brought to you with
✦
Lovable’s secret sauce turns out to be not moving to California—a strategy that’s starting to look downright visionary as OpenAI’s board tries to Houdini its way out of the latest Epstein-adjacent governance faceplant. While Europe dreams of minting its first €1T tech giant and U.S. experts fret that China now claims 78% of open-source model launches, the rest of the tech world is busy reinventing daily life: TikTok wants to zen-garden your screen time and Target is about to algorithmically upsell your groceries.
Keep reading for more!
-🕶️
🎙 Catch the stand-up comment of today’s issue here 🎙
✦
Six bullets of updates
🤖 US experts warn that relying on foreign-made open AI models could risk national innovation and security as China claims 78% of open model launches.
🚀 Europe weighs big policy bets to unlock its first €1T tech giant as 65% of founders push for faster scaling.
🤖 Users can now dial up or down AI-generated content in their feed, giving more control over what they watch.
🛒 Target shoppers will soon tap an AI-driven app to personalize deals and product searches, rolling out in beta next week.
🧘♀️ TikTok launches tools like digital journals, background sounds, and rewards for keeping your screen time in check.
🎥 OpenCV founders enter the AI video race, bringing real-time GenAI tools for creators to challenge industry giants.
✦
Lovable’s secret sauce: not moving to California
Photo by Ragnar Vorel on Unsplash
Lovable’s CEO says the company’s big secret was simply not following Bay Area dogma. Instead of relocating to Silicon Valley, they stayed in Europe—and the bet paid off. The company doubled to $200 million in ARR in just four months, a mildly heretical move in tech circles but an undeniably effective one.
The backdrop: Lovable raised a massive $200 million Series A in July at a $1.8 billion valuation, pulled senior San Francisco talent to Stockholm, and built momentum on top of a fast-moving open-source community. The result is a team that ships quickly without absorbing the usual Silicon Valley cost structure or churn.
The broader takeaway is that location arbitrage is back. Dense senior talent, lower turnover, and disciplined spending are giving European AI teams real leverage—even as U.S. enterprise demand continues to exert a gravitational pull. More AI startups may try to scale from Europe, but they’ll need to navigate AI Act compliance and slower enterprise sales cycles. In a market where rivals are raising giant rounds, the defensible moat becomes simple: ship faster than everyone else.
✦
The Weird Indian Startup that Scammed Silicon Valley
Builder.ai raised $450M claiming to be AI-powered — turns out, it was mostly humans behind the curtain. Meanwhile, Duolingo got flamed for using too much AI. This video breaks down the absurd contradiction, the rise of “AI-washing,” and how fake it–till–you–make–it is still alive in startup land. Watch to see how investors keep falling for it. 👀
✦
Hire world-class engineers. Fast. From the US, Canada, LATAM, or Europe — we’ve got you covered.
Hiring great engineers shouldn’t feel like finding a needle in an AI-generated haystack. G2i connects you with pre-vetted contract and full-time developers—no scammers, no endless resume piles, just top talent with 5+ years of experience across every major tech stack.
We’ve already helped teams at Meta, Microsoft, and fast-growing startups like Shopmonkey and 1Password hire faster, smarter, and with full transparency through recorded technical interviews.
Whether you need one engineer or a whole team, we’ve got over 8,000 ready to go.
✦
AI Pitch Deck Reviewer
Slidebean has been helping startups craft pitch decks for over 10 years. We recently built an AI Pitch Deck Review tool, that processes the text and visuals on your presentation, and provides actionable feedback on the story, potential missing items, and recommendations on how to improve each slide.
✦
OpenAI board turmoil following Epstein Association revelations
Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash
Larry Summers stepped down from the board after Congress released emails tying him to Jeffrey Epstein, and now Harvard is launching an investigation. It’s the kind of governance mess no company wants in the middle of an AI boom.
What happens next? Big enterprise buyers will take their time before signing deals. Regulators now have an easy example to point to. Investors will push harder for cleaner board practices—better vetting, clearer rules, quicker conflict checks. The company will face pressure to shore up oversight on both the nonprofit and for-profit sides, find a safer replacement director fast, and start treating reputational risk as seriously as any product issue.