Scotty Allen: From Disney parades to building the Product Bus

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The Leap by Founders Collective

Gavin Tye

8 episodes

1 week ago

The Leap is a podcast for founders, creatives, and career-shifters who are bold enough to start something of their own. Hosted by Gavin Tye, each episode dives into the real stories behind people who’ve taken the leap...from launching startups and scaling side hustles to pivoting careers with purpose. Through candid conversations with early-stage founders, innovators, and changemakers, we explore the messy middle of entrepreneurship: the fears, breakthroughs, lessons, and mindset shifts that come with building something meaningful from the ground up. Whether you’re thinking about starting a business or already deep in the trenches, The Leap will leave you feeling inspired, informed, and ready to take your next big step.

All content for The Leap by Founders Collective is the property of Gavin Tye and is served directly from their servers with no modification, redirects, or rehosting. The podcast is not affiliated with or endorsed by Podjoint in any way.

Scotty Allen: From Disney parades to building the Product Bus

The Leap by Founders Collective

51 minutes

2 weeks ago

Scotty Allen: From Disney parades to building the Product Bus

In this episode, Gav sits down with Scotty Allen, founder of the Product Bus, to unpack his leap from structured employment into the messy, high-stakes world of entrepreneurship and why so many founders get product decisions wrong in the early days.

Expect a candid, behind-the-scenes look at what it really takes to launch a B2B SaaS company from scratch, completely bootstrapped.

Got questions or topics you want us to cover? Email us at journey@sixsides.co

If you enjoyed this episode, please leave us a 5-star rating and a review on your favourite podcast app. It really helps us reach more people!

In this episode, we cover:
- Scotty’s early career path from performing arts to education and leadership
- How a health event reshaped his view of identity, work, and risk
- Why traditional career ladders can quietly cap your growth and impact
- The moment he realised his contribution wasn’t being valued - and the push to leave
- Moving into edtech and product roles, and the mindset shift required
- What redundancy during COVID taught him about freedom, stability, and control
- Why contracting can become “too comfortable” and delay building your own thing
- How Scotty’s first consulting engagements evolved into the Product Bus
- The hard truth: many founders build with zero evidence anyone will pay
- Why false encouragement in the startup ecosystem can be genuinely dangerous
- Scotty’s approach to product thinking - learning fast, being wrong, and de-risking decisions
- The advice he gives founders about runway, risk appetite, and having a clear stop point

Chapters:
00:00 Intro and why scripted podcasts are annoying
00:40 Welcome to The Leap and meet Scotty Allen
01:50 Scotty’s Disney chapter and performing arts background
03:00 What the Product Bus does for early-stage founders
03:35 Vision vs delusion and the “build it and they will come” trap
05:10 Why “just ship it” is misunderstood startup advice
07:30 The myth of validation: “my mates love it”
08:50 Life before founding - teaching, tech, and school leadership
11:15 Hitting the ceiling in education leadership
12:35 The health event that reset everything
15:00 The moment Scotty realised he had to leave
19:00 Taking the leap into an edtech scale-up
21:40 The reality shift: freedom, ownership, and new work habits
23:55 Challenges of being the first non-technical leader
26:05 Why educators struggle with selling and power dynamics
27:00 Redundancy at the start of COVID and why it felt like freedom
29:05 The first business idea and why it was too comfortable
31:25 The problem founders kept repeating - and the start of Product Bus
32:40 When Product Bus started without a name
35:55 The “this might not work” moments and hard founder conversations
38:20 The dangers of false encouragement in the startup ecosystem
41:20 How Scotty has changed and why he’ll never be an employee again
43:40 Habits that keep him grounded
48:20 Advice for founders: risk appetite, runway, and a stop point
50:40 Where to find Scotty and his podcast
52:10 Closing and links in the show notes

Roman Galikov is a co-founder of Create Financial...they help founders and business owners take control of their money with smart, personalised financial advice. They specialise in wealth strategy, risk protection, and long-term planning - without the jargon. Think of them as the team that helps you build a financial engine strong enough to support your ambitions, not just your expenses.

Gavin Tye is a sales strategist and the creator of DealBuddi and co-founder of SixSides. With over 20 years of experience in high-value SaaS sales, Gavin has cracked the code on why businesses struggle to close deals and how they can transform their approach. Sales Market Fit aligns positioning, go-to-market strategies, and sales execution into a repeatable process that wins more clients with less friction. Learn how to stop relying on hope and start winning with a deliberate, proven sales strategy at salesmarketfit.co.

Links:
Founder Collective: https://founderscollective.com.au/founders-collective
FC's Newsletter: https://founderscollectivecommunity.substack.com/
Book a call with Gavin: call.sixsides.co
The Product Bus: https://theproductbus.com/

Connect with us:
Scotty Allen on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thescottyallen/
Gavin on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gavintye/