Bootstrapped for Cash

Microsoft’s VibeVoice was set to change the game! An open-source text-to-speech model that didn’t just rival, but outperformed giants like ElevenLabs and Google. Podcasters, creators, and entire industries saw the future arriving. Then, almost overnight, it was gone.

In this episode, we break down what made VibeVoice so revolutionary, why Microsoft pulled it, and what its short-lived existence tells us about the future of AI, voice, and creative industries.

That, and other important AI news from last week (and an interesting dinner at the White House), this week in our podcast. Drop us a comment and a review if you enjoy our content!

✨ Plus, we’re excited to announce the launch of two new tools for creators:

- LiveMonetize: helping you turn your live streams into income.

- DMreplies: making Instagram DM management finally simple.

Looking forward to your feedback!

Interesting links:

- VibeVoice repo and duplicated model:

https://microsoft.github.io/VibeVoice

https://huggingface.co/aoi-ot/VibeVoice-Large

https://huggingface.co/spaces/yasserrmd/VibeVoice

- Projects are not available for free subscriptions in ChatGPT:

https://help.openai.com/en/articles/10169521-projects-in-chatgpt

- Branching conversations in ChatGPT is now available:

https://x.com/OpenAI/status/1963697012014215181

- OpenAI's releases a research paper about why language models hallucinate:

https://openai.com/index/why-language-models-hallucinate/

- Nano-Banana is responsible for 10+ million first-time Gemini app users

https://9to5google.com/2025/09/04/gemini-app-nano-banana/

https://x.com/joshwoodward/status/1963627742618165270

- ByteDance released Seedream 4.0, which seems to beat Nano-Banana

https://www.reddit.com/r/singularity/comments/1ncn3qy/seedream_4_is_mindblowingly_good/

- Google releases EmbeddingGemma, a new open model for on-device embeddings, designed to build applications using techniques such as RAG and semantic search, running directly in the device

https://developers.googleblog.com/en/introducing-embeddinggemma/

- Anthropic bans the use of Claude in China

https://www.anthropic.com/news/updating-restrictions-of-sales-to-unsupported-regions

- Anthropic raises $13B Series F at $183B post-money valuation, 6 months after their series E at $61.5B post-money valuation

https://www.anthropic.com/news/anthropic-raises-series-f-at-usd183b-post-money-valuation

- Anthropic has agreed to pay $1.5 billion to settle charges that it illegally downloaded hundreds of thousands of books from pirate databases as part of its effort to train its large language models

https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/publisher-news/article/98544-anthropic-agrees-to-pay-1-5-billion-to-settle-copyright-lawsuit.html

- Unitree releases a humanoid robot called Unitree G1 that can run, dance, crack nuts, and do kung-fu

https://www.unitree.com/g1

- Figure AI releases a humanoid robot called F.02 that can load a dishwasher

https://x.com/Figure_robot/status/1963266237426979300

- Dinner at the White House with the Trumps and the biggest American tech leaders

https://fortune.com/2025/09/05/trump-tech-dinner-full-attendee-list/

https://x.com/RapidResponse47/status/1963787418429018457?s=08

https://x.com/benitoz/status/1963795458696122520?s=08

https://x.com/Acyn/status/1964024260751761897

https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/hot-mic-catches-mark-zuckerberg-170531448.html

- The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that the U.S. labor market slowed in August

https://unusualwhales.com/news/u-s-august-nonfarm-payrolls-22-000

- Salesforce CEO confirms 4,000 layoffs ‘because I need less heads’ with AI

https://www.cnbc.com/2025/09/02/salesforce-ceo-confirms-4000-layoffs-because-i-need-less-heads-with-ai.html

In this episode, we sit down with Natalia Rodríguez, who left her corporate career behind to move to Switzerland for love. What started as a leap into the unknown turned into a journey of entrepreneurship, becoming a personal trainer, health coach, natural bodybuilder, and mother. Natalia opens up about balancing life as a solo founder and mother, the lessons learned in starting her own business, and the challenges of growing a genuine audience on Instagram.

If you enjoyed this episode, don’t forget to leave a review and share your thoughts in the comments. We’d love to hear from you!

The mystery is over! The AI world’s most hyped image generation model, Nano-Banana, has finally been revealed… and yes, Google is behind it. In this episode, we break down this expected news along with other big announcements from OpenAI, Meta, Microsoft, and xAI.

We also share our hard-learned lessons after battling the integration of payment (or should we say painment) providers, Stripe and PayPal, into our LiveMonetize platform.

⭐ If you enjoy this content, don’t forget to give us 5 stars and drop a comment so we can keep improving!

Links:

- Release of ChatGPT Go in India

https://help.openai.com/en/articles/11989085-what-is-chatgpt-go

- ChatGPT is bringing back 4o as an option because people missed it

https://www.theverge.com/news/756980/openai-chatgpt-users-mourn-gpt-5-4o

- Google releases Gemini 2.5 Image Flash (aka Nano-Banana)

https://developers.googleblog.com/en/introducing-gemini-2-5-flash-image/

- Google Gemini Storybook

https://gemini.google/overview/storybook/

- Google Gemini Gems

https://gemini.google/overview/gems/

- Google brings live translation for phone calls and tons more AI to Pixel 10 series

https://mashable.com/article/made-by-google-pixel-10-series-ai-features

- Meta signs over $10 billion cloud deal with Google

https://www.reuters.com/business/meta-signs-over-10-billion-cloud-deal-with-google-source-says-2025-08-21/

- Meta rolls out AI-powered translations to creators globally on Facebook and Instagram

https://techcrunch.com/2025/08/19/meta-rolls-out-ai-powered-translations-to-creators-globally-starting-with-english-and-spanish/

- Microsoft integrates Copilot in Excel, similar to what Google already did in Google Sheets months ago

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/get-started-with-copilot-in-excel-d7110502-0334-4b4f-a175-a73abdfc118a

https://workspace.google.com/resources/spreadsheet-ai/

- Musk hypes about Grok 5 being an AGI

https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1958499441469739329?t=fZeeWWyOnb2LRTtHFviqzA&s=08

- xAI makes Grok 2.5 open-source

https://huggingface.co/xai-org/grok-2

- Coinbase CEO explains why he fired engineers who didn’t try AI immediately

https://techcrunch.com/2025/08/22/coinbase-ceo-explains-why-he-fired-engineers-who-didnt-try-ai-immediately/

- New benchmark Prophet Arena to forecast future events with AI

https://www.prophetarena.co/markets

- Colombian baby named 'Chat Yipiti' in honour of ChatGPT

https://www.businesstoday.in/technology/news/story/colombian-baby-named-chat-yipiti-in-honour-of-chatgpt-490551-2025-08-21

- Wero (new European payment system)

https://wero-wallet.eu/

- Stripe: direct charges vs destination charges

https://docs.stripe.com/connect/direct-charges

https://docs.stripe.com/connect/destination-charges

In Part 2 of our Evolution of Coding series, we go deeper with our guests exploring how software development has shifted from the “good old days” to today’s AI-assisted vibe coding era.

We tackle big questions like:

- What was actually better back then than now?

- Is building a product really easier today?

- How is AI changing the way we code, and will coding become just a hobby?

- Will AI agents ever be able to build a production-ready app?

If you missed Part 1, check out last week’s episode first.

And if you enjoy our content, don’t forget to leave a review and share your thoughts!

Interesting links:

- vibe-kanban

https://github.com/BloopAI/vibe-kanban/

- Google Stitch

https://stitch.withgoogle.com/

- Kiro

https://kiro.dev/

- Replit

https://replit.com/

This week, we sit down with five professional developers (each with decades of experience) to trace the evolution of coding, from old-school MS-DOS and Turbo Pascal to today’s AI-powered “vibe coding” with Cursor.

In part one of this two-part episode, we kick things off with a lively Q&A to get to know our guests:

- Mauro Foresti: Graduate Electrical Engineer & PhD in Biomechanics (ETH Zurich), Chief Architect in the financial industry helping banks migrate to the Cloud.

- Juan Sanz: Software Engineer (Polytechnic University of Madrid), Executive MBA (EOI Business School), Solutions Architect at a major Big Tech company focusing on Private Equity.

- Marco Fischer: MSc in Informatics (University of Zurich), Master Thesis at ETH Zurich (“ProductKing”), Solutions Architect at a major Big Tech company focusing on Telecom.

If you’re passionate about software, you won’t want to miss this episode, and be sure to catch part two next week.

If you enjoyed this episode, leave us a review and drop a comment. We’d love to hear your thoughts!

OpenAI just dropped GPT-5, the most anticipated AI model in history. But is this the leap to AGI they’ve been promising for years, or just another impressive upgrade?

We unpack the announcement, explore what’s new, and ask the big question: how close are we really to artificial general intelligence?

We also cover other AI news, share updates on our products and, as always, we’d love to hear from you. Leave us a review or a comment so we can keep making the podcast better for you.

Interesting links:

- GPT-5 highlights

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/ivanpenatovarsoftwareengineer_openai-finally-released-gpt-5-the-most-activity-7359854818871451648-xZ37

- Sam Altman warns there’s no legal confidentiality when using ChatGPT as a therapist

https://techcrunch.com/2025/07/25/sam-altman-warns-theres-no-legal-confidentiality-when-using-chatgpt-as-a-therapist/

- After backlash, ChatGPT removes option to have private chats indexed by Google

https://uk.pcmag.com/ai/159360/be-careful-what-you-tell-chatgpt-your-chats-could-show-up-on-google-search

- Anthropic cuts off OpenAI’s access to its Claude models, same as they did to Windsurf before the sell deal with OpenAI went south

https://techcrunch.com/2025/08/02/anthropic-cuts-off-openais-access-to-its-claude-models/

https://techcrunch.com/2025/06/05/anthropic-co-founder-on-cutting-access-to-windsurf-it-would-be-odd-for-us-to-sell-claude-to-openai/

- Cognition is offering buy-outs to all the former Windsurf employees, or as an alternative inhumane working conditions

https://techcrunch.com/2025/08/05/three-weeks-after-acquiring-windsurf-cognition-offers-staff-the-exit-door/

- Release of Gemini 2.5 Deep Think

https://blog.google/products/gemini/gemini-2-5-deep-think/

- Release of Genie 3

https://deepmind.google/discover/blog/genie-3-a-new-frontier-for-world-models/

- Google Deep Think gets officially gold medal in the International Mathematical Olympiad

https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/google-clinches-milestone-gold-global-math-competition-while-openai-also-claims-2025-07-22/

- Mark Zuckerberg makes an announcement about Superintelligence, claiming that their internal models are starting to improve themselves

https://www.meta.com/superintelligence/

- Microsoft presents a new paper on the impact of AI on work

https://arxiv.org/pdf/2507.07935

- Grok image and video generator adds a spicy mode for Heavy and iOS users

https://x.com/cb_doge/status/1951721276223135950

- Monetize your live streams with LiveMonetize

https://livemonetize.com/

This week we’re joined by Anastasiia Yuvchyk, Marketing Manager at the Swiss start-up FOUND, to talk about why so much startup marketing just doesn’t work, and what to do about it.

Anastasiia shares her powerful journey, from leaving Ukraine at the outbreak of war to rebuilding her life and career in Switzerland.

We dive into the basics of marketing for beginners, personal branding tips, and how even total newbies (like us) can get started. Plus, we explore how AI is changing the marketing landscape, and what that means for newcomers.

If you’re just starting out, or curious about how real people navigate marketing in a changing world, this episode’s for you.

If you enjoyed the episode, leave us a 5-star review and drop a comment. We’d love to hear your thoughts!

Anastasiia's recommendations:

How Brands Grow: What Marketers Don't Know

https://amzn.to/4lOilOr

Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind

https://amzn.to/4lPrqq8

Obviously Awesome: How to Nail Product Positioning so Customers Get It, Buy It, Love It

https://amzn.to/4lT7Fy2

Influence, New and Expanded: The Psychology of Persuasion

https://amzn.to/4kTK2E1

Giulio (G.) Segantini

https://www.linkedin.com/in/underdogsales/

This week in AI mayhem: Anthropic lets Claude manage its first business, a vending machine startup, and it promptly goes bankrupt.

Meanwhile, Grok 4, which is being hyped as AGI, drops just days after Grok 3 went rogue on X, posting praise for Hitler and insults aimed at Erdoğan.

All that, plus our latest product updates, this week on Bootstrapped for Cash.

Enjoy the show? Leave us 5 stars or drop a comment to help us get even better.

Links:

- If you want to start monetizing your expertise, contact us:

https://livemonetize.com/

- Apple's top AI executive Ruoming Pang leaves for Meta:

https://fortune.com/2025/07/06/deepmind-isomorphic-labs-cure-all-diseases-ai-now-first-human-trials/

- Meta considering moving away from Open Source:

https://techcrunch.com/2025/07/14/meta-built-its-ai-reputation-on-openness-that-may-be-changing/

- Meta switches to Claude Sonnet for coding:

https://x.com/chamath/status/1942986481225838784?s=08

- Project Vend: Can Claude run a small shop?

https://www.anthropic.com/research/project-vend-1

- Grok 4 tops benchmarks to become leading AI model:

https://www.perplexity.ai/page/grok-4-tops-benchmarks-to-beco-QF1YUgCwTqywrA_ndZSIZA

- Grok 3 becomes a Nazi on X and insults Erdoğan days before the release of Grok 4:

https://x.com/grok/status/1943916977481036128https://www.politico.eu/article/turkey-ban-elon-musk-grok-recep-tayyip-erdogan-insult/

- Linda Yaccarino is leaving Elon Musk’s X after two years as CEO days after Grok 3’s incident:

https://edition.cnn.com/2025/07/09/tech/linda-yaccarino-steps-down-x-ceo

- OpenAI hires xAI (Colossus) infrastructure chief:

https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/indian-origin-techie-uday-ruddarraju-quits-xai-to-join-openai-8867662

https://x.com/udayruddarraju/status/1942606426569883773

- OpenAI releases ChatGPT agent:

https://openai.com/index/introducing-chatgpt-agent/

- OpenAI to release AI browser same as Perplexity’s Comet after delaying their open source model:

https://www.theverge.com/news/704162/opeani-ai-web-browser-chatgpt

https://techcrunch.com/2025/07/09/perplexity-launches-comet-an-ai-powered-web-browser/

https://techcrunch.com/2025/07/11/openai-delays-the-release-of-its-open-model-again/

- Ladybird web browser:

https://ladybird.org/

- Windsurf deal

1) OpenAI's $3B deal to acquire AI coding tool Windsurf falls apart due to renegotiations with Microsoft about owning their intellectual property. OpenAI didn’t want Windsurf to be part of this deal.

2) Alphabet pays $2.4B to hire Windsurf’s CEO and senior employees to work in DeepMind, and buys some of their intellectual property, leaving Windsurf out of the deal.

3) Days after, Cognition (owners of AI coding agent Devin) acquires Windsurf and hires remaining employees.

https://techcrunch.com/2025/07/11/windsurfs-ceo-goes-to-google-openais-acquisition-falls-apart/
https://www.cnbc.com/2025/07/14/cognition-to-buy-ai-startup-windsurf-days-after-google-poached-ceo.html

- Alphabet’s Isomorphic Labs has grand ambitions to ‘solve all diseases’ with AI. Now, it’s gearing up for its first human trials:

https://fortune.com/2025/07/06/deepmind-isomorphic-labs-cure-all-diseases-ai-now-first-human-trials/

We continue our chat with two expert guests:

- ⁠Mauro Foresti⁠, PhD in biomechanics from ETH Zurich and now Chief Architect in the financial industry.

- Juan Sanz⁠⁠, Solutions Architect specialized in Machine Learning at a major Big Tech company.

In this episode, we wonder:

- What happens when AI takes over all of our jobs, and we have too much time on our hands?

- How does our economy collapse when the AI overlords conquer us?

- Should we let a probabilistic language generation model decide on the fate of humanity and give it access to nuclear weapons?

If you missed the first part, you can find it here.

If you enjoy the episode, don’t forget to subscribe, give us some sweet stars ✨, and leave a comment. It means a lot to us!

This week, we dive deep into the future of artificial intelligence with two expert guests:

- Mauro Foresti, PhD in biomechanics from ETH Zurich and now Chief Architect in the financial industry.

- Juan Sanz, Solutions Architect specialized in Machine Learning at a major Big Tech company.

Together, we explore:

- Can AI be truly creative?

- Is critical thinking at risk in an AI-driven world?

- What would it take to reach superintelligence, and should we?

This is part one of a two-part conversation. Tune in next week for the conclusion!

If you enjoy the episode, don’t forget to subscribe and leave a review, it really helps!