Women Startup Challenge Announces Winners

Top Prize Goes to App That Retrieves Text Messages

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Jul 02, 2015, 08:45 ET

WASHINGTON, July 2, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- The Women Startup Challenge announced the winners of the first-of-its-kind crowdfunding and pitch competition organized to help fund and showcase women-led tech startups.

The top prize in the competition was $50,000 in cash. Other prizes included a one-on-one consultation with a partner from 500 Startups, pro-bono legal services, and other startup-friendly services.

The winning startup was On Second Thought (onsecondthought.co) co-founded by Maci Peterson, based in Washington, DC, an innovative messaging app that lets you take back text messages before they are received on another person's phone. Replacing the phone's native messaging app, users can eliminate awkward or damaging text situations.

Second place was Fam-ess (fam-ess.com), which stands for Family First, Earn Always, Save Often and Spend Wisely, founded by Michelle Salsberry, based in Upper Arlington, Ohio. Fam-ess is an app that teaches kids ages 3 to 15 the discipline to make spending decisions based on their willingness to earn and save, so that they are better equipped to sidestep debt as they grow.

Third place went to Kicker (gokicker.com), an independent digital news startup co-founded by Holly Epstein Ojalvo and Lisa Vehrenkamp, based in Brooklyn, New York.

The Women Startup Challenge was organized as a series of rounds of fundraising and judging. First, more than 180 startups participated in a fundraising contest using the crowdfunding platform CrowdRise, and raised more than $315,000. From the top 30 fundraisers, a panel of tech industry investors picked the 12 most promising finalists. The final 12 pitched their startups to a panel of investors at General Assembly/1776 on June 30.

"This was our first year for the Women Startup Challenge and it was a runaway success," said Allyson Kapin, Women Who Tech founder and chief executive. "It's thrilling to see so many innovative ventures being led by women who are disrupting the texting, news and financial industries. Last night's $50,000 award to On Second Thought was just the beginning of this global launch to help fund women startups."

"Helping people build businesses should be about investing in women the same as men. That's only fair, and it's how we'll find the best startups with the potential to change the world," said Craig Newmark, founder of craigslist and craigconnects, who sits on the Women Who Tech advisory board.

Women Who Tech also produced an infographic that highlights the latest data about women-led startups at http://www.womenwhotech.com/startupinfographic.

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SOURCE Women Who Tech