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For teaching purposes, this is the case-only version of the HBR case study. Four years ago, Diane Ashton and Sundeep Lal were working together at MIT on a titanium extraction project. Durable and highly heat resistant, titanium is a key constituent of many specialty alloys, but it's also very expensive to produce. So when Diane discovered a solution that isolated titanium efficiently, the partners recognized that the technology would be worth billions to large manufacturers. Sundeep and Diane secured a $20 million investment from a prominent VC and drew up a business plan. Within six months of their discovery, Titrolyte Inc. was born. But Diane and Sundeep soon discovered that what had been a fairly straightforward operation in the confines of an MIT lab was difficult to reproduce on a large scale. In just two years, they had to go back to investors for more money. Sundeep thinks that Titrolyte is ready to go public. Besides, he's concerned that if they don't IPO now, they might miss the bus. But Diane is worried that they're moving too fast. They haven't perfected the technology yet, and Titrolyte's business systems leave a great deal to be desired. Should Titrolyte risk going public now, while the market is still open?