Maureen Harp wanted to build a whiteboard for her son's bedroom that was shaped like a robot he sketched on paper.

But the mechanical engineer, who was familiar with industrial design and fabricating tools from jobs with several Pittsburgh-area companies, couldn't find any consumer-oriented products that would allow her to easily accomplish the task.

She asked a friend, Justin Meyer, a systems engineer she'd worked with at Mecco in Cranberry, and he was having the same problem with a project to make a bulldozer for his son.

That was an “aha” moment when the two hit upon an idea for a business. Now their company, Saturday Garage, is receiving help getting off the ground from an East Liberty business incubator started this year by Innovation Works, a nonprofit that provides early-stage funding for startups.

“It was that conversation that sort of spurred this whole thing,” Harp said.

Saturday Garage is one of eight companies receiving funding, space to work and other assistance in the initial class of firms at the incubator, named AlphaLab Gear. It is focused on helping companies that want to manufacture products — like the advanced but consumer-priced computerized hardware tools that Saturday Garage hopes to sell one day.

AlphaLab Gear was modeled after Innovation Work's AlphaLab startup accelerator in the South Side.

AlphaLab was begun in 2008 to help entrepreneurs start information technology-focused companies.

“We had accepted a couple of hardware companies into AlphaLab. ... They were extremely successful in raising follow-on funding,” said Ilana Diamond, executive director of AlphaLab Gear. “At that point, Innovation Works made the decision to launch a separate accelerator for those hardware companies.”

A major goal of the program is to get young companies to the point where they attract further private investment, or follow-on funding.

Since 1999, Innovation Works has invested more than $52 million in 168 technology startups, which have gone on to raise more than $1.5 billion from investors.

The eight-month AlphaLab Gear program gives entrepreneurs like Harp and Meyer up to $50,000 in startup financing, business mentoring, space in an East Liberty building where they can work and membership in TechShop, an East Liberty organization that provides equipment needed to build product prototypes.

“Pittsburgh has always been a great place for building things,” said Henry Thorne, co-founder of Pittsburgh-based robotic child-care products company 4Moms and an AlphaLab Gear mentor. “It's going to be even better with a hardware accelerator pushing entrepreneurs to develop products faster and better.”

Harp said she and Meyer expect to have a polished prototype tool, which would include a computer interface and robotic controls, by the end of the course that could sell for $300.

It was a big risk for each to leave secure, good-paying jobs to start their own company, she said.

But after talking about the opportunity to be entrepreneurs, “we couldn't think of any reason to not do it,” she said.

Alex Nixon is a staff writer for Trib Total Media. He can be reached at 412-320-7928 or anixon@tribweb.com.

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