The video doesn’t even do it justice. I wish you could have seen it in person. A recording can’t quite capture what everyone in the room felt: the need to pay attention for three minutes straight.

Every time I get back from a tech conference, my friends and colleagues want to know what the highlight was. I typically give them a half-hearted summary of the food, speakers, and weather. But not this time.

I was at Startupfest this week in Montreal and there was only one thing that anyone wanted to talk about. It wasn’t the food (there were food trucks), the speakers (everyone was good but nobody really stood out), nor the weather (a mix of sun and rain). It was Willie G.

Willie G stole the show. There was a three-minute pitch competition, and startups of all stripes were on stage looking for advice and funding. But Willie G’s Party on Demand was the only pitch that anyone could name at the conference.

It’s hard to captivate an audience and keep them after the first few seconds, especially if they’re allowed (and sometimes even encouraged) to use their devices throughout. But you know you’ve won when people stop fiddling with their laptops and phones to watch the stage, or better yet, reposition their mobile devices to film what you’re doing.

You can tell that this isn’t Willie G’s first time pitching. Here he is making a one-minute pitch in mid-April:

Not a bad improvement in just three months.

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