The International Startup Festival is a three-day event on the business of startups. Held in the historic Old Port of Montreal, it brings together industry veterans and fresh new faces, creative thinkers, experienced entrepreneurs, and technologists from around the world.

Focused on hot sectors like mobility, gaming, and social networking, as well as cleantech, education, and healthcare, it features startup pitches, inspiring keynotes, and hard-hitting seminars on every stage of the startup lifecycle from “back of the napkin” idea to champagne-popping exits.

If you're interesting in pitching your startup in Montreal this summer, nominate your company now to be one of 12 startups selected to pitch. Not ready for the spotlight of the stage? Book one of 20 Startup demo tables to perfect your pitch and get exposure to festival attendees.

Deadline for Nominations is Friday, May 4 at 5pm EST. Apply now.

Student Startups is a monthly series created by Techvibes to highlight Canada's talented student entrepreneurs. Across the country, bright minds with brilliant ideas are launching businesses before they even graduate from school. We want to recognize and celebrate these ambitious youngsters, who refuse to let studying for exams hinder their drive to succeed as entrepreneurs. Student Startups profiles cover both the startups and the students behind them—in their own words.

In our fifth edition, we've got University of Toronto students pitching his new venture, CoursePeer.

THE PITCH

Students: image you could convey to employers the hard work you do day-to-day in school—this way, they appreciate your strengths, which happen to fit their organization's needs. They then send you an email saying, "we want to hire you, no need to send us your resume. Just come in for an interview." CoursePeer does exactly that.

This is Part One of our Working at a Startup series, the Fonolo Edition. This series documents the lives of real Canadian entrepreneurs as they endure the trials and tribulations of running a technology startup.

I’m no stranger to startups. I’ve had my fair share of big companies, egos, and political red tape. Working for a small company can be both challenging and rewarding. The team at Fonolo adopts a work hard and work harder philosophy. However, daily entertainment can be found in everyone’s idiosyncrasies.

Do you find yourself grappling with whether or not to work for a start up? It’s like being in an elevator for eight hours with the same people—every day. Or in Shai’s opinion, a fish bowl. Come to think of it, visuals of fish seem to pop up a lot in presentations. I wonder if there is a subliminal message we should be aware of.

Canadians spend so much time on Pinterest that the image-based boards website is the 23rd-ranked site in Canada, and the 46th worldwide, according to Alexa. Canada uses Pinterest the third-most on a country-specific internet rankings basis, behind only South Africa and the United States.

Still, have you ever wanted something you saw on Pinterest or on the general internet and couldn’t find out how to buy it online?