What lessons did you learn during your childhood that you carried into your career?

Failure is not failure; it’s simply a setback, because there are resources within each of us to succeed. When I was about seven years old, my great grandmother told us how her family in Missouri disowned her after she married a racehorse trainer. My memory of her reminds me how tough the women in my family can be.

What was the first project you ever worked on?

When I was eight or nine years old, I went door to door in my neighborhood selling Grit magazine. My first day, a lady asked me why she should buy it, and I told her “because it’s great.” She told me that I should never try to sell something unless I knew why someone should buy it. That job taught me that you’ll have a more successful business if you understand what a consumer needs, can explain what you’re selling, and can thoroughly explain why someone should buy that product.

Why do you think it’s important for women to work in tech and entrepreneurship?

There are not only multiple benefits for women to enter tech/entrepreneurship but also multiple benefits for companies, because women approach problems more holistically than men do. I just co-founded Hautepreneurs, LLC with Jessica Eaves Mathews and Hillary Randolph. The three of us come from different walks of life, and we’re excited to compel change to support women in New Mexico who are looking to start their own business or grow it to the next level.

What led you to start APPCityLife?

My husband is a serial entrepreneur and cofounded a company that was an enterprise platform for publishing apps. At that time only companies like Coca Cola and Pizza Hut could afford to pay for app development, and I knew there had to be a better way for smaller companies to enter the mobile arena. In 2009, I negotiated a contract with my spouse’s board and investors to become their first client and founded APPCityLife to bring affordable mobile marketing to the local marketplace. In 2010, I was invited to present at Mobile Beat, and I was the only woman on stage. I never realized until that moment that I was a serious minority in the field I had chosen to go into.

What is APPCityLife and how does it work?

It helps overcome the challenge of delivering mobile information for the civic space. We work with cities to help them convert their open data into mobile apps that are consumer friendly. So we can create an umbrella app for the city of Albuquerque and then all of the apps for that one city can be looked up, whether it’s for finding transit updates or checking out a book from the library. We also just signed the Albuquerque Public School system, which is the third largest public school system in the U.S. Through the app, parents can access fingertip information about schools, such as their children’s grades and it also allows schools to quickly communicate when there’s a snow day or an emergency lockdown.

Our second phase will roll out gamification, where a student who is logged into the app can earn points for checking grades, their homework schedule, and those points can be redeemed for discounts on local pizza or free tickets to a baseball game.

Just this month, we launched our couponing engine to deliver geo-located, real time coupons. Businesses in the community are able to offer up their own budgeted coupons to customers that live locally and deliver them in real time to customers who are right outside their door. We share the revenue we generate from mobile coupons with the schools and cities that work with us, so it is a win for everyone involved.

How was APPCityLife funded in the early stage?

For the first two years, I bootstrapped out of pocket. After that I took in angel investments from family and friends and now we’re seeking a seed round.

Biggest mistake a founder can make?

Taking on VC before you’re ready.

Have any advice for other entrepreneurs who are trying to get their ventures launched?

At the end of the day you need to have your own vision, and you need to financially, emotionally, and mentally own your own company. If you try to listen to every piece of advice from everyone, you’re never going to define your own vision. For female entrepreneurs: Build a business that could change the economy of your own community. Think BIG and don’t hold yourself back.

Lisa Abeyta is Founder/CEO of APPCityLife, Inc. and cofounder of Hautepreneurs, LLC. She previously worked as an award-winning freelance journalist and has served on a variety of community boards. Her company, APPCityLife, was named a top twenty hottest mobile startup of 2010 by VentureBeat. She also is a frequent guest speaker on the topics of mobile innovation and women in technology and works with several nonprofit organizations and educational institutions to provide mentorship opportunities to young women. She is the proud mother of three children and has been married for over 25 years to her husband, Lawrence, who is a cofounder of APPCityLife.

You can find Lisa on Twitter @LisaAbeyta and @appcitylife

This post was created by Raine Dalton, WIM’s editorial and community innovation intern. Raine is passionate about finding creative ways to empower women globally through tech. In addition to WIM, Raine has written, tweeted, and posted for the Global Banking Alliance for Women, WITNESS, and 90.7 WFUV News. You can find her work at www.rainedalton.com or get in touch with her through Twitter @rainedalton, or by emailing raine@wim.co.