Hardware Park supports medical device innovators at the concept or earliest stage of development, often prior to company formation. Our founders are typically clinicians, university researchers, university students, and professionals outside of medicine who have domain expertise or insight into a particular need. Most have no background in design and engineering and come to us with no market research, competitive analysis, or framework for a business plan. Of our current 14 active concepts, 11 are from first-time founders.

Technical assistance is non-dilutive funding that Hardware Park provides to pay for professional development and commercialization services. We match founders with appropriate partners from our ecosystem of designers, engineers, consultants, and specialists.

Hardware Park pays these partners directly on behalf of the startup. The program functions like a grant with guardrails—all funding is tied to specific scopes of work, budgets, and deliverables that are developed collaboratively with the founder, development partners, and Hardware Park.

No. Hardware Park does not seek equity in the startups we serve. There's nothing substantive on which to base company valuation for early-stage startups, taking equity at such an early stage would not benefit the company, and most situations in which equity investments yield a return are at odds with the goal of keeping these MedTech device companies in Alabama.

We're at 811 5th Avenue North in Birmingham's historic Smithfield neighborhood, two blocks west of I-65. The facility is the former Long-Lewis Hardware store and distribution center.

Hardware Park is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit funded through the Innovate Alabama Tax Credit Program and private donors. Over half of our program budget goes directly to technical assistance for startups.