If you’ve been around the startup space for more than a hot second, you certainly have heard the terms low code and no code. Today we have someone that is going to help us understand what they mean, how they might be best used in the startup space, and where maybe they’re best left untouched.

Dave McManus is the founder and director of Lightning Ventures. He is a well-known Bubble enthusiast and works with a number of programs, as well as his own work, in helping people in the low and no-code space.

About Dave McManus:

Linkedin: https://au.linkedin.com/in/davemcmanus-lightning-products

Website: https://www.lightningventures.com.au/

If you are building a digital product and you want other people to use it, then there is probably a cybersecurity element that has to be considered at some point. When is too soon to be focusing on that? When is it too late? And how is AI impacting that? To help attempt to answer these questions Scotty is joined by Billy Hosking, founder of Kavira IT.

About Billy Hosking:

Linkedin: https://au.linkedin.com/in/billy-hosking

Website: https://kavira.com.au

In this week of Founder Friday Scotty is joined by Chris Rickard, founder and CEO of Userdoc. Exploring how his background and experience, particularly in agencies, led to the creation of Userdoc and what advice he can give to founders with a similar background.

Founder Friday is about works still in progress. Learning from success stories is important, but learning from founders still in the thick of getting to market is just as useful – and sometimes much more realistic.

About Chris Rickard:

Linkedin: https://au.linkedin.com/in/chrickard

Website: userdoc.fyi

This week on Founder Friday we are replaying a conversation with start up mentor and coach Matt Ainsworth, originally published in October of 2023, Matt and Scotty discuss effective strategies for idea validation and how this can help inform a start up’s product market fit; a valuable conversation to re-explore for first time and early stage founders about to embark on validating their idea.

Founder Friday is about works still in progress. Learning from success stories is important, but learning from founders still in the thick of getting to market is just as useful – and sometimes much more realistic.

Find out more about Matt and Startup Founder Mindset at https://sfmindset.com

Are we sick of talking about AI yet? We’re going to have to continue to talk about it for some time to come, it’s becoming ubiquitous in our everyday life. On other levels, particularly when it comes to business and business strategy, we’ve really only cracked the surface of what it means and how we’re going to have to deal with it.

Gavin Reddrop joins us to work through what AI really means for growth. Gavin works with business leaders across Australia who want clarity and real AI implementation strategy.

About Gavin Reddrop:

Linkedin: https://linkedin.com/in/gavinreddrop

Website: https://gavinreddrop.com

Founder Friday is about works still in progress. Learning from success stories is important, but learning from founders still in the thick of getting to market is just as useful – and sometimes much more realistic.

In this Founder Friday Scotty is joined by Dr Paul Browning, managing director of Vivedus. As former school principal for over 25 years, his passions are leadership, organisational culture and creativity. He is also the author of “Compelling Leadership: The importance of trust and how to get it” and  “Principled: 10 leadership practices for building trust.”

Vivedus is a learning Activation Model for education. In collaboration with the University of Melbourne, Vivedus provides schools with an AI-powered, SaaS-based framework integrating pedagogy, assessment tools, and teaching strategies. It aims to empower educators to teach and assess creative intelligence while giving school leaders real-time insights into teaching quality.

About Paul Browning:

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pauldbrowning/

Website: https://www.vivedus.com/

As AI transforms the kind of tech we’re using and job we’re doing, are any of the “old” product and sales playbooks still relevant when it comes to B2B Software as a Service? And if not, what should we be doing instead?

In this episode we’re joined by Craig Brown, CEO and Co-Founder of Everest Engineering to talk about the changes to our standard ways of working we’re seeing as a result of AI, what may change in the future, and which core principles of validation and testing are still relevant – for now, at least.

Linkedin: https://au.linkedin.com/in/craigwbrown

Website: https://www.everest.engineering/

In our latest Founder Friday episode we’re chatting to Sean Duffy, CEO and Founder of Stackle – an EdTech tool that is gaining momentum in the High Ed Space. Sean shares the journey and learnings to date with some strong insights on developing a sales process, market positioning, and managing long sales cycles.

Learn more about Stackle at https://stacklehq.com/ and Sean Duffy at https://www.linkedin.com/in/seanjduffy/

It’s a Scotty solo episode! Occasionally we’ll be including an episode that is a (hot or not) take from our host Scotty Allen, and in this first edition he’s going to reveal the Top Three Startup Pitches that need to go away for good!

These three pitches are frequent fliers, and the reason they need to go away is because they simply don’t work from a commercial model perspective. Scotty talks through each idea, how it’s often presented, why it usually won’t work (there are always exceptions!) and what you might try instead.

We’d love your feedback on this episode – email Scotty direct at scott@theproductbus.com with your thoughts!

In this Founder Friday we are joined by Pip Stocks, founder of The Startup Muse.

With two decades building, advising, and investing in customer-led businesses, Pip has founded twp ventures in Brandhook and Hearsay. Now building a new platform called The Startup Muse – using AI to bridge the gap between female founder ideas and real life businesses.

Founder Friday is about works still in progress. Learning from success stories is important, but learning from founders still in the thick of getting to market is just as useful – and sometimes much more realistic.

About Pip Stocks:

Linkedin: https://au.linkedin.com/in/pipstocks

Website: https://thestartupmuse.com/