Peter from PSPDFKit talked about how he sold his company, and how the last two years have been the hardest of his life. Starting his first app out of rage, and later his first company, Peter founded PSPDFKit, which over time has turned into a pretty big thing.
This talk was not a success story of formula 1A talk, rather the opposite. It was a many-faceted, rich and deeply touching description about what it’s like to start a company, reach success and start to grow, then feeling the loss of control as more people are brought in, having to battle with separating your identity from your company and product, conflicts, burning out etc. Eventually, selling the thing you’ve identified with for so long can have some nasty surprises up its sleeve. Who are you when you sell a large part of who you consider yourself to be? Who are you in that deep void, when you have no sense of purpose?
This talk went deep and dark, but ended with rich insights on how to find yourself after such a journey.