A Weekend Project That Grew Into $35K a Month

The numbers sound implausible: a directory website built in a single weekend, now generating $35,000 per month in revenue with 49,000 registered users and 2.2 million unique visitors since launch. The gross margin sits at 98%, and operational costs run under $500 per month. Maintenance requires about three hours of work per month because the entire project is open source, with all rules merged on GitHub. This is the story of Cursed Directory, a platform built for developers exploring cursed programming ideas, and the operating principles behind its unlikely success.

Building in Public as a Strategy

The core approach here is "building in public"—sharing progress, metrics, and even the code itself as the project develops. This isn't a marketing afterthought; it is the primary growth mechanism. By making the directory open source and transparent about revenue, traffic, and costs, the project attracts attention from the exact audience it serves: developers who appreciate seeing how things work under the hood.