October 1, 2025 · Entrepreneurs, Innovation, Program Impact, SSBCI, Stories
Innovate Alabama at the 2025 Fast Company Innovation Festival
Innovate Alabama recently returned to the stage in New York at the 11th Fast Company Innovation Festival. The event brought together innovators, investors and business leaders from across the country. Alabama had another opportunity to demonstrate how it supports innovators and to feature a small business owner whose work reflects the strength of the state’s innovation economy.
Dr. Ben Fulmer, a Birmingham neurosurgeon and the CEO of Fulmer Instruments, stepped into the spotlight as a powerful example of what’s possible in Alabama. In a fireside chat moderated by national journalist Kathleen Koch, Fulmer explained how a problem he faced in surgery became the foundation of a startup now scaling with support from Innovate Alabama. During the conversation, Koch connected her journalistic experience to the impactful technology that Fulmer is developing.
“During my time as a journalist, I covered how new technology saves countless American lives on the battlefield. Your technology reminds me of this. And it gives me goosebumps.” – Kathleen Koch
FROM SURGERY TO STARTUP
Fulmer has practiced neurosurgery for more than 25 years. Over that time, he worked with electrosurgical devices that had changed little in a century. Cords tethered to large consoles have limited mobility, slow procedures and create added risks in already crowded operating rooms.
In 2016, he began developing a cordless option with the help of Alabama engineers and designers. That effort became Fulmer Instruments, which now holds multiple patents, employs a growing team in Birmingham and has tested its devices with hospitals and U.S. military partners. FDA clearance is expected soon, positioning the company for entry into a multibillion-dollar global market.
In 2024, Fulmer Instruments received equity funding through Innovate Alabama’s InvestAL program, which made up about a quarter of the company’s most recent raise.
“I’ve continued to be blown away by the continued support we’ve received from Alabama’s ecosystem, particularly Innovate Alabama. Thanks to the InvestAL investment, making up a quarter of our most recent raise, we have been able to add engineers, speed up product development and show other investors that we have reliable backing in Alabama.” – Dr. Fulmer
WHY ALABAMA
Fulmer remained steadfast that keeping his company in Alabama was intentional. Birmingham gave him access to clinical expertise at UAB. Huntsville offered an engineering bench shaped by aerospace and advanced manufacturing. A network of local investors provided capital and guidance. Together, those resources gave him confidence that Fulmer Instruments could grow and compete from within the state.
That decision also points to a larger story. Alabama is building the kind of ecosystem where research institutions, technical talent and capital are working in tandem. It is not only producing new companies but also giving them reasons to stay, expand and contribute to communities across the state.
SEEK AL
Beyond the main stage, Innovate Alabama gave festival-goers a look at SEEK AL, an initiative designed to help innovators discover the state’s beautiful outdoors. The booth featured a VR headset and an interactive outdoor recreation map that invited attendees to see another side of the state.
SEEK AL underscores a point often overlooked in conversations about startups: people build companies where they want to build their lives. Alabama’s landscapes, from its mountain trails to its coastline, are part of what makes that possible. By bringing those assets to New York, Innovate Alabama showed that the state’s value is not only in its business resources but also in the environment that surrounds them.
LOOKING AHEAD
Innovate Alabama’s presence at the 2025 Fast Company Innovation Festival showed both the people and places driving innovation in the state. Fulmer Instruments demonstrated the kind of companies Alabama is nurturing, while SEEK AL underscored how the state’s broader environment helps founders commit to growing and staying here.
Taken together, Alabama continues to prove what it can deliver. Innovate Alabama will keep making sure the rest of the country sees it.
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