TAMPA, Fla. — It’s Women’s History Month and we’re telling the stories of women who are helping to shape the lives of others.

Here in the Bay area, a small, woman-owned tech company is making a big impact by serving the community and serving as an example to young girls that they too can accomplish greatness.

When Martika Jones left her career as a musician, she knew she had to do something meaningful. So, she started her very own tech company called BŪP. She said her husband helped her come up with the name.

“It’s more like a sound. If you’ve heard anybody say 'BŪP,'” Jones said. “It’s like an affectionate tap. So, you 'BŪP' a baby, you 'BŪP' a dog on the nose.”

Jones wants people to think of her new tech company every time they hear that sound. She explained some of the work they do.

“We utilize artificial intelligence, as well as automation, to create AI-generated emails that go out to folks' prospects. So imagine if you’re at an event, you connect with a hundred people, now you have within five minutes, a hundred emails going out,” she said.

Jones first launched the company four years ago. Part of her tech gear includes what looks like a black credit card.

“These are smart NFC devices. Essentially, there’s a chip inside of it and you also have the QR code on the back just in case, for whatever reason you need to use the QR code instead of the chip,” Jones said.

Her company also uses smart wrist bands.

“So, you would just put this on your wrist and — same thing — there’s a chip right here where the logo is,” she said.

Believe it or not, she said her first career set her up for this one.

“I actually had a career as an orchestral trombonist,” Jones said. “I played very much so a boys instrument, and I always I guess when people think, went against the grain and I just felt like different in a lot of ways, but my mom really embraced that.”

At the same time, she said she was drawing inspiration from other women in STEM.

“As I got older, I think a figure that stands out to me is Catherine Johnson. You know, she’s also featured in Hidden Figures. And she was a huge catalyst for what she did at NASA. She was a mathematician and played a huge role in the Apollo landings,” said Jones.

That kind of representation was a big deal for her, which is why she’s also laser-focused on serving as an example. She’s using the nonprofit arm of her business to do outreach.

“Being able to provide that environment — that opportunity for young Black girls — is huge, and that’s something that I want to do as I continue to grow my technology company,” she said. “I want to be able to provide those opportunities for underserved founders.”

It’s why she partnered with the Corporation to Develop Communities of Tampa, Inc. also known as CDC of Tampa. The CDC is the brainchild of another influential woman, Chloe Coney.

“This is our legacy wall that kind of gives the history of the CDC of Tampa, which involves, of course, my mother was the founder and first CEO,” said CDC of Tampa CEO Ernest Coney.

Coney said his mother’s dreams to uplift the underserved communities through housing and development lines up with young entrepreneurs like Jones.

“When we build homes, we build garages on those homes and in that garage space can be an incubation of the next Apple (or) IBM, and Martika is the living proof that those things can come true,” he said.

That’s the kind of legacy-building, Jones says, she’s working towards every day while keeping her finger on the pulse of technology.