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Peter Steinberger

What Peter Steinberger thinks about startups

@peter-steinberger · 51 positions · 0 changes of mind

Founded PSPDFKit in 2011 and ran it for a decade. Came back from a break to work on AI agents — the OpenClaw project, and OpenAI, joined in February 2026. Writes at steipete.me.

Everything they publish, on ppll ↗

Peter Steinberger did not write this page.

We collected these quotes from things they published elsewhere, and every quote links to where it was said. They have no account here and have not endorsed this site. Quotes are word for word; the short line under each one is our own restatement, not their wording. Their own site. Is this you? Claim it or ask us to remove it. Or tell us what is wrong here.

9 dated positions, 2026, in their own words. Our reading of what Peter Steinberger has said — not written or endorsed by them.

  1. Our readingProduct-market fit shows up as anger when you tell people they cannot have it yet, not as polite interest.

    Their wordsBut each time there was a strong emotion and the best part there were quite a few people that really wanted it and like especially to my nontechnical friends I told them no this is not yet for you and they got mad. So if that's not an indicator to have product market fit I don't know what is.

    ↗Peter Steinberger: "Fun Is Velocity"youtube.com 1st of 22 in this recording

    product management

    Interesting

  3. Our readingAnything you build can be forked or cloned, but your name cannot — so your personal brand matters more than any single product you will ever start.

    Their wordsEverything that everything you can build can be forked or cloned, but your name cannot. So your personal brand is way more important than any single product that you ever will start working on that before you need it.

    ↗Peter Steinberger: "Fun Is Velocity"youtube.com 2nd of 22 in this recording

    Interesting

  5. Our readingYour dependency's business model is your business model, so building a harness around one lab's model is a commercial risk and not a technical choice.

    Their wordsSo maybe write this one down. Your dependencies business model is your business model.

    ↗Peter Steinberger: "Fun Is Velocity"youtube.com 7th of 22 in this recording

    Interesting

  7. Our readingHype is weather: you can see it coming and you cannot control it, which is why a project can be declared dead and hit its highest ever downloads at the same time.

    Their wordsBoth of those are true at the same time. A hype is like the weather. You might see it coming, but you can't control it.

    ↗Peter Steinberger: "Fun Is Velocity"youtube.com 8th of 22 in this recording

    Interesting

  9. Our readingYou have to be user number one: if you are not excited by the thing you are building, it will probably not be any good.

    Their wordsUser number one should be you. And my users two to 20 were friends. So I'm sure you have some people that would actually test your stuff, but you need to be the first user. If you don't if you don't get excited of what you're building, it'll probably not make sense.

    ↗Peter Steinberger: "Fun Is Velocity"youtube.com 15th of 22 in this recording

    Interesting

  11. Our readingNow that anyone can build fast, the hardest problem in starting something is not the tech, the software or the people, but getting attention.

    Their wordsSecond of all is I hope you worked on your personal brand and on visibility because in this day and age there's so much noise out there that your hardest problem is not the tech, it's not the software, not even the people. The hardest problem now is like getting eyeballs.

    ↗Peter Steinberger: "Fun Is Velocity"youtube.com 21st of 22 in this recording

    Interesting

  13. Our readingPick something hard and boring: fun problems are the crowded ones now that anybody can prompt a thing into existence.

    Their wordsMaybe I would pick something again that's that's in the category hard and boring because that's usually a category that is a little bit easier to actually find people that will appreciate when you solved something. If you pick something that is fun, even if it's hard, you're gonna have a very tough time, especially in a time where people can just prompt things into existence.

    ↗Peter Steinberger: "Fun Is Velocity"youtube.com 22nd of 22 in this recording

    Interesting
  14. 6 months earlier

  15. Our readingTurning a breakout open-source project into a company would be the wrong move -- joining a lab reaches everyone faster than building another large company.

    Their wordsYes, I could totally see how OpenClaw could become a huge company. And no, it’s not really exciting for me. I’m a builder at heart. I did the whole creating-a-company game already, poured 13 years of my life into it and learned a lot. What I want is to change the world, not build a large company and teaming up with OpenAI is the fastest way to bring this to everyone.

    ↗OpenClaw, OpenAI and the futuresteipete.me

    OpenAI

    Interesting
  16. 2 days earlier

  17. Our readingBurnout is not working too much; what ground him down at his company was people: co-founder conflict and high-stress customers.

    Their wordsThe stuff that burned me out was mostly people stuff. I, I don't think burnout is working too much. Maybe to a degree. Everybody's different.

    ↗OpenClaw: The Viral AI Agent that Broke the Internet - Peter Steinberger | Lex Fridman Podcast #491youtube.com 17th of 30 in this recording

    Interesting