From The Next Web: TechStars operates in 4 cities nationwide including Boulder, Boston, Seattle, and New York, and has more than 300 mentors, 1,000 investors and 78 alumni TechStars companies in its network. Last year, TechStars received over 3,000 applications for approximately 50 positions, making the accelerator program harder to get into than Harvard or Yale with an acceptance rate of approximately 1.50%.

Be sure to check out some of the media coverage of the event from WKOW here, and the Wisconsin State Journal here and here. Startup Weekend Madison was part of Capital Entrepreneurs Week, which continues through Sunday.

Founded by Madison entrepreneurs Aaron Larner and Pitt Fagan, StyleShuffler has the potential to change the way consumers shop and the way retailers and manufacturers make decisions.

“My co-worker and I were inspired by Pandora, which uses algorithms to make music recommendations based on an original selection. We wondered if the concept could have business applications beyond music and the idea for StyleShuffler was born,” said Larner.

Shoppers use the scan function on their mobile phone to scan the tag on their favorite item at a clothing store and StyleShuffler automatically recommends complementary in-store pieces that pare well with the item. StyleShuffler uses proprietary technology to categorize each product it recommends with 10 to 30 attributes and the consumer builds a profile over time.
The experience enables consumers to purchase outfits they feel good about and provides retailers with first-hand data about what their customers want.

“With enough data we’ll be able to predict style trends before anyone knows about them. We’ll be able to help shoppers find what they want, even if they have no idea what they are looking for,” Larner said in a recent interview.
His goals include building StyleShuffler into a 30-person company by 2016, based on implementing the app in 295 retail stores over the next four years.

In process that is not unfamiliar to entrepreneurs, Larner and his team refined their strategy several times before arriving at the current version of StyleShuffler “The original idea was called ‘Brainsy’ and included art and home décor as well as fashion,” said Larner. “We found it too broad to be effective and with the help of advisors and mentors we met through Capital Entrepreneurs, 94Labs, Merlin Mentors and Wisconsin’s start-up community, we identified a void in the fashion industry and refined our strategy to focus on clothing.”

StyleShuffler tied for the top spot at the Elevator Pitch Olympics held at the 2011 Wisconsin Early Stage Symposium and was part of the 94labs incubator program last summer. The company is currently a finalist in the Wisconsin Governor’s Business Plan Contest.

“Younger startups are now growing to become a cornerstone of the Madison economy.” – Mayor Paul Soglin

Supporting organizations and partners for the week include Capital Entrepreneurs, Sector67, Accelerate Madison, City of Madison, University of Wisconsin, Edgewood College, Madison College, Young Entrepreneur Council, Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation, and VETransfer.

Here are the events on tap:

Wednesday, April 25 – Kickoff Event: Capital Entrepreneurs Open Social
Thursday, April 26 – Session: Shotgun Entrepreneurship Bootcamp
Friday, April 27 – 29 – Featured Event: Startup Weekend
Monday, April 30 – Speaker and Q&A: Jason Fried, Co-Founder of 37signals
Monday, April 30 – Session: Food and Beer Entrepreneurship
Tuesday, May 1 – Speaker and Q&A: Craig Culver, Co-Founder and CEO of Culver’s
Tuesday, May 1 – Session: Sector67 Meeting
Wednesday, May 2 – Session: Raising early-stage capital from friends and family
Friday, May 4 – 6 – Featured Event: 3 Day Startup

Full details for the week are available here.

Read more here.

Vidmaker makes it easy to manage and edit videos on any device, anywhere and with anyone. The service has an integrated web based video editor, Google Docs-style video collaboration, a built in community stock footage library and tons of other features that make the process of creating, editing and publishing video content a joy rather than a chore.

Read more about the TechStars demo day here.

Capital Entrepreneurs member Entrustet was acquired by Switzerland based SecureSafe, the market leader in Digital Estate Planning and online data safes.  Announcing the acquisition today, DSwiss CEO, Christian Schwarzer, said the acquisition also “shows our business partners, investors and other competitors that we plan to stay at the top of this market.”

According to Schwarzer, since launching in 2008, Entrustet has built-up relationships with estate planning attorneys who integrate digital assets into clients’ estate plans throughout the US which will “prove invaluable to DSwiss as it strives to expand into the US market. Currently, the SecureSafe service has attracted many US customers who appreciate the benefits of Switzerland’s well-known privacy and data protection policies.”

“The Entrustet service allows people to quickly, easily and securely prepare the last wishes for their digital assets and is a complement to SecureSafe’s existing data inheritance features. By consolidating the two companies, SecureSafe (formerly known as DataInherit) becomes the premier service for offering high security data storage both now and for the future,” Schwarzer said.

Entrustet, cofounded by Jesse Davis and Nathan Lustig, was a founding member of Capital Entrepreneurs back in May 2009 just after Davis and Lustig graduated from UW. The deal also received coverage from The Economist in an article called Deathless Data. Entrustet is the second CE company to be acquired out of the original founding companies.  It shows that Madison is continuing to develop into a great place to start a startup.

Details are as follows:
4/10/2012 — Talk: 5:30PM – 6:30PM, Reception: 6:30PM – 8:00PM
Location: Plenary Room, Grainger Hall (UW campus)