[Repost] Peter Steinberger: Finding My Spark Again

Why I’m Reposting This

Peter Steinberger (@steipete) is a legendary figure in the iOS development world. He built PSPDFKit — a dominant product in the PDF space — ran it for 13 years, successfully exited, achieved financial freedom, and then chose to retire.

But after retirement, he fell into a deep sense of emptiness — which is exactly what this article is about.

What makes me especially want to share this is what happened next: when the AI Agent wave hit, Peter came back and built OpenClaw (the “CloudBot Lobster”). The product quickly gained traction, becoming one of the most popular tools in the AI Agent community, and successfully secured investment from OpenAI. This makes it his second successful bootstrapped venture.

From PSPDFKit to OpenClaw, from post-exit emptiness to being reignited by AI — this trajectory itself is deeply inspiring. And this article captures the exact turning point: how a top-tier engineer went from “I don’t want to do anything” to “We are so back.”

I think this article speaks for many engineers who pursue excellence and truly want to change the world by building great tools.

We are so back.

— Peter Steinberger (@steipete), November 20, 2024

When I sold my shares of PSPDFKit after building the company and making it my identity for over 13 years, I was very broken. I’ve been pouring 200% of my time, energy, and heart’s blood into this company, and towards the end, I just felt that I needed a break. We’ve been very lucky to have found an amazing company with Insight, that acquired the majority.

The Emptiness After

For me though, I felt like I missed out on life. A lot of my normie friends had fun every weekend while I was just crushing and pushing and churning through building the best product I can possibly do. And once it fell away, there was not much left.

I heard it’s common for founders to fall into a hole and to take a year off after they move on from their company. A typical company life cycle is also 4-5 years. So after 13 years in retrospect, I can see how it just needed more time to find a new purpose.

Searching for Meaning

I did a lot of stuff, I partied hard, I did plenty of therapy, I did ayahuasca, I moved to another country, I wandered around carrying this emptiness in me and hunting hedonic pleasures. And then a few months ago, something clicked. I had enough of my own bullshit, and I realized that you don’t find happiness by moving countries. You don’t find purpose. You create it.

The Spark Returns

Creating things out of ideas, building was always the thing that gave me the most joy in life. One day, things just clicked. I had a new idea, I sat on my computer and started hacking, and I realized that my spark is back.

Right now, we are at an incredible crossroads in technology. AI is moving so fast and is changing the way we work in software development, but furthermore, it’s going to change the world. I haven’t been as excited, astounded, and amazed by any technology in a very long time.

We are so back. It’s time to build.

Original author: Peter Steinberger Original article: Finding My Spark Again Originally published on June 1, 2025