My website makes $35K/month (built in 3 hours)
Starter Story
Nov 16, 2025
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 2025 and how to design beautiful websites with AI.
Join our Black Friday VIP list → https://www.starterstory.com/blackfriday?utm_source=youtube&utm_campaign=pontus
Build your own app → https://build.starterstory.com/build/ai-build-accelerator?utm_source=youtube&utm_campaign=pontusvideo
Follow Pontus on X: https://x.com/pontusab
🔔 Follow the Second Channel: @StarterStoryBuild
🏁 We're hiring: starterstory.com/jobs
Chapters:
0:00 - Intro
1:09 - Special Announcement
2:02: Pontus background
2:31 - What is a directory?
3:13 - How Pontus found the idea
3:50 - Building the MVP
4:41 - How he ships fast
5:27 - Pontus' launch strategy
6:33 - Designing with AI
8:03 - Check out Starter Story Build
9:04 - Are directories dead in 2025?
10:08 - Cursor Directory tool
11:48 - Lean tech stack
12:49 - "start something simple"
13:36 - Final Word
This video is an educational case study of one founder’s experience. It is not financial advice and does not guarantee any income or results. Every business is different and your results may vary.
Chapters
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Transcript
Chapters
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No tools listed for this business.
Curse
directory
We
built
it
in
a
week
and
now
it
makes
55k
per
month
This
is
Pontus
a
developer
bored
on
his
flight
to
France
when
he
spotted
an
opportunity
The
second
he
landed
he
called
his
friend
they
coded
for
three
hours
straight
and
launched
a
simple
directory
When
I
landed
I
called
Victor
and
said
we
need
to
build
this
directory
for
Curse
Rules
That
three
hour
build
is
now
doing
34
000
a
month
with
99
8
profit
margins
and
they
only
work
on
it
three
hours
a
month
We
posted
a
site
on
X
and
it
instantly
took
off
I
have
never
seen
something
like
that
before
I
thought
directories
were
dead
in
2025
but
Pontus
has
proved
me
wrong
and
showed
me
that
anybody
can
do
this
So
I
brought
Pontus
onto
the
channel
to
break
down
exactly
how
he
did
it
In
this
video
we'll
dive
into
exactly
what
tools
he
used
to
build
a
34
000
per
month
website
in
just
three
hours
the
secret
to
why
his
directory
took
off
when
many
others
don't
and
his
advice
for
anyone
building
websites
like
this
right
now
All
right
this
one
is
crazy
so
let's
get
into
it
I'm
Pat
Walls
and
this
is
Starter
Story
Hey
guys
I
wanted
to
pop
in
here
with
a
very
important
message
Black
Friday
is
around
the
corner
corner
and
you
know
I'm
going
to
be
doing
something
I
probably
shouldn't
To
celebrate
over
700
000
subscribers
here
on
YouTube
I'm
going
to
be
giving
away
one
of
the
best
deals
we've
ever
done
on
Starter
Story
Last
year
our
early
bird
Black
Friday
deal
sold
out
in
less
than
two
hours
In
this
year
I
think
it'll
sell
out
in
less
than
one
And
I
don't
want
any
one
of
my
subscribers
on
YouTube
to
miss
this
So
here's
the
deal
I've
set
up
a
VIP
list
where
you'll
be
notified
about
our
Black
Friday
deal
before
anyone
else
And
trust
me
it's
going
to
be
one
of
the
best
deals
we've
run
in
years
with
extras
and
bonuses
I
probably
won't
ever
do
again
If
you
want
to
get
notified
as
soon
as
it's
live
just
head
to
the
first
link
in
the
description
and
you
can
join
that
VIP
list
right
now
for
free
Thank
you
everyone
for
watching
and
supporting
the
channel
Let's
get
into
the
video
All
right
Pontus
welcome
to
the
channel
Tell
me
about
who
you
are
what
you
built
and
what's
your
story
Yeah
my
name
is
Pontus
and
together
with
my
best
friend
Victor
we
spent
the
past
two
years
bootstrapping
our
startup
Mide
which
is
our
long
term
focus
Along
the
way
we
built
Cursor
Directory
Languine
and
several
other
open
source
projects
We
love
building
in
public
testing
ideas
quickly
and
showing
that
even
a
small
weekend
project
can
turn
into
something
big
One
example
of
that
is
the
directory
we
built
Cursor
Directory
We
built
it
in
a
week
and
now
it
makes
35
000
per
month
Okay
cool
I
mean
you're
building
a
lot
of
cool
stuff
but
what
I
really
want
to
dive
into
is
the
directory
Can
you
explain
what
a
directory
is
and
what
your
directory
does
So
basically
a
directory
is
of
course
made
for
discoverability
to
find
something
that
you're
interested
in
And
Cursor
to
explore
and
find
new
ideas
We've
grown
the
site
to
49
000
registered
users
2
2
million
unique
visitors
since
launch
And
then
of
course
we
have
a
gross
margin
of
99
8
And
operation
cost
is
just
under
500
And
of
course
it's
open
source
All
the
rules
are
merged
in
GitHub
So
the
maintenance
cost
is
like
three
hours
per
month
And
then
we
continue
building
our
main
startup
Well
that's
absolutely
insane
You
just
built
this
directory
in
a
couple
couple
hours
Millions
of
people
visited
it's
made
tens
of
thousands
of
dollars
I
want
to
understand
how
do
you
even
get
the
idea
to
do
something
like
this
The
whole
idea
came
up
when
I
actually
took
the
flight
down
to
move
to
France
It's
a
three
hour
flight
And
I
downloaded
a
lot
of
videos
to
look
on
tech
heavy
stuff
And
I
downloaded
some
cursor
things
And
then
I
discovered
this
common
pattern
about
rules
So
it
was
kind
of
mind
blowing
for
me
that
there
were
no
place
to
find
these
rules
in
one
specific
place
You
can
Google
and
find
some
obscure
gist
on
GitHub
or
forums
but
no
real
clear
answer
to
finding
these
rules
in
one
place
And
that's
basically
how
the
idea
idea
came
up
Okay
cool
So
you
find
this
idea
it
doesn't
exist
yet
How
do
you
go
about
building
it
Both
me
and
Victor
has
a
lot
of
experience
building
apps
and
websites
for
the
year
So
we
knew
exactly
what
we
needed
to
do
I
called
Victor
as
soon
as
I
landed
on
the
Airbnb
and
said
to
him
like
we
need
to
create
a
directory
for
rules
for
cursor
rules
In
just
a
matter
of
And
I
created
a
hard
coded
JSON
file
with
some
rules
that
I
found
online
And
in
a
matter
of
like
an
half
an
hour
we
had
something
up
in
Brazil
ready
to
click
around
on
I
bought
the
cursor
dot
directory
domain
which
was
a
really
really
good
domain
according
to
the
site
of
course
So
we
built
the
site
completing
three
hours
And
then
we
just
continue
to
iterate
Victor
and
I
have
been
working
together
for
several
years
We
already
know
our
DNA
in
terms
of
designing
code
So
that
helped
a
lot
of
course
So
I
mean
this
is
one
of
the
reasons
why
I
wanted
to
bring
on
the
channel
the
fact
that
you
did
it
in
three
hours
and
had
the
balls
to
actually
launch
it
and
ship
it
and
maybe
be
okay
with
it
not
feeling
perfect
What
would
be
your
advice
for
anyone
watching
this
that
wants
to
ship
fast
Yeah
so
of
course
I
have
this
main
startup
that
we
focus
on
day
in
and
day
out
right
We
work
a
lot
of
hours
usually
once
a
week
or
twice
a
week
you
find
these
things
that
you
can
really
do
really
really
fast
but
we
hold
off
But
in
this
case
we
didn't
And
I
think
that's
something
that
comes
like
a
thread
through
how
we
work
we
find
these
ideas
And
that
comes
together
when
you
dialed
in
and
work
fully
on
something
that
you're
committed
to
and
being
out
there
and
seeing
solutions
that
you
can
do
Yeah
I
think
it's
a
combination
of
dialed
in
into
what
you're
doing
and
being
out
there
and
finding
ideas
at
the
same
time
Okay
cool
What
I'm
hearing
there
what
I
think
is
really
cool
is
for
the
cursor
directory
you
didn't
have
a
lot
of
expectations
And
you
just
said
screw
it
I'm
gonna
launch
So
that's
where
I
have
a
few
more
questions
is
okay
yeah
sure
You
build
this
you
build
it
really
fast
Nowadays
anybody
can
build
stuff
fast
How
did
you
actually
launch
this
and
get
millions
of
users
in
the
first
week
And
that
was
also
the
first
week
in
France
So
we
did
a
bunch
of
different
things
So
I
posted
the
cursor
directory
on
x
of
course
at
the
initial
release
I
mean
we're
building
public
on
x
we
share
everything
we
do
all
the
way
to
the
code
right
We
are
fully
open
source
So
I
think
we
have
like
1
million
impressions
on
of
the
posts
And
of
course
we
had
several
posts
So
we
have
a
developer
following
from
the
beginning
But
then
I
also
posted
on
Hacker
News
we
ended
up
on
the
on
the
front
page
and
a
lot
of
YouTubers
started
to
cover
cursor
directory
into
the
videos
So
there
were
a
lot
of
coverage
around
cursor
directory
we
grow
steadily
because
we
share
knowledge
along
the
way
And
I
think
that's
really
tied
together
with
cursor
right
It's
a
developer
focused
community
And
we
build
this
super
fast
We
have
this
tech
heavy
design
approach
Okay
so
one
thing
I
noticed
about
cursor
directory
and
your
other
startups
when
I
was
checking
them
out
is
the
design
you
may
not
realize
this
but
I
feel
like
your
design
is
a
competitive
advantage
here
When
I
go
to
cursor
directory
this
thing
is
beautifully
designed
And
I
can
imagine
that
was
one
reason
why
it
kept
getting
shared
to
a
bunch
of
other
people
So
I
want
to
ask
you
for
anyone
watching
this
how
to
design
beautiful
apps
how
to
do
it
quickly
what
are
the
secrets
to
designing
products
Well
yeah
so
basically
we
have
a
formula
of
course
it
helps
a
lot
to
have
a
great
designer
as
a
co
founder
it
comes
down
to
the
small
things
that
are
also
the
hardest
like
keep
it
simple
find
something
that
you
like
stay
with
pride
and
find
the
patterns
and
the
tonality
of
the
websites
that
you
like
And
of
course
learn
from
others
If
I
will
start
from
the
beginning
beginning
I
will
probably
find
websites
that
I
love
and
take
bits
from
it
and
learn
from
that
In
this
case
of
course
we
already
have
a
design
system
we
already
have
components
that
we
can
reuse
from
our
previous
startups
So
it
was
much
much
easier
for
us
There
are
a
lot
of
great
designers
out
there
that
you
can
follow
on
X
it's
a
huge
community
you
can
learn
from
I
usually
tweet
out
that
design
is
more
important
than
ever
especially
in
this
fast
paced
AI
generated
website
world
that
we
started
to
live
in
Design
will
actually
be
the
things
that
puts
you
apart
from
the
competitors
right
Because
it's
easy
to
create
a
website
today
but
all
of
them
usually
looks
the
same
So
it's
not
much
that
you
need
to
be
different
on
But
you
need
to
find
the
tonality
and
the
angle
that
you
believe
in
is
right
And
that's
going
to
be
your
advantage
What
I
love
about
Ponce's
story
is
that
he
built
the
MVP
of
his
app
in
just
three
hours
He
did
not
overthink
it
he
just
saw
an
opportunity
and
shipped
it
right
after
he
landed
from
his
flight
from
France
This
is
proof
that
if
you
know
how
to
build
with
AI
you
can
move
insanely
fast
But
here's
the
thing
Most
people
waste
weeks
stuck
in
tutorials
or
second
guessing
themselves
And
this
causes
people
to
never
actually
ship
Well
this
is
exactly
why
we
created
starter
story
built
It
is
our
program
where
you
will
build
and
launch
your
project
using
just
AI
tools
in
a
matter
of
weeks
You'll
master
how
to
talk
to
AI
so
it
will
build
apps
for
you
And
the
best
part
is
that
you
won't
even
be
doing
this
alone
You'll
be
a
part
of
a
group
of
founders
all
sharing
feedback
and
staying
accountable
every
single
day
So
if
you're
ready
to
finally
ship
your
idea
head
to
the
first
link
in
the
description
to
claim
your
spot
We
are
starting
our
next
cohort
very
soon
So
be
sure
to
go
there
and
claim
your
spot
right
now
before
it
runs
out
Okay
now
let's
get
back
to
the
video
Okay
so
another
reason
why
I
wanted
wanted
to
bring
you
on
Pontus
is
I
haven't
heard
of
a
directory
that
has
been
crushing
it
in
a
long
long
time
I
remember
a
couple
years
ago
directories
were
kind
of
taking
off
Nowadays
I
don't
see
that
as
often
anymore
I
thought
directories
were
dead
Clearly
that's
not
the
case
So
my
question
for
you
is
do
directories
still
work
in
2025
Or
are
they
dead
Yeah
I
mean
I
get
these
questions
a
lot
like
aren't
directories
dead
but
it
truly
is
directories
still
is
incredibly
successful
in
2025
especially
if
you
build
something
for
the
right
audience
And
in
this
case
of
course
we
found
the
audience
at
the
right
time
that
the
core
directory
solves
a
timeless
problem
Like
you
need
to
find
something
that
you're
interested
in
And
in
this
new
AI
world
where
we're
living
like
cursor
people
are
starting
to
look
through
how
to
do
things
and
find
the
right
answers
That's
where
directories
really
really
shine
right
It's
a
collection
of
things
that
a
bigger
audience
are
interested
in
at
the
same
time
And
if
you
can
catch
that
wave
you're
really
gonna
find
a
lot
of
like
visitors
and
a
lot
of
opportunities
if
you
catch
it
if
you
can
own
it
then
it's
super
powerful
Okay
cool
Pontus
Well
thank
you
for
sharing
all
that
I'd
love
if
you
actually
pulled
up
your
directory
right
now
and
showed
me
how
it
works
how
it
looks
and
what's
the
business
model
Could
you
pull
it
up
right
now
Okay
so
yeah
this
is
cursor
directory
So
you
have
a
bunch
of
different
rules
that
you
can
go
in
and
then
you
copy
those
then
you
add
that
to
your
cursor
rules
in
your
editor
It's
kind
of
basic
you
can
filter
on
your
like
what
you're
interested
in
you
can
see
the
popular
ones
you
can
see
official
ones
And
then
of
course
you
can
search
for
different
things
we
enable
that
you
can
register
create
your
own
account
and
be
a
member
of
the
community
So
you
can
post
your
own
stuff
people
can
vote
on
interesting
things
But
here's
something
that
I
can
just
share
whatever
they
are
interested
in
and
get
upvotes
People
can
find
the
jobs
and
companies
can
share
their
job
ads
So
it's
a
paid
ad
that
they
pay
to
get
listed
some
months
after
MCPs
came
along
And
that
was
also
a
thing
that
made
cursor
directory
really
really
fly
So
that
was
the
second
way
where
we
saw
a
huge
adoption
of
the
site
because
we
created
this
MCP
searchable
way
to
find
and
extend
your
cursor
experience
And
these
are
also
featured
so
you
can
pay
to
get
them
featured
on
the
site
And
then
we
also
made
it
possible
to
generate
your
own
cursor
rules
tailored
to
your
website
In
JavaScript
you
have
this
package
JSON
which
defines
all
your
dependencies
you
can
just
upload
that
and
then
you
get
your
defined
cursor
rules
back
to
tailor
that
to
you
Because
we
really
really
saw
that
developers
wanted
to
tailor
their
versions
or
their
cursor
experience
but
it
didn't
know
how
to
start
This
was
a
good
way
for
developers
developers
to
start
this
to
get
the
grasp
of
it
All
right
well
thank
you
for
sharing
sharing
that
Looks
awesome
I'd
like
to
switch
topics
a
little
bit
and
talk
about
TechStack
How
did
you
actually
build
this
app
And
what
tools
do
you
use
right
now
So
I
think
this
is
the
important
one
like
you
should
stick
with
something
that
you
know
and
already
use
every
day
right
So
we
stick
with
what
we
know
So
we
chose
Next
js
fully
TypeScript
Shard
Seeing
Components
Resend
for
email
OpenPanel
for
analytics
and
just
connected
with
GitHub
and
shared
it
on
Versed
So
Versed
is
our
hosting
provider
Payments
we
use
Polar
which
is
a
great
merchant
on
record
to
handle
payments
especially
if
you're
a
company
And
then
on
the
productivity
side
we
of
course
use
Cursor2Code
Notion
for
product
management
GitHub
for
version
control
Every
tool
we
choose
to
share
have
the
same
velocity
like
no
servers
no
friction
Just
focus
on
building
and
shipping
fast
because
that's
really
what
matters
right
Getting
it
out
there
to
our
users
All
in
all
525
bucks
a
month
with
a
99
8
cross
margin
Okay
cool
Well
thanks
for
sharing
that
being
transparent
about
the
numbers
That's
an
insane
profit
margin
The
last
question
that
I
have
for
you
that
we
ask
everyone
who
comes
on
advice
would
you
have
for
anyone
getting
started
right
now
whether
they're
building
directory
or
building
cool
SaaS
software
apps
whatever
it
is
online
what
would
be
your
advice
Start
It
sounds
simple
but
here's
the
thing
When
you
start
building
and
when
you
commit
to
something
you're
eventually
getting
dialed
in
You
create
your
own
luck
by
constantly
finding
ways
to
move
forward
shipping
sharing
and
iterate
One
thing
will
lead
to
another
and
there's
really
no
such
thing
as
failure
When
you
build
something
the
worst
thing
that
can
happen
is
that
you
learn
and
then
you
take
the
next
step
to
find
your
ways
forward
Well
that's
great
advice
Thanks
for
coming
on
the
channel
Pontus
sharing
all
this
amazing
story
amazing
business
amazing
stuff
that
you're
building
other
than
Cursor
Directory
So
thanks
for
coming
on
and
sharing
Thanks
for
having
me
Okay
first
of
all
that
advice
was
amazing
Just
get
started
You
don't
know
if
this
directory
directory
that
you
build
is
going
to
be
a
complete
flop
or
is
going
to
make
34
000
a
month
There's
no
way
to
know
that
without
actually
getting
started
building
something
and
seeing
what
happens
It
all
starts
with
a
simple
idea
and
nowadays
with
what
you
can
do
with
AI
an
idea
is
all
you
need
to
potentially
build
something
that
changes
your
life
This
is
why
we
launched
Starter
Story
Build
where
we
will
help
you
take
your
idea
from
your
head
turn
it
into
a
real
app
using
only
AI
tools
in
a
matter
of
weeks
So
if
you're
ready
to
launch
your
project
and
you're
serious
about
actually
building
something
head
to
the
first
link
in
the
description
to
check
out
Starter
Story
Build
All
right
that's
it
for
this
episode
Thank
you
guys
for
watching
watching
We'll
see
you
in
the
next
one
Peace
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