The Softline Venture Partners Fund starts the traditional contest Dev Generation. In 2013, it  is held for the fifth time.

As before, the grand prize will be a financial support ($100,000) for the best start-up.  For the second project the foundation will organize the training program of product-management at the University of Berkeley. The third start-up will be able to participate in the program StartupAcce. During the program the founder of the project will travel to Boston to explore the venture capital business USA and will get a chance to meet with US investors and business angels.

The company Microsoft has established a special nomination. It will award the projects which use technologies of the Redmond software giant. A SAP corporation will invite to participate in the SAP-SKOLKOVO Moscow Startup Forum on 2728 of November. It should be noted that in 2013, the fund has significantly simplified the procedure of applying for the competition. A person has to fill out a form and attach a presentation for participation in the Dev Generartion. The presentation should be made up in accordance with the basic guidelines outlined on the contest page.

Organizers have made up a representative jury, which consists of technology experts of several corporations: EMC, IBM, SAP, Microsoft, Skolkovo Open University and of well-known in RUnet startups Firrma.ru and Hopes&Fears. It is noteworthy that Max Skibinski, the angel investor and the mentor of accelerator 500startups (located in Silicon Valley), will participate in the evaluation of projects. Ceteris paribus the expert committee will give preference to projects with the ready prototype of the product, as well as existing businesses with a clear business model.

During evaluating of the projects the fund will apply the methodology of the overseas business accelerators. It means that one startup will be estimated by 3-5 experts. Finals will be held on 28 of November  in Moscow. 10 leaders of the expert rating will be invited there and the tender committee will select the three best teams. Here you can download the flyer on the competition DevGeneration in PDF.  The Softline Venture Partners will monitor the competition in their group in Facebook. Subscribe and read online.

Applications will be accepted until 17 of November! Good luck!