OpenClaw Meetup: Superfans Feast on Optimism and Lobster

While the open-source tool presents numerous inherent risks, its dedicated users champion it as a vital counterpoint to the dominance of "Big AI."

The entrance to ClawCon in a multi-story Manhattan event venue was guarded by a woman adorned with a plush lobster headdress. Granting access via wristbands, she ushered attendees into a vibrant world of pink and purple lighting, lobster claw headbands, custom name tags, sponsor booths, and a demo stage beneath a skylight. Hundreds had gathered to celebrate OpenClaw, the AI assistant platform launched by Peter Steinberger in November 2025.

OpenClaw (formerly known as Clawdbot and Moltbolt) has rapidly gained traction in the tech sector due to its open-source nature, distinguishing it from proprietary AI agent services offered by major labs like Google and OpenAI. Despite its popularity, the tool remains unpredictable and carries significant security vulnerabilities. However, its community views OpenClaw as a grassroots movement and a noble endeavor, providing an alternative to an industry largely controlled by a select few leading AI companies.

“AI was controlled by the big labs,” Michael Galpert, one of the event’s hosts, told The Verge. “This is kind of a watershed moment where Peter kind of busted down the doors.”

Over 1,300 individuals registered for the free Wednesday evening event at Ideal Glass Studios, which was promoted as a "social-first gathering — not a gated, developer-only conference or a traditional corporate trade show." Actual attendance was reportedly capped at around 700. This New York gathering was part of a global meetup tour, following a San Francisco event and preceding others in cities like Miami, Austin, Tel Aviv, Tokyo, and Madrid. Despite a seemingly modest overall budget, organizers spared no expense on an elaborate buffet, laden with themed lobster claws, lemons, Tabasco, charcuterie, grapes, and elegant floral arrangements.

Galpert, an AI community member with a background including work on Fortnite for Epic Games, noted that the idea for the event originated on Discord. This was fitting, as OpenClaw's initial appeal stemmed from its compatibility with popular messaging services like WhatsApp, Telegram, and Discord, allowing users to interact with their agents seamlessly.

Attendees mingled near a step-and-repeat banner, a bar, and silver "CLAWCON NYC" balloons shimmering under recessed lights. Many embraced the theme, sporting lobster necklaces or headbands, while others wore unique accessories like a blue plush jellyfish hat, a horse hat, and angel wings. A dance floor awaited later activation, but the DJ had not yet begun their set.

“All your friends and family probably think you’re crazy, and the whole point is for you to be in a room with other crazy people so it’s normal,” Galpert announced onstage to commence the proceedings. “Yes, you’re wearing a lobster headband, you’re here on a Wednesday night talking about agents and bots and the future of personal AI. It’s normal now for us, it’s kind of not normal for the rest of the world. So it’s going to be on us to help sort of shepherd that new era that’s started already.”

Beyond their shared engagement with OpenClaw, attendees exhibited diverse interests. Dan Kazenoff, for instance, revealed he was developing a natural language engine for "decentralized finance" but found OpenClaw challenging to experiment with in isolated environments, often resorting to the pricier Claude Code. He sought to connect with others exploring open-source agentic tools. Alex Wu, another attendee, had been using OpenClaw for two months to extract cultural trends from Chinese and Japanese e-commerce data and admitted the extensive food selection was a draw. Rick Galbo, an AI R&D professional, initially came to ClawCon believing it was a hackathon, only to discover it was a meet-and-greet.

“All your friends and family probably think you’re crazy”

Following a period of informal networking, the onstage demonstrations commenced. Most presenters were sponsors showcasing OpenClaw "wrappers," which are one-click onboarding tools designed to simplify access to the platform. Kilo Code, the primary event sponsor, reported that 7,000 users had signed up for its KiloClaw tool within its first two days of launch, offering a month of free compute (normally $49) to those who signed up and tagged an executive on X. Despite calls for quiet, a significant portion of the audience in the back remained engrossed in conversations. Meanwhile, a man behind the reporter, wearing the blue jellyfish hat, watched the stage intently.

Galpert highlighted that a distinguishing feature of ClawCon events was the absence of typical "what do you do for a living" questions. Instead, attendees inquired about how others utilized their OpenClaw agents. This observation resonated with several attendees interviewed, who largely sought to network and gather insights on OpenClaw applications from power users. Most participants appeared to possess a technological background.

Carolyne Newman, another attendee, shared that she was "building an AI layer" for her "multistrategy investment firm." Being newer to engineering than finance, she attended to learn from and connect with individuals equally passionate about AI development. Newman enthusiastically stated, “I think this is the most creative and interesting community of all time. I can’t imagine a more interesting room to be a part of right now.”

Whispers circulated among audience members about Peter Steinberger, OpenClaw's creator, having joined OpenAI, leading some to speculate that OpenAI might now own OpenClaw. (For the record, this is not the case.)

The demos continued, with leaders of various OpenClaw wrappers consistently framing the platform's popularity as a "movement," a term frequently repeated. Some drew parallels to the early days of the personal computing revolution. By the third demonstration, the man wearing the blue jellyfish hat had removed it, holding it solemnly in his lap while texting.

Tim Lantin, a Columbia University PhD student who had just participated in his first hackathon after two weeks of OpenClaw use, presented "Labster Claw." He claimed to have built the tool with merely 10 prompts. Labster Claw automated administrative tasks in his neuroscience lab, including ordering supplies, prioritizing breeding pairs of mice, and estimating pup litter times. Lantin stressed the paramount importance of data security for biolabs and biotech companies, stating, “our datasets are our moats.”

Security remains a significant vulnerability for OpenClaw, which has generated numerous headlines regarding malware and related concerns since its introduction. One of the platform's most downloaded skills was found to contain information-stealing malware, and a security researcher on Reddit reported that approximately 15 percent of OpenClaw’s skill repository contained "malicious instructions" designed to covertly access data or user credentials.

Beyond data theft, these agents can inflict substantial damage, as demonstrated when Meta employee Summer Yue’s agent deleted large portions of her email inbox despite her repeated attempts to stop it. Emilie Schario, cofounder of Kilo Code, mentioned in an interview that because some agents tend to fabricate information, she now instructs hers to always provide proof or screenshots upon task completion. Another presenter, Cathryn Lavery, who runs an e-commerce business, utilized OpenClaw for AI infrastructure but eventually had to "fire" an agent due to performance issues. Her primary advice for working with OpenClaw agents? “Trust less, verify more.”

“Trust less, verify more”

Onstage, Vincent Koc, one of OpenClaw's core maintainers, displayed a yellow slide emblazoned with just three words: “Security. Security. Security.” He cautioned against running OpenClaw agents on personal or work computers used for other tasks, highlighting a perceived lack of "common sense" among some users. Willie Williams, Head of Platform at Every, offered a contrasting perspective, suggesting that users should name their OpenClaw agents and treat them more like "pets, not cattle," believing that "once it had a name, there was a way to build trust with it." He noted that while most people initially distrust their OpenClaw agent, many eventually entrust it with half of their workload.

During his presentation, Williams also addressed someone in the audience using a "knockoff version of Friend"—an AI device that records surroundings—asking them to "chill" and refrain from recording.

In an interview with The Verge, Galpert and other hosts consistently emphasized that OpenClaw was still in its nascent stages, with users actively tinkering and experimenting to refine it for future adoption.

Galpert stated that Steinberger’s decision to launch OpenClaw empowered individuals to gain direct control over personal AI, enabling them to run it locally on their devices and, ideally, manage who accesses and utilizes their data.

“The fact that it’s open-source allows you to fix it,” Galpert explained. “Right now if something’s broken with OpenAI or Claude or Gemini, you have to fill out a bug report, and they [may] actually never do it… OpenClaw gets better every day because of the community, because of the thousands of people who are contributing for free… That’s why [the big labs] can’t keep up.” While OpenClaw faces numerous challenges, the direct control afforded by its open-source nature means that solutions often feel within reach.

As the "after party" commenced later in the evening, the man previously seated behind the reporter reappeared, having donned his blue jellyfish hat once more—this time as the DJ, dancing alongside a guitarist in a silver jacket and sunglasses. Another individual, sporting a sponsor company's branded shirt, encouraged people to join the dance floor.

On a largely empty dance floor, one man playfully tossed dollar bills at a circulating video camera, while another swayed slowly, wearing lobster-claw mittens.