By Hamza Shaban

The gender imbalance in tech financing was center stage as 12 female entrepreneurs competed for a $50,000 grand prize.

For a brief moment in Washington, D.C., this week, the tech funding world of white male influence was interrupted, and Maci Peterson became $50,000 richer.

Tuesday night, before a packed house at D.C.-based incubator 1776, a dozen women-led startups competed for funding. The founders faced a shark tank panel of judges, an animated crowd of over 300, and, more broadly, a culture and economy that has made it exceedingly difficult for female entrepreneurs to access capital.

Organized by Women Who Tech founder Allyson Kapin, The Women Startup Challenge Pitch Competition was held to call attention to the gender inequities in tech financing and to establish a funding network for female businesses owners. According to a 2012 study by Dow Jones, only 7% of venture capital dollars go to women-led startups, a statistic that Kapin hopes to crush.

One of the competition’s four judges, Lorine Pendleton, an angel investor who finances women-led and minority-led companies, told BuzzFeed News that events like this one are crucial to leveling the playing field in tech for those who’ve struggled for years to access it. “They provide a platform for women and minorities who typically don’t get the level of funding that men and their nonminority counterparts do,” she said. “This could be a seed round to fund someone’s great idea, and get to the next level.”

On this night, it was Peterson’s idea that emerged victorious. A 28-year old from Oak Park, Illinois — her parents drove down from Chicago to support her — Peterson founded On Second Thought, a mobile app that lets people unsend text messages before they arrive on a recipient’s phone. With an easy stage presence, Peterson asked the audience: “How many times have you sent a text only to immediately wish you could take it back? Whether you accidentally sext your boss or autocorrect keeps changing that word to ‘duck,’ we’ve all been there.” An hour later she was proclaimed the competition’s winner and handed a check.

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