Girls Raising is having its first, monthly pitch event to provide a space for women founded startups to gain publicity and connect with other entrepreneurs and influential females. The event is on August 27 at the XO Group Inc. in New York, and will open with panelists including, WIM’s co-founder Kelly Hoey, Brittany Laughlin, Amy Jain, and Daniella Jacobovsky. The panelists will provide critical insight and answer key questions from those in attendance—a selection of entrepreneurs and investors who recognize the addressable market surrounding women in tech and who want to be inspired by and support it. Five selected women entrepreneurs will present their ideas. The panelists will then ask questions and provide suggestions for improving these five entrepreneurs’ startup pitching.

Girls Raising was started by co-founders Vanessa Dawson and Kathleen Ong. Vanessa has worked in digital development and strategy for top global brands and startups. In 2012, she launched her own social planning and payments platform for group activities. Kathleen works in marketing and social media at Wantering, a fashion tech startup and is an MBA grad. It didn’t take long for them to realize that there was some work to be done, so they started Girls Raising. We spoke with Vanessa to find out more about its inception.

How do you and Kathleen know each other and what led to the idea for Girls Raising?

Kathleen and I met through friends in Vancouver. One time Kathleen was in New York for business and the fashion startup she worked for was raising money for a Series A. The startup was started by an all male team and Kathleen was the only female working at the company. We met up for coffee while she was in New York and asked ourselves how Kathleen could be the only female working at a fashion startup?

In the meantime, I had been in the industry for three years. I didn’t associate well with sitting in a conference room at a table full of men in order to pitch. Kathleen and I noticed that the lack of women in tech and investment has created a huge blind spot that needs to be addressed. The market needs the feminine point of view in pitching and solving problems because companies and investments have traditionally been steered by men. So we wanted to create a new forum for supporting women and supporting their ideas.

Why do you and Kathleen feel that it’s important to have Girls Raising?

We just want a balance to exist for everyone. We also want more stability that can provide growth. In addition, we need more collaboration and a better understanding of what it takes to build a company and to invest in one. Fundraising can be so difficult but New York has a strong network of women who support each other.

What convinced you that a platform like Girls Raising is needed?

When I was pitching over and over, the concepts would seem to resonate more with the women and female angel VCs in the room. This opened my eyes to something-even if females are founding companies and brands, men are still majorly filtering investment.

How is your company different from your competitors?

There aren’t enough of these movements out there. We’re different because we want everyone to be involved. We also want to break away from the traditional models and are looking to mesh the old models with the new models to create the most effective type of platform for women to pitch.

What are the requirements for founders applying to Girls Raising to get to pitch at the events?

To be considered, the startup must have a tech/internet component. At least fifty percent of the founding team needs to be female. The startup also needs to have not raised a large round yet.

What are some additional perks offered to founders in the Girls Raising program?

Girls Raising creates an environment for networking with certain large companies and investment groups that female founders may not have had the chance to be introduced to before. We are also planning on taking a percentage from event sales and putting that towards a startup that we believe has shown they’ve really identified a true user need.

What are your hopes for the event?

The initial structure we had in mind for the event was the pitch format but want the event to be very integrated. We want entrepreneurs to get direct feedback from women in the audience and from women sitting on the panel. We think there is some underlying advice that would be beneficial to share and we want to build a close-knit environment so that people feel comfortable sharing that advice. At mostly male events, men are often just pitching to win—we don’t want this type of atmosphere. We want this to be a supportive platform for founders to get detailed feedback and support.

If you’re on Twitter, you can reach @VanessaNDawson and @itsmekathleeno for more information about the inaugural @GirlsRaising event.

You can also get tickets here.

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.