With over 31,000 hours of your life spent studying or sitting in class, you would think that all of your hard work as a student would logically lead to securing a high paying job. After graduating in Canada, it's estimated that one in three grads will end up in a low-skilled job. Add that to the ever mounting student debt and the odds are definitely not in your favor once you graduate. Trying to find a way to get ahead, students have been turning to sites like SpringTern to stand out.

Mike Holmes and the team at SlingRide aim to make the lives of Toronto's commuters a little less excruciating. Working out of the MaRS Discovery District as part of the JOLT accelerator, Mike and his team have launched a ridesharing community that is fully integrated into a user's social network. The site focuses on connecting people who are commuting in the same general direction and maps thousands of nearby coffee shops that allow drivers and passengers the ability to safely meet and coordinate rides in a simple and social way.

With the stores and aisles stocked full of beauty supplies, the average consumer has a lot to choose from, and wading through all the big budget marketing to find a quality product can be challenging. Loose Button is helping to take the guesswork out of finding your new favourite beauty and lifestyle products. Aside from the excitement of receiving a beautiful box filled with trendy new goodies, there is a chance you may find a product you can't live without. Loose Button allows online consumers to sample products before committing to a luxury price tag.

Friday, October 26th 2012 marked the 3rd annual TEDxToronto conference in Toronto. Growing from 100 participants to now over 1,300 at the Sony Centre, TEDxToronto has developed into one of the biggest independent TED conferences in the world.

TED - which stands for Technology, Entertainment and Design - is a conference that showcases some of the most thought provoking speakers from across the globe. Highlighting individuals who speak about positive and social benefits, TED carries the tagline "ideas worth spreading", which was front and centre at this year's event. The unique factor of TEDxToronto is that although the name is consistent with the overall TED brand, the event was independently organized by a group of Toronto volunteers.

Crowdfunding is one of the latest buzz words to grace the technology community. Think of crowdfunding as a way to finance a project by reaching out to your potential customers and asking them to invest a small amount of money towards turning your idea into reality. Crowdfunding focuses on allowing individuals to prepay - at a hefty discount - for a non-existent product or service while it's still an idea. If there is enough interest, and potentially enough money is raised through pre-sales, the idea gets validated and the project kicks off.

This is an all-too familiar scenario in Toronto: you wake up in the morning, look in the mirror, and realize your hair is slowly turning into a mullet (and not one of the fashionable mullets that the Europeans made "somewhat" cool). On your way home from work, you decide to pop into your favorite barbershop for some quick scissor work. Lo and behold, the place is packed, and you spend the next 45 minutes sitting in the waiting room.

Imagine being able to pick up your smartphone and quickly book an appointment, any time, (day or night) without having to repeat every letter of your last name over and over. It's called Resurva, and it's available at a barbershop near you. With over 10 years of experience running Offshoot, James Hamilton and his team have developed an app to make your local barbershop trip a little less painful.