The City of Albuquerque has brought on two tech firms to deploy mobile applications that will help entrepreneurs in Albuquerque to succeed.
“The same demand driving us for access to information and resources that are often not easy to find is present in every community – whether urban or rural, agricultural or manufacturing. While economic challenges look different across the country, technology solutions can help communities to solve their own local challenges” Lisa Abeyta, Co-Founder APPCityLife.
Ask an entrepreneur about how they made their way to building a successful business, and you’ll likely get at least a few (if not many) stories of failure. A bad accountant, a shoddy assumption about the marketplace, a legal misstep—there are tons of hazards, and some are precarious enough to destroy an entirely viable business idea. But ask that same entrepreneur about how they made it through the tough times, and more often than not, it comes down to finding the right resource, mentor or expert to think through solving the problem and side-stepping future pitfalls. This is the beauty of a supportive entrepreneurial ecosystem, and we are getting closer to having our own in Albuquerque, not only on the ground and face to face, but accessible from anywhere at anytime.
In Albuquerque, the goal is to create more jobs and increase economic mobility through innovation and entrepreneurship, which means we need more entrepreneurial success stories across all of our communities. The City of Albuquerque has partnered with SourceLink and local APPCityLife to do just that. Paired together, SourceLink’s data aggregation on businesses and service providers in Albuquerque and APPCityLife’s end-to-end mobile and data platform for civic tech will result in user friendly, highly robust tools for entrepreneurs so they can link up with the support services they need quickly, easily and from anywhere. The soon-to-launch TrepConnect mobile application will be one of the the first fruits of the collaborations.
With this technology, entrepreneurs will no longer need to rely on Google search and word-of-mouth; all of the information on service providers, offerings and resources in Albuquerque will be in one place—and accessible by mobile—instead of dispersed across the internet. “If you picture when you download an app from the app store, say the Facebook app or Google Maps,” explained Lisa Abeyta, founder and CEO of APPCityLife, “they allow you to do things on your mobile device faster, easier and more fluidly than any other method.” She continued, “For cities and communities, access to services digitally can not only offer easier, faster and better experiences, it also democratizes those processes. Instead of having to stand in line for hours, mobile apps allow citizens to access information, forms and applications while they are on a bus commuting to work, or at home caring for an elderly parent. That access changes who is able to access services, information and help.”
The TrepConnect application (a project the Albuquerque Living Cities Integration Initiative is proud to support) launched this Monday in the iOS App Store to be accessibly primarily to local Navigators who are working one-on-one with small businesses. The application will be available for the public to download during this phase of BETA testing (you can download the app here). Android will not be released as part of the BETA but will be available when the next version of the app is ready to release. The app will contain everything from the names of businesses and nonprofits, contact information, locations by map, services they provide and ratings. You can also access the resources on a desktop computer at www.molinoproject.com.
