The Weird Growth Podcast is about the journey of growth which is often strange and unpredictable for founders. Startups don't grow in a linear fashion but in a weird way. In this podcast, we hear founders share their stories about taking the first steps towards finding early customers, finding the right marketing channels to grow, through to rapid expansion and success.
Dr. Genevieve Honan discusses building The Volte, a fashion rental marketplace, with host Cam, exploring sustainability, customer behavior, and the commercial viability of circular fashion in this interview.
17 Dec 2025TRANSCRIPT
#63 - No validation without invalidation with The Product Bus
On this episode Cam & Scotty dive deep into product-led thinking, early-stage validation, founder-led sales, and the uncomfortable truths every startup needs to face before scaling.
Scotty Allen, founder of The Product Bus, fresh from Perth where he ran workshops, coached founders, and delivered the brutally honest Startup Killers event with the team at Everest Engineering.
Ammo sat in on their sessions, played The Product Bus card game, and experienced firsthand why Scotty’s philosophy resonates so deeply with founders: fall in love with the problem, not the solution. The conversation didn’t stop when Scotty left WA, we had to keep it going.
Problem:
You’ve built something real, maybe a prototype with early traction but before you invest in development, you need proof that it isn’t just desirable but commercially viable.
Solution:
The Product Bus runs programs, pit-stops and pre-mvp projects to help startups build stronger evidence for their idea. With product-led thinking and design they help teams build something customers actually want.
One big piece of advice:
Take a hard look at how you spend your time.
If talking to potential customers isn’t at least 75% of youreffort—more than building or networking—you’re not focusing on the rightthings.
Bullets:
(00:00) - Welcome & intro
(01:17) - Scotty’s background and journey into startups
(03:11) - How The Product Bus started
(05:36) - Don’t fall in love with your product—fall in love with the problem
(06:58) - What real product-led thinking looks like in practice
(10:43) - Finding the “hair-on-fire” problem
(12:57) - Why having an idea isn’t enough
(17:18) - Asking the tough questions
(18:57) - The pros and cons of a welcoming startup ecosystem
(21:21) - Validation with early customers
(27:33) - The startup crimes Scotty sees most often
(30:58) - Validation with invalidation
(34:10) - Understanding your customer’s buying process
(37:38) - Signals of validation and scale
(42:54) - Owning sales as a founder
(46:17) - Founder-led sales and life-changing outcomes
(49:08) - One big piece of advice – spend time with customers
(50:26) - How Scotty’s education background keeps him grounded
(51:47) - Show & Tell – Gamma
(55:01) - What Scotty would call this episode
(55:46) - Where to find The Product Bus & The BootstrapPodcast
(57:55) - Wrap up
Show & tell:
The Product Bus – https://theproductbus.com (https://theproductbus.com/)
The Bootstrap Podcast – https://thebootstrap.tech/ (https://thebootstrap.tech/)
Gamma – https://gamma.app (https://gamma.app/)
Y Combinator – https://www.ycombinator.com (https://www.ycombinator.com/)
Claude (Anthropic) – https://www.anthropic.com/claude (https://www.anthropic.com/claude)
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16 Oct 2025TRANSCRIPT
#62 - Fight Financial Crime with Personr
In this episode, we sit down with Charlie Westerman, founder of Personr, to unpack how his own experience with identity theft inspired a mission to fight financial crime.
From building anti–money laundering (AML) compliance technology to helping businesses meet new Tranche 2 obligations, Personr is on the front lines of protecting trust in the digital economy.
We explored the hard realities of selling compliance tech, the challenges of scaling in a regulated space, and the human side of building software that truly makes a difference.
Problem:
Financial crime is one of the biggest threats to modern business, with identity theft and money laundering costing billions each year. As regulations tighten and Tranche 2 compliance takes effect, many organisations are struggling to stay ahead and protect their customers.
Solution:
Personr provides advanced AML and identity verification tools powered by Optical Character Recognition (OCR) so that businesses can streamline compliance, detect fraud early, and keep financial systems safe. With intuitive workflows and automation, Personr turns what used to be a manual burden into a seamless, scalable process for fighting financial crime.
One big piece of advice:
Get comfortable with discomfort. Founding a startup takes persistence and belief. Embrace your narrative it is the ultimate chess play and will help you win customers, team members and investors.
Show & tell:
- Personr - https://www.personr.co/ (https://www.personr.co/)
- Comet Browser - https://www.perplexity.ai/comet (https://www.perplexity.ai/comet)
- Fund WA - https://www.fundwa.com.au/ (https://www.fundwa.com.au/)
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Inside a recent episode
#64 - Share, Wear, Repeat with The Volte
Published 18 Feb 2026 · Transcript excerpt
[…] All of those dress market places. Because when you narrowed by size, location and date, there was no clothes. So do they own, just rent the runways, owns the stock? Whereas you guys provide a platform for others to share their stock. Yes, so we are looking at, I guess, finding latent supply of stuff that's sitting in cupboards. We're trying to find the stuff that's in cupboards not being worn. And really increase usage from a sustainability perspective. That was really important. We wanted to increase the usage of garments. And so when you say you've never spent a dollar on acquiring supply, how do you reach those people who own the products? […]
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