Why is everyone trying to buy Perplexity?
Published on June 27, 2025 · Duration 00:53:17
Welcome back, Bootstrapped for Cash listeners! This week, Ivan and Giorgio dive headfirst into the chaotic, hilarious, and sometimes downright bizarre world of AI news. From tech giants battling over a search engine to the existential dread of filler words, this episode has it all. So, grab your headphones, because you won’t want to miss what went down!
The Wild West of AI Acquisitions: Everyone Wants a Piece of Perplexity!
The biggest headline buzzing across the tech universe is the undeniable urge every major player seems to have to acquire Perplexity. First, Meta tried (and reportedly failed). Now, Apple is reportedly eyeing a deal, holding internal discussions about buying the AI-powered search engine. It seems the tech titans are in a frantic race, desperate to inject some much-needed AI prowess into their ecosystems. Apple, in particular, is looking to boost its rather underwhelming AI search capabilities in Safari. Could Perplexity be the answer to Siri’s sad, sad existence? Only time (and billions of dollars) will tell!
But wait, there’s more! Meta, not content with one rejection, is on a new mission: to lure every AI expert on the planet with salaries that would make your jaw drop. They tried to acquire Safe Superintelligence Inc., led by OpenAI co-founder Ilya Sutskever, and even attempted to poach its CEO, Daniel Gross, along with former GitHub CEO Nat Friedman. Mark Zuckerberg is clearly playing a high-stakes game of “collect ‘em all” with AI brains, all to make Llama the undisputed champion. Will his aggressive tactics pay off, or will he just end up with a very expensive, very smart, but ultimately uncoordinated team?
OpenAI’s Drama Club: Lawsuits and Lofty Ambitions
OpenAI, never one to shy away from the spotlight, is having a week. Or a month. Or a year. Tensions are reportedly “reaching a boiling point” with Microsoft, their long-time partner and investor. OpenAI is allegedly frustrated with Microsoft’s grip on its products and computing resources, and is even contemplating antitrust complaints! It’s a classic case of “we helped you get here, now you want all the pie?”
And just when you thought things couldn’t get more dramatic, OpenAI, Sam Altman, and Jony Ive (yes, that Jony Ive, the ex-Apple design guru) are being sued by a startup called Iyo for trademark infringement. The lawsuit claims that OpenAI’s new hardware venture, “IO,” is a homophone of Iyo and is developing eerily similar “screenless audio computer” products. Apparently, Altman even called the lawsuit “silly” and shared some emails publicly, but a judge has already ordered OpenAI to stop using the “IO” branding until a hearing in October. Talk about a sticky situation for a company trying to enter the hardware game!
Google’s Generative Goodies & Reddit’s Iris-Scanning Dreams
Not all AI news is about high-stakes drama! Google is quietly (or not so quietly) dropping some cool new tools. They’ve fully released Gemma 3n, their on-device multimodal model that can handle image, audio, video, and text inputs with a small memory footprint. The podcast hosts are particularly excited about its potential for voice transcription, which could mean less reliance on other tools. Google also unveiled Gemini CLI, an open-source AI tool for terminals. Ivan humorously points out Google’s tendency to have overlapping products, but hey, more open-source is always a win for the market!
In a slightly more unsettling development, Reddit is considering using World ID, the iris-scanning verification system co-founded by Sam Altman, to verify users. While it aims to confirm unique individuals while maintaining anonymity, the privacy implications of scanning eyeballs for online access are, as Giorgio puts it, “pretty scary pretty soon.” Especially in Europe, where data privacy regulations are taken very seriously.
From Solo Success to Startup Struggles: The Bootstrapped Life
It’s not all about the big tech players. The hosts discuss the incredible story of Base44, a “vibe coding” tool created by a solo founder in just six months and sold to Wix for a cool $80 million cash. While there might be some “clickbait” inconsistencies (it was apparently eight people, not one!), it sparks a fascinating discussion about knowing when to sell your “baby” and enjoy the fruits of your labor.
On the home front, Ivan and Giorgio share their own entrepreneurial journey. They’re battling the Meta API (which sounds like a special kind of hell) while trying to get their business verified, a process that Meta claims takes two days but has dragged on for weeks. “It’s abysmal,” Ivan quips. They also share insights from their X (Twitter) consistency challenge, finding that smaller communities might yield better engagement than larger ones.
For content creation, they’re experimenting with video editing tools like CapCut and DaVinci Resolve. Ivan’s CapCut experience has been buggy, making him want to learn DaVinci from Giorgio, the professional editor of the duo. They also tried ElevenLabs for AI-powered dubbing and voice translation. While the concept is cool, Ivan’s attempt to convince a Spanish-speaking guest to join the podcast with an AI-dubbed message was hampered by a lack of lip-syncing and a surprisingly unhelpful AI customer service bot.
Finally, the podcast is celebrating almost a year of consistency, seeing growth in followers and plays, particularly among male listeners in Ivan’s generation (sorry, Giorgio!). They’re planning a retrospective episode to reflect on their journey and lessons learned.
This episode is packed with industry insights, personal anecdotes, and plenty of laughs. Tune in to “Bootstrapped for Cash” to get the full scoop on why Perplexity is the belle of the ball, OpenAI’s legal woes, and the enduring struggles (and triumphs!) of bootstrapping a business in the fast-paced world of AI! Don’t forget to leave them a comment to help shape the podcast’s future!
