21 issued U.S. patents and 30 issued foreign patents, including two U.S. patents and one European patent that we co-own with third parties. The issuance of a patent is not conclusive as to its scope, validity or enforceability. Thus, any patent held by us or to be issued to us from a pending patent application, could be challenged, invalidated or held unenforceable in litigation or proceedings before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and/or other patent tribunals. Third parties could develop technologies that circumvent the patent protection we have secured. No consistent policy regarding the breadth of patent claims has emerged to date in the United States and the landscape could become more uncertain in view of future rule changes by the United States Patent and Trademark Office, the introduction of patent reform legislation and decisions in patent law cases by the federal courts including the United States Supreme Court.

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The patent landscape outside the United States is even less predictable. As a result, the validity and enforceability of patents cannot be predicted with certainty. For example, we are aware of competitors that manufacture and market aerogel insulation products in China, where it may be difficult for us to enforce our intellectual property rights against these or other competitors. In addition, we may fail to apply for patents on important technologies or product candidates in a timely fashion, if at all, and our existing and future patents may not be sufficiently broad to prevent others from practicing our technologies or from developing competing products or technologies, in particular given the long history of aerogel development. Furthermore, third parties could practice our intellectual property rights in territories where we do not have patent protection. Such third parties may then try to import products made using our intellectual property rights into the United States or other countries. Our strategy is to seek registration of trademarks for our brands in many, but not all of the jurisdictions in which we sell our products based on various factors, including our sales volumes in the jurisdiction, our ability to enforce local laws and cost. Our strategy may not be adequate to protect our brands in all circumstances, especially in foreign jurisdictions.

As of April 15, 2014, we had 13 pending U.S. patent applications and 5 pending foreign patent applications, as well as a family of pending foreign patent applications that we co-own with another third party. Our pending patent applications are directed to various enabling technologies for the product forms, applications and manufacturing technologies that support our current business, as well as aspects of products under development or contemplated for the future. The issuance of patents from these applications involves complex legal and factual questions and, thus, we cannot assure you that any of our pending patent applications will result in the issuance of patents to us. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, relevant foreign patent offices and other relevant patent tribunals may deny or require significant narrowing of claims in our pending patent applications. Patents issued as a result of any of our pending patent applications may not cover our enabling technology and/or the products or processes that support our current or future business or afford us with significant commercial protection against others with similar technology. Proceedings before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office could result in adverse decisions as to the priority of our inventions and the narrowing or invalidation of claims in issued patents. In addition, our pending patent applications filed in foreign countries are subject to laws, rules and procedures that differ from those of the United States, and thus foreign patent applications may not be granted even if counterpart United States patents are issued.

Patents covering technologies that are similar or superior to our technologies may be developed or obtained by third parties. We may need to seek licenses to these technologies, which could limit our ability to manufacture our products and have a material adverse effect on our business and results of operations.

Competitors or other third parties may independently develop and obtain patents covering technologies that are similar or superior to the product forms, applications or manufacturing technologies that we employ. In such event, we may need to obtain licenses for these technologies. However, we may not be able to obtain licenses on reasonable terms, if at all, which could limit our ability to manufacture our current and/or future products and operate our business.

Our contracts with the U.S. government and other third parties could negatively affect our intellectual property rights.

To further our product development efforts, our scientists and engineers work closely with customers, the U.S. government and other third parties to research and develop advancements in aerogel product forms, applications and manufacturing technologies. We have entered into agreements with private third parties and have been awarded numerous research contracts with the U.S. government to independently or jointly research, design and develop new devices and systems that incorporate aerogel material. We also expect to enter into similar private agreements and be awarded similar government contracts in the future. In some instances, the research and development activities that we conduct under contract with the U.S. government and/or with private third parties may produce intellectual property to which we may not have ownership or exclusive rights and will be unable to protect or monetize.

Moreover, when we develop new technologies using U.S. government funding, the government may obtain certain rights in any resulting patents, technical data and/or other confidential and proprietary information,

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generally including, at a minimum, a non-exclusive license authorizing the U.S. government to use the invention, technical data or software for non-commercial purposes. This federal government funding may limit when and how we can deploy our technology developed under those contracts. In addition, inventions must be reported promptly to the funding agencies, the federal funding must be disclosed in any resulting patent applications, and our rights in such inventions will normally be subject to government license rights, periodic post-contract utilization reporting, foreign manufacturing restrictions and “march-in” rights. March-in rights refer to the right of the U.S. government to require us to grant a license to the technology to a responsible applicant or, if we refuse, the government may grant the license itself. The U.S. government may exercise its march-in rights if it determines that action is necessary because we fail to achieve practical application of any technology developed under contract with the government or because action is necessary to alleviate health or safety needs, to meet requirements of federal regulations or to give preference to United States industry. The U.S. government may also have the right to disclose our confidential and proprietary information to third parties. In addition, failure to comply with all the government contract requirements may result in us losing the patent rights.

Our U.S. government-sponsored research contracts are also subject to audit and require that we provide regular written technical updates on a monthly, quarterly or annual basis, and, at the conclusion of the research contract, a final report on the results of our technical research. Because these reports are generally available to the public, third parties may obtain some aspects of our confidential and proprietary information relating to our product forms, applications and/or manufacturing processes. If we fail to provide these reports or to provide accurate or complete reports, the U.S. government could obtain rights to any intellectual property arising from the related research.

Furthermore, there could be disputes between us and a private third party as to the ownership rights to any inventions that we develop in collaboration with such third party. Any such dispute may cause us to incur substantial costs, and could place a significant strain on our financial resources, divert the attention of management from our core business and harm our reputation.

We rely on trade secrets to protect our technology, and our failure to obtain or maintain trade secret protection could adversely affect our competitive business position.

We rely in part on trade secret protection to protect confidential and proprietary information relating to our technology, particularly where we do not believe patent protection is appropriate or obtainable. We continue to develop and refine the manufacturing technologies used to produce our aerogel products and believe that we have already developed, and will continue to develop, significant know-how related to these technologies. However, trade secrets can be difficult to protect. We may not be able to maintain the secrecy of this information and competitors may develop or acquire equally or more valuable information related to the manufacture of comparable aerogel products. Our strategy for scale-up of commercial production will continue to require us to share confidential and proprietary information with the U.S. government and other third parties. While we take reasonable efforts to protect our trade secrets, our employees, consultants, contractors or scientific and other advisors, or those of our business partners, may intentionally or inadvertently disclose our confidential and proprietary information to competitors. Any enforcement of claims by us that a third party has obtained and is using our trade secrets is expensive, time consuming and uncertain. In addition, foreign courts are sometimes less willing than United States courts to protect trade secrets.

We require all employees and consultants to execute confidentiality and/or nondisclosure agreements upon the commencement of an employment or consulting arrangement with us, which agreements generally require that all confidential and proprietary information developed by the individual or made known to the individual by us during the course of the individual’s relationship with us be kept confidential and not disclosed to third parties. These agreements further generally provide that inventions conceived by the individual in the course of rendering services to us will be our exclusive property. Nevertheless, these agreements may not be honored and our confidential and proprietary information may be disclosed, or these agreements may be unenforceable or difficult to enforce. We also require customers and vendors to execute confidentiality and/or nondisclosure

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agreements. However, we have not obtained such agreements from all of our customers and vendors. Moreover, some of our customers may be subject to laws and regulations that require them to disclose information that we would otherwise seek to keep confidential. Our confidential and proprietary information may be otherwise disclosed without our authorization or knowledge. Moreover, third parties could reverse engineer our manufacturing processes, independently develop substantially equivalent confidential and proprietary information or otherwise gain access to our trade secrets. Failure to maintain trade secret protection could enable others to produce competing products and adversely affect our competitive business position.

We could become subject to intellectual property litigation that could be costly, limit or invalidate our intellectual property rights, divert time and efforts away from business operation, require us to pay damages and/or otherwise have an adverse material impact on our business.

The success of our business is highly dependent on protecting our intellectual property rights. Unauthorized parties may attempt to copy or otherwise obtain and use our products and/or enabling technology. Policing the unauthorized use of our intellectual property rights is difficult and expensive, as is enforcing these rights against unauthorized use by others. Identifying unauthorized use of our intellectual property rights is difficult because we may be unable to monitor the technologies and/or materials being employed by other parties. The steps we have taken or will take may not prevent unauthorized use of our intellectual property rights, particularly in foreign countries where enforcement of intellectual property rights may be more difficult than in the United States.

Our continued commercial success will also depend in part upon not infringing the patents or violating other intellectual property rights of third parties. We are aware of patents and patent applications generally relating to aspects of our technologies filed by, and issued to, third parties. Our knowledge of the patent landscape with respect to the technologies currently embodied within our aerogel products and the technologies that we practice in manufacturing those products indicates that the third-party patent rights most relevant to our business are those owned by Cabot and licensed to us under the cross license agreement with Cabot. Nevertheless, we cannot determine with certainty whether patents or patent applications of other parties may materially affect our ability to conduct our business. There may be existing patents of which we are unaware that we may inadvertently infringe, resulting in claims against us or our customers. In recent years, Chinese and Japanese entities have filed significantly more application patents related to aerogel products in both their home countries and in foreign countries. These application patents may make it more difficult for OEMs and end-use customers in these countries to use our products in new and different applications, which in turn may limit our ability to penetrate new markets.

In the event that the manufacture, use and/or sale of our products or technologies is challenged, or if our product forms or technologies conflict with patent rights of others or our operations conflict with trademark or similar rights of others, third parties could bring legal actions against us in the United States, Europe or other countries, claiming damages and seeking to enjoin the manufacturing and/or marketing of our products. In addition, it is not possible to predict with certainty what patent claims may arise from pending patent applications of third parties. In the United States, for example, patent prosecution can proceed in secret prior to issuance of a patent, provided such application is not filed in a foreign jurisdiction. For U.S. patent applications that are also filed in foreign jurisdictions, such patent applications will not be published until 18 months from the filing date of the application. As a result, third parties may be able to obtain patents with claims relating to our product forms, applications and/or manufacturing processes which they could attempt to assert against us or our end-users. In either case, litigation may be necessary to enforce, protect or defend our intellectual property rights or to determine the validity and scope of the intellectual property rights of others. Any such litigation could be unsuccessful, cause us to incur substantial costs, divert resources and the efforts of our personnel away from daily operations, harm our reputation and/or result in the impairment of our intellectual property rights. In some cases, litigation may be threatened or brought by a patent holding company (otherwise known as non-practicing entities or patent “trolls”) or other adverse patent owner who has no relevant product revenues and against which our patents may provide little or no deterrence. If we are found to infringe any patents, we could be required to:

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If our competitors are able to use our technology without payment to us, our ability to compete effectively could be harmed. Our contracts generally indemnify our customers for third-party claims of intellectual property infringement related to our manufacture of the products, and typically up to the amount of the purchase price paid for the product. The expense of defending these claims may adversely affect our results of operations.

Loss of the intellectual property rights that we license from Cabot Corporation would have a material adverse impact on our business.

We have licensed certain intellectual property rights from Cabot under a cross license agreement. These intellectual property rights have been and continue to be critical to the manufacture of our existing products and may also be important to our research, development and manufacture of new products. Any loss of the intellectual property rights granted to us thereunder, including as a result of ineffective protection of such rights by Cabot or a breach of or dispute under the agreement by either party would have a material adverse impact on our financial condition, results of operations and growth prospects, and might prevent us from continuing our business. For a more detailed description of the cross license agreement with Cabot, see “Business — Intellectual Property — Cross License Agreement with Cabot Corporation.”

Risks Related to Our Common Stock and This Offering

We will incur costs and demands upon management as a result of complying with the laws and regulations affecting public companies in the United States, which may adversely affect our results of operations.

After the consummation of this offering, we will be subject to the reporting requirements of the Exchange Act that require us to file, among other things, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q and annual reports on Form 10-K. Under Section 302 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (the “Sarbanes-Oxley Act”), as a part of each of these reports, our chief executive officer and chief financial officer will be required to evaluate and report their conclusions regarding the effectiveness of our disclosure controls and procedures and to certify that they have done so. This requirement will apply to our first Form 10-Q for the quarter following effectiveness of the registration statement. Effective internal controls are necessary for us to provide reliable financial reports and prevent fraud. In addition, under Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, we will be required to include a report of management on our internal control over financial reporting in our Form 10-K. This requirement will first apply to our Form 10-K for our fiscal year ended December 31, 2015. In addition, upon the later of our second annual report or the first annual report required to be filed with the SEC following the date we are no longer an “emerging growth company” as defined in the JOBS Act, the independent registered public accounting firm auditing our financial statements will be required to attest to and report on the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting. The process of improving our internal controls and complying with Section 404 will be expensive and time consuming, and will require significant attention of management.

Complying with these and other requirements applicable to public companies may place a strain on our personnel, information technology systems and resources and divert management’s attention from other business concerns. We may need to hire additional accounting and financial staff with appropriate public company experience and technical accounting knowledge, and we may not be able to do so without incurring additional costs.

These and other requirements may also make it more difficult or more costly for us to obtain certain types of insurance, including directors’ and officers’ liability insurance. We may be forced to accept reduced policy limits and coverage or incur substantially higher costs to obtain the same or similar coverage.

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The impact of these requirements could also make it more difficult for us to attract and retain qualified persons to serve on our board of directors, our board committees or as executive officers. Any one of these requirements could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

As a result of becoming a public company, we will be obligated to develop and maintain proper and effective internal control over financial reporting. If our internal controls over financial reporting are determined to be ineffective, or if our auditors are otherwise unable to attest to their effectiveness when required, investor confidence in our company, and our common stock price, may be adversely affected.

We will be required, pursuant to Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, to furnish a report by management on, among other things, the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting for the first fiscal year beginning after the effective date of this offering, which would be for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2015, and in each year thereafter. Our independent registered public accounting firm will not be required to formally attest to the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting until the later of our second annual report or the first annual report required to be filed with the SEC following the date we are no longer an “emerging growth company,” as defined in the JOBS Act. These assessments will be required to include disclosure of any material weaknesses identified by our management in our internal control over financial reporting.

Although our independent registered public accounting firm did not complete an audit of internal controls over financial reporting as of December 31, 2013, one significant deficiency in internal controls was identified in connection with the preparation of our financial statements. In light of our becoming a public company, we determined that we had a significant deficiency relating to our need for additional accounting and financial reporting staff. We have taken actions to remediate this significant deficiency, including hiring external consultants to provide additional resources in connection with the 2013 year-end and commencing the hiring process for additional full-time financial and accounting staff. We cannot assure you that there will not be material weaknesses or other significant deficiencies in our internal controls in the future.

We are in the very early stages of the costly and challenging process of compiling our system of internal controls over financial reporting and processing documentation necessary to perform the evaluation needed to comply with Section 404. We may discover, and not be able to remediate, future significant deficiencies or material weaknesses. We may not be able to complete our evaluation, testing and any required remediation in a timely fashion, any of which would make us less likely to detect or prevent fraud. During the evaluation and testing process, if we identify one or more material weaknesses in our internal control over financial reporting, we will be unable to assert that our internal controls are effective. If we are unable to assert that our internal controls over financial reporting are effective, we could lose investor confidence in the accuracy and completeness of our financial reports or it could cause us to fail to meet our reporting obligations, which could have a material adverse effect on the price of our common stock. In addition, a delay in compliance with Section 404 could subject us to a variety of administrative sanctions, including SEC action, ineligibility for short form resale registration, the suspension or delisting of our common stock from The New York Stock Exchange, and the inability of registered broker-dealers to make a market in our common stock, which would further reduce our stock price and could harm our business.

We are eligible to be treated as an “emerging growth company” as defined in the JOBS Act, and we cannot be certain if the reduced disclosure requirements applicable to emerging growth companies will make our common stock less attractive to investors.

We are an “emerging growth company”, as defined in the JOBS Act. For as long as we continue to be an emerging growth company, we may take advantage of exemptions from various reporting requirements that are applicable to other public companies that are not emerging growth companies, including:

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We will remain an emerging growth company until the earliest to occur of (i) the end of the fiscal year for which we report $1.0 billion or more in annual revenues, (ii) the end of the fiscal year in which the market value of our common stock held by non-affiliates exceeds $700 million on the last business day of our second fiscal quarter, (iii) our issuance, in a three year period, of more than $1.0 billion of non-convertible debt, and (iv) December 31, 2019. Even after we no longer qualify as an emerging growth company, we may still qualify as a “smaller reporting company” which would allow us to take advantage of many of the same exemptions from disclosure requirements, including not being required to complying with the auditor attestation requirements of Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and reduced disclosure obligations regarding executive compensation in our periodic reports and proxy statements. We cannot predict if investors will find our common stock less attractive because we may rely on these exemptions. If some investors find our common stock less attractive as a result, there may be a less active trading market for our common stock and our stock price may be more volatile.

There has been no prior public market for our common stock and an active trading market may not develop.

Prior to this offering, there has never been a public market for our common stock. A liquid trading market for our common stock may not develop. We cannot predict when or whether investor interest in our common stock on the NYSE might lead to an increase in market price or the development of a more active trading market or how liquid that market might become. If an active market for our securities does not develop, it may be difficult to sell common stock you purchase in this offering. An inactive market may also impair our ability to raise capital by selling our common stock and may impair our ability to acquire other companies, products or technologies by using our common stock as consideration.

We expect that the price of our common stock will fluctuate substantially and you may not be able to sell your shares at or above the initial public offering price.

The initial public offering price of our common stock sold in this offering was determined by negotiation between the representatives of the underwriters and us. This price may not reflect the market price of our common stock that will prevail in the trading market following this offering. You may not be able to resell your shares at or above the initial public offering price due to a number of factors, including those listed in “— Risks Related to Our Business and Strategy” and including the following, some of which are beyond our control:

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Furthermore, the U.S. stock market has at times experienced extreme volatility that in some cases has been unrelated or disproportionate to the operating performance of particular companies. These broad market and industry fluctuations may adversely affect the market price of our common stock, regardless of our actual operating performance.

In the past, following periods of market volatility, stockholders have instituted securities class action litigation. If we were involved in securities litigation, it could have a substantial cost and divert resources and the attention of our senior management team from our business regardless of the outcome of such litigation.

Securities analysts may not initiate coverage of our common stock or may issue negative reports, which may have a negative impact on the market price of our common stock.

The trading market for our common stock will rely in part on the research and reports that industry or financial analysts publish about us or our business. Securities analysts may elect not to provide research coverage of our common stock after the completion of this offering. If securities analysts do not cover our common stock after the completion of this offering, the lack of research coverage may cause the market price of our common stock to decline. If one or more of the analysts who elects to cover us downgrades our stock, our stock price would likely decline substantially. If one or more of these analysts ceases coverage of us, we could lose visibility in the market, which in turn could cause our stock price to decline. In addition, rules mandated by the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and a global settlement reached in 2003 between the SEC, other regulatory agencies and a number of investment banks have led to a number of fundamental changes in how analysts are reviewed and compensated. In particular, many investment banking firms are required to contract with independent financial analysts for their stock research. It may be difficult for companies such as ours, with smaller market capitalizations, to attract independent financial analysts that will cover our common stock. This could have a negative effect on the market price of our stock.

Our directors, officers and principal stockholders have significant voting power and may take actions that may not be in the best interests of our other stockholders.

After this offering, our officers, directors and principal stockholders and their affiliates collectively will control approximately     % of our outstanding common stock (or     % if the underwriters exercise in full their option to purchase additional shares). As a result, these stockholders, if they act together, will be able to control the management and affairs of our company and most matters requiring stockholder approval, including the election of directors and approval of significant corporate transactions. This concentration of ownership may have the effect of delaying or preventing a change of control and might adversely affect the market price of our common stock. This concentration of ownership may not be in the best interests of our other stockholders.

Anti-takeover provisions in our restated certificate of incorporation and restated by-laws, and Delaware law, could delay or discourage a takeover.

Anti-takeover provisions in our restated certificate of incorporation and restated by-laws and Delaware law may have the effect of deterring or delaying attempts by our stockholders to remove or replace management, engage in proxy contests and effect changes in control. The provisions of our charter documents include:

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In addition, as a Delaware corporation, we are subject to Delaware law, including Section 203 of the Delaware General Corporation Law. In general, Section 203 prohibits a Delaware corporation from engaging in any business combination with any interested stockholder for a period of three years following the date that the stockholder became an interested stockholder unless certain specific requirements are met as set forth in Section 203. These provisions, alone or together, could have the effect of deterring or delaying changes in incumbent management, proxy contests or changes in control. See “Description of Capital Stock.”

Our restated certificate of incorporation designates a state or federal court located within the State of Delaware as the exclusive forum for certain types of actions and proceedings that may be initiated by our stockholders, which could limit our stockholders’ ability to obtain a favorable judicial forum for disputes with us or our directors, officers of employees.

Our restated certificate of incorporation provides that, subject to limited exceptions, a state or federal court located within the State of Delaware will be the exclusive forum for (1) any derivative action or proceeding brought on our behalf, (2) any action asserting a claim of breach of a fiduciary duty owed by any of our directors, officers or other employees to us or our stockholders, (3) any action asserting a claim against us arising pursuant to any provision of the Delaware General Corporation Law, our restated certificate of incorporation or our amended and restated by-laws, or (4) any other action asserting a claim against us that is governed by the internal affairs doctrine. Any person or entity purchasing or otherwise acquiring any interest in shares of our capital stock shall be deemed to have notice of and to have consented to the provisions of our restated certificate of incorporation described above. This choice of forum provision may limit a stockholder’s ability to bring a claim in a judicial forum that it finds favorable for disputes with us or our directors, officers or other employees, which may discourage such lawsuits against us and our directors, officers and employees. Alternatively, if a court were to find these provisions of our restated certificate of incorporation inapplicable to, or unenforceable in respect of, one or more of the specified types of actions or proceedings, we may incur additional costs associated with resolving such matters in other jurisdictions, which could adversely affect our business and financial condition.

Future sales of our common stock or the possibility or perception of such future sales may depress our stock price and impair our ability to raise future capital through the sale of our equity securities.

Upon completion of the offering, our current stockholders will hold a substantial number of shares of our common stock that they will be able to sell in the public market in the near future. A significant portion of these shares will be held by a small number of stockholders. Sales by our current stockholders of a substantial number of shares after this offering, or the perception that these sales could occur, could significantly reduce the market price of our common stock. All the shares sold in this offering will be freely tradable. Substantially all of the remaining shares of our common stock are available for resale in the public market, subject to the restrictions on sale or transfer during the 180-day lockup period after the date of this prospectus that is described in “Shares Eligible for Future Sale.” Registration of the sale of these shares of our common stock would permit their sale into the market immediately. As restrictions on resale end or upon registration of any of these shares for resale, the market price of our common stock could drop significantly if the holders of these shares sell them or are perceived by the market as intending to sell them. These sales could also impede our ability to raise future capital.

Moreover, following the completion of this offering and including (i) any shares issued upon conversion of our preferred stock (including shares of Series C preferred stock issuable upon the assumed exercise of all of our

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outstanding warrants to purchase Series C preferred stock in connection with this offering) and (ii) any shares of common stock issuable upon the automatic conversion of all principal and accrued but unpaid interest on our convertible notes, each of which would occur upon the closing of the offering made hereby, the holders of approximately             shares of common stock, as well as approximately 99,354 shares underlying certain outstanding warrants to purchase our common stock, will have rights, subject to some conditions, to require us to include their shares in registration statements that we may file for ourselves or other stockholders. The              shares represent approximately     % of the total number of shares of our common stock to be outstanding immediately after this offering, assuming no exercise of the underwriters’ option to purchase additional shares. See “Description of Capital Stock — Registration Rights” for a description of the registration rights of these stockholders. By exercising their registration rights and selling a large number of shares, these holders could cause the prevailing market price of our common stock to decline.

As a new investor, you will experience immediate and substantial dilution in the net tangible book value of the shares you purchase in this offering.

The initial public offering price is substantially higher than the net tangible book value per share prior to the completion of this offering. Assuming an initial public offering price of our common stock of $         per share, the mid-point of the initial public offering price range set forth on the cover page of this prospectus, you will incur immediate dilution in net tangible book value per share of $        . This dilution is due in large part to earlier investors in our company having paid substantially less than the initial public offering price when they purchased their shares. Additionally, new investors in this offering will have contributed     % of our total equity as of                     , 2014, but will own only     % of our outstanding shares upon completion of this offering.

Since we require additional funds to develop new products and continue to expand our business, we may conduct substantial future offerings of equity securities. Future equity issuances, including future public offerings or future private placements of equity securities and any additional shares issued in connection with acquisitions, will result in further dilution to investors.

We do not intend to pay cash dividends in the foreseeable future and, consequently, your ability to achieve a return on your investment will depend on appreciation in the price of our common stock.

We have never declared or paid cash dividends on our common stock and we do not intend to pay any cash dividends on our common stock in the foreseeable future. We currently expect to retain all available funds and any future earnings for use in the operation and expansion of our business. In addition, the terms of our revolving credit facility and our subordinated notes restrict our ability to pay dividends and any future credit facilities, loan agreements, debt instruments or other agreements may further restrict our ability to pay dividends. Payments of future dividends, if any, will be at the discretion of our board of directors after taking into account various factors, including our business, results of operations and financial condition, current and anticipated cash needs, plans for expansion and any legal or contractual limitations on our ability to pay dividends. As a result, capital appreciation, if any, of our common stock will be your sole source of potential gain for the foreseeable future.

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