Want to build personal side projects without burning a hole in your pocket? Or maybe you're just tired of waiting for API tokens to replenish?

No scratch? No problem!

Join us Thursday, August 20th at HeatSync Labs at 7:00 PM for a hands-on, zero-dollar workshop where we’ll explore what you can actually build with completely free dev tools, local models, and free-tier infrastructure.

Plus, I scored a bunch of official towels from Google Next 2026 so you'll literally walk away with free swag just for hanging out and building stuff.

Special Guest & Live Demos with Drew Ewing:

• Start Free, Scale Later: Drew will share how he built and launched his foveated document intelligence app using Google's free tier before scaling it up while showing how to design projects to run for $0 initially and upgrade as you grow.

• Local AI Showdown: Demos covering local model options including Ollama, oMLX, and LM Studio . . . plus how to use free local AI to augment paid models when quality is the top priority.

• Cloudflare Free Tier: Quick look at using Cloudflare's free ecosystem as a zero-cost backend for side projects.

• Open Workshop: Drew will kick things off with a ~30 minute breakdown, and then we’ll spend the rest of the time actively hacking, sharing ideas, and testing out free-tier workflows together.

What to bring:

• Your laptop and an open mind!

• Any side project ideas or free tools you've been experimenting with.

See you Thursday, August 20th at HeatSync at 7pm! Bring your laptop, grab a free towel, and let's see what we can build without dropping a dime.

(P.S. Still looking for a pizza sponsor... until then, BYO snacks!)