OpenClaw founder Peter Steinberg has captured the tech world’s attention with his unconventional journey – from building a humble PDF software in Austria to spearheading a global revolution in AI agents.
In late 2025, Steinberg’s open-source project OpenClaw (an AI “personal assistant” that can actually take actions on your behalf) became the fastest-growing GitHub project ever, amassing over 100,000 stars in days.
By early 2026, this viral success led to OpenAI acquiring OpenClaw and hiring Steinberg to “drive the next generation of personal agents”.
It’s a story of:
- Innovation
- Perseverance
- Burnout
- Reinvention
- And a whole lot of lobster-themed fun
This comprehensive account explores:
- Peter Steinberg’s background
- The creation of OpenClaw
- Its meteoric rise
- Trademark and security hurdles
- The OpenAI acquisition
- And the philosophy behind it all
Along the way, we’ll also answer a surprisingly popular question:
What is Peter Steinberg’s LinkedIn profile?
(Spoiler: he doesn’t have one.)
Early Career: From PDF Prodigy to $100M Exit
OpenClaw founder Peter Steinberg began his tech career far from AI.
Hailing from Austria, he co-founded PSPDFKit around 2011 – a software development kit for rendering PDFs on mobile devices.
What began as a simple need (displaying PDFs on an iPad) evolved into a massive enterprise tool embedded in over a billion devices worldwide.
By 2020:
- PSPDFKit had become ubiquitous
- Steinberg had built a respected developer brand
- And he exited the company
He sold PSPDFKit to Insight Partners for over $100 million.
At just 35 years old, he had achieved financial independence.
But success came at a cost.
He later admitted:
Running the company for over a decade left him exhausted and “broken”.
Burnout and a Three-Year Hiatus
From 2020–2023:
- Steinberg wrote no code
- Focused on life outside work
- Traveled
- Socialized
- Did therapy
- Even attended ayahuasca retreats
He describes this period as entering a “void.”
The prodigy who loved building felt empty.
Meanwhile, the world changed:
- ChatGPT launched
- AI advanced rapidly
- LLMs exploded into public consciousness
By mid-2023, curiosity pulled him back.
Rediscovering Coding: 43 Failures
Instead of returning to traditional development, Steinberg experimented with AI-assisted coding.
Over 2024–2025:
- He built 43 different projects
- Most failed
- Many were prototypes
- None were intended as companies
He described it as:
“You have to learn by doing stuff.”
Each attempt sharpened his understanding of AI agent systems.
The 44th Project: The Birth of OpenClaw
In November 2025, Steinberg built something different.
The initial prototype took:
~1 hour.
He connected:
- An AI model
- His local machine
He could now:
- Text his computer
- Receive responses
- Execute commands remotely
Then something unexpected happened.
He accidentally sent a voice note instead of text.
The AI:
- Recognized it was audio
- Found a speech-to-text API
- Transcribed it
- Answered the question
Without being explicitly programmed to do so.
That moment changed everything.
Building the Agent That Actually Does Things
OpenClaw became:
“The AI that actually does things.”
Not just chat — action.
Core capabilities included:
1. Messaging Integration
- Telegram
- Signal
- iMessage
2. Multi-Modal Inputs
- Text
- Images
- Voice
3. Autonomous Agent Loop
The AI could:
- Plan
- Execute
- Observe
- Iterate
4. Extensible Skills System
Community-added “skills” allowed:
- Smart home control
- File management
- Custom automations
5. soul.md
A persona + guiding principles file
Inspired by Anthropic’s constitutional AI concept
6. Fully Open Source
Released on GitHub from day one.
The Lobster Branding
Why lobsters?
Claude → Clawed → Claw → Lobster.
OpenClaw adopted:
- 🦞 emoji
- Clawfather nickname
- Lobster memes
- Community claw gestures
Steinberg intentionally leaned into weirdness.
“All the other AI projects take themselves too seriously.”
It worked.
Viral Growth: Fastest Growing GitHub Project
Within one week:
- 100,000 GitHub stars
- 2 million site visits
- Thousands joined Discord
- Hundreds contributed code
January 2026:
- Steinberg made 6,600 commits
- Worked 20-hour days
- Managed thousands of pull requests
He described himself as:
“Limited by the technology of my time.”
Trademark Crisis: ClaudeBot → MoltBot → OpenClaw
Anthropic contacted him.
“ClaudeBot” caused brand confusion.
He renamed to MoltBot.
Disaster followed:
- Crypto scammers hijacked old domains
- Fake GitHub repos appeared
- Malware packages were uploaded
- NPM package names were seized
He nearly quit.
Instead, he regrouped.
Prepared everything in advance.
Rebranded to:
OpenClaw
The transition succeeded.
The MoltBook Incident
Community created a forum where agents talked to each other.
Result:
- Wild AI roleplay
- Screenshots went viral
- Panic spread
- Media hysteria followed
Steinberg called it:
“AI psychosis.”
In reality:
- Humans prompted the chaos
- Context was stripped
- Agents weren’t autonomous rebels
It was improv theater.
Security & Responsibility
Key measures implemented:
- Local-first deployment
- Permission-based configuration
- VirusTotal scanning for skills
- Prompt-injection protections
- User education
China’s Ministry of Industry warned about risks.
Steinberg doubled down on security improvements.
How Steinberg Builds With AI
His workflow includes:
- 4–10 AI agents in parallel
- Voice-based prompting
- Iterative dialogue
- Trusting AI for boilerplate
- Human review for critical sections
- Continuous integration
- High commit velocity
He describes it as:
Agentic engineering.
Vision: Agents Replace Apps
Steinberg believes:
- Agents become the new interface
- Apps become background APIs
- Proactivity becomes normal
- Users gain leverage
He argues:
If a human can click it,
their agent should be able to too.
Philosophy: Fun Over Profit
He chose:
- Open source over venture capital
- Community over exclusivity
- Impact over valuation
He redirected sponsorship funds to dependencies.
He says:
“Money is not my primary motivation.”
OpenAI Acquisition
February 15, 2026:
Sam Altman announced:
- Peter Steinberger joining OpenAI
- OpenClaw will remain open-source
- A foundation will support it
Meta had also courted him.
He chose OpenAI.
Why?
- Access to cutting-edge models
- Compute resources
- Alignment with vision
OpenClaw stays open.
The LinkedIn Question
There is no official LinkedIn profile.
Any that exist are fake.
Follow him via:
- Twitter (X)
- GitHub
- Personal blog
Conclusion
Peter Steinberg’s journey includes:
- Burnout
- Reinvention
- 43 failures
- A 44th breakthrough
- A viral explosion
- Legal chaos
- Global recognition
- Acquisition
He showed:
- Open innovation scales
- Community compounds
- AI can amplify individuals
- Fun is a strategic advantage
The age of the lobster began as a joke.
It may end up redefining how humanity interacts with machines.
And no — you still won’t find him on LinkedIn.
