SaaS •Entrepreneurship

My website makes $35K/month (built in 3 hours)

Starter Story • • 14 min • #110
My website makes $35K/month (built in 3 hours)

Pontus Abrahamsson had a crazy idea on his flight to France. And as soon as he landed he called his co-founder and said, "we need to build a directory." So they bought the domain, built the app in 3 hours, posted it, and it went super viral. This video breaks down why directories still work in 202

Summary

  • Pontus Abrahamsson

    • Built Cursor Directory with his best friend and co-founder Victor.
    • Has spent the past two years bootstrapping Midday as his long-term startup focus.
    • Also built LangUI and several other open-source projects.
    • Likes building in public, testing ideas quickly, and showing that a weekend project can become meaningful.

  • Cursor Directory

    • Is a directory for Cursor developers to explore and find Cursor rules and related resources.
    • Was built in a weekend after Pontus noticed there was no clear place to find Cursor rules.
    • Makes about $35,000 a month.
    • Has 49,000 registered users.
    • Reached 2.2 million unique visitors since launch.
    • Has a 99.8% gross margin.
    • Costs under $500 a month to operate.
    • Takes about 3 hours a month to maintain.
    • Is open source, with rules merged through GitHub.

  • Origin And Build

    • Got the idea on a three-hour flight to France while watching technical Cursor videos.
    • Noticed a common pattern around Cursor rules and saw that people had to search Google, GitHub gists, or forums to find them.
    • Called Victor as soon as he landed and said they needed to create a directory for Cursor rules.
    • Victor opened Figma and started designing while Pontus started a Next.js project.
    • Pontus created a hard-coded JSON file with rules he found online.
    • Had something live on Vercel and ready to click around in about half an hour.
    • Bought the Cursor Directory domain and built the site in about three hours.
    • Continued iterating after the first launch.

  • Why They Could Ship Fast

    • Pontus and Victor already had years of experience building apps and websites.
    • They had worked together long enough to share a design and code style.
    • They reused patterns and components from previous startups.
    • They launched without waiting for the project to feel perfect.
    • Pontus says fast ideas come from being deeply dialed into the work while also being active enough to notice opportunities.

  • Launch And Distribution

    • Launched by posting Cursor Directory on X.
    • Built in public and shared everything, including code.
    • Got around 1 million impressions on one X post.
    • Also posted on Hacker News and reached the front page.
    • Benefited from YouTubers covering Cursor Directory in videos.
    • Grew steadily because the team shared knowledge with a developer-focused audience.

  • Design Advantage

    • Treats design as a competitive advantage, especially when AI makes it easy for many websites to look similar.
    • Keeps design simple and studies websites they like.
    • Reuses an existing design system and components from their earlier work.
    • Believes founders can learn by following designers on X and taking useful patterns from sites they admire.
    • Says finding the right tonality and angle can separate a product from competitors.

  • Directory Model

    • Defines a directory as a product for discoverability around something people are interested in.
    • Believes directories still work in 2025 when they serve the right audience at the right time.
    • Says directories solve a timeless problem by collecting useful items for a larger audience.
    • Sees directories as especially powerful when founders catch and own a wave.

  • Product And Monetization

    • Lets users browse, filter, search, and copy Cursor rules into their editor.
    • Lets users register, create accounts, post their own resources, and vote on submissions.
    • Includes job listings where companies can pay to list job ads.
    • Added MCP search after MCPs became popular, which drove another wave of adoption.
    • Lets companies pay to feature MCPs on the site.
    • Includes a tool that generates tailored Cursor rules from a JavaScript package JSON file.

  • Tech Stack

    • Uses Next.js, TypeScript, shadcn components, Resend for email, OpenPanel for analytics, GitHub, and Vercel.
    • Uses Polar as the merchant of record for payments.
    • Uses Cursor for coding, Notion for product management, and GitHub for version control.
    • Chooses tools that match the philosophy of no servers, low friction, and fast shipping.
    • Runs the site for about $525 a month with a 99.8% gross margin.

  • Lessons And Advice

    • Advises founders to start.
    • Says committing to building helps founders get dialed in and create their own luck.
    • Encourages shipping, sharing, and iterating.
    • Believes the worst outcome of building something is learning and using that lesson to take the next step.
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