Doubling down on directories to hit $13k/mo

Piotr Kulpinski built a list of open-source projects for his own use, then decided to turn it into a public directory. When OpenAflternative got traction, he turned it into the basis for a directory boilerplate called Dirstarter.

Now, these two products are bringing in a total of $13k/mo.

Here's Piotr on how he did it. 👇

Realizing indie hacking was possible

I started programming in college while studying computer science. After graduation, I worked at a software house for a few years, but I always craved freedom. So I picked up freelance clients on the side, then quit my full-time job to go independent.

My first real online income came from a WordPress theme called Chipmunk. It was a theme for creating directory websites — which, looking back, shaped my entire indie path.

That single sale was the real "aha" moment. It showed me that earning money online was possible.

This might not sound revolutionary today, but 10 years ago in Poland, making money from indie products felt like a fantasy. That notification changed everything. It proved this could be a viable career path.

From there, I bounced between failed SaaS attempts and various side projects until I landed on directories. Today, I run two main projects:

• OpenAlternative, a community-driven directory of open source alternatives to proprietary software

• Dirstarter, a Next.js boilerplate for building directory websites.

Scratching his own itch

OpenAlternative started as a personal collection of open source tools I was gathering for my own use — partly to learn from the code, partly to find better alternatives to paid software. One weekend, I decided to turn it into a public website.

I gave myself 48 hours to build and launch it. I dedicated every waking hour to the site. No overthinking. Just ship.

That launch brought over 100,000 visitors in the first week. I never expected it to become a real business, but here we are. After struggling to monetize it for about a year, traffic grew, and I found advertisers and sponsors much more easily. The site now generates around $6,500 MRR through ads/sponsorships (65%), and featured listings (35%).

Dirstarter is bringing in about $5k/mo in one-time purchases. And I also make about $250 MRR from other directories and $500/mo from affiliate commissions.

So, in total, I'm doing $12,000-13,000 per month.

A stack that became another product

With such a short timeframe, I had to be ruthlessly selective. I built a simple listing site with no search, no filtering — just a clean list of open-source projects organized by category.

The initial tech stack was intentionally simple:

• Astro for the frontend (I wanted to learn it anyway)

• Airtable as the database (no-code, easy to manage)

• Cloudflare Workers for a scheduled script that pulled GitHub data daily

For content, I manually collected about 70 open-source projects using Google, Reddit, GitHub, and my own knowledge. I was selective — quality over quantity, focusing on actively maintained projects people actually use.

The site launched in February 2024. Since then, the stack has evolved. Airtable became limiting, so I migrated to Next.js with PostgreSQL.

For OpenAlternative and my directories:

• Next.js 15 (migrated from Astro when I needed more flexibility)

• PostgreSQL database

• Vercel for hosting

• Stripe for payments

• Cloudflare Workers for scheduled tasks (GitHub data fetching, etc.)

For automations and workflows:

• N8N for automation

• Typefully API for scheduling posts across multiple platforms with a single endpoint

• Custom AI content generation engine (integrated into Dirstarter)

• Logo.dev and ScreenshotOne APIs for automatically pulling favicons and screenshots

When I found myself reusing this setup for other directories, I realized I was onto something — and that's when I packaged it into Dirstarter.

Strategic SEO and community engagement

Initial growth for OpenAlternative came from Reddit and Hacker News. Developer communities are perfect for a project like OpenAlternative — you just have to avoid coming across as spammy. Provide genuine value, share insights, let the product speak for itself.

The first week after launch brought over 100,000 visitors, which was incredible validation that the idea resonated.

For sustainable growth, SEO has been the main driver. I built the site with programmatic SEO in mind from the start. Each open source project has its own page optimized for search, plus I generate pages for categories, programming languages, and "alternatives to X" queries.

I also learned to use GitHub data strategically — pulling stars, forks, issues, and tags to create rich, auto-updating content that search engines love.

And more recently, I've been investing in content marketing with targeted blog posts around specific keywords. I hired a freelance writer to help with this.

Automating social media has helped maintain visibility without eating up my time. N8N reads the RSS feed and posts new content automatically across platforms.

Open-source mistakes

When I posted OpenAlternative on r/SelfHosted and it got 250+ upvotes, I got excited — and I immediately added a $97 Stripe payment link for featured listings. The community turned on me fast. The post got removed, I received tons of negative feedback, and my credibility took a hit.

The open source community is naturally skeptical of commercial motives and I wasn't respecting that.

If I could do it over, I'd focus purely on building trust and providing value first — and then I'd explore monetization much more carefully.

That said, I learned from it. I pulled back, focused on the product, and didn't attempt monetization again for almost a year. When I finally figured out the right approach — featured listings and sponsorships positioned more thoughtfully — things started working.

The lesson? Don't rush monetization. Build trust first, especially in communities sensitive to commercial interests. The revenue comes if you're patient and authentic.

Three game changers

Three things have been game changers for me:

1. Automation-first mindset: I automated everything I could from day one. Data collection, content generation, social media posting, even ad sales. This lets me run the entire operation in 2-3 hours per week, freeing up time for new projects and experiments.

2. Consistency beats everything: Since OpenAlternative has been open source from day one, I get copycats almost every week. People clone the site, launch their own versions, but none stick around. The best competitive advantage is showing up every day. With AI capable of cloning any website in minutes, persistence is the only real moat.

3. Building in public: Following other indie hackers on X and sharing my own journey has been incredibly valuable — for accountability and learning what works. The indie hacker community is genuinely supportive.

Must-read books

Here are a few books that shaped my approach:

• "Million Dollar Weekend" by Noah Kagan—perfectly aligned with my philosophy of building and validating quickly

• "Company of One" by Paul Jarvis

• Alex West's books (founder of CyberLeads)

Don't overthink it

Here's my advice:

• Don't overthink it. Just start simple. Pick a niche, build something basic, and launch as fast as possible to see if it gets traction. Don't be afraid to kill an idea if it doesn't work. I've killed plenty.

• Be patient with monetization. This is my biggest lesson. Build trust first, especially in communities like open source where people are sensitive to commercial interests. I learned this the hard way when Reddit turned on me for adding a payment link too early.

• Automate everything you can. I mentioned this above, but it bears repeating. Your time is your most valuable resource. Every hour you spend on manual tasks is an hour you're not spending on growth or new ideas.

• Launch everything you build. No one will ridicule you. You'll gain valuable insights and quickly learn if something has potential. I never imagined OpenAlternative would grow this big when I posted it to my 700 Twitter followers.

• And finally: consistency beats everything. In a world where AI can clone any website in minutes, the only real moat is showing up every day.

What's next?

I've always wanted to run a successful SaaS company — that's my main goal for 2026.

More specifically, I want to reach at least $10K MRR from a software product. Directories have been great, but they're a double-edged sword — I'm at Google's mercy. If they decide to tank my rankings, I could lose my traffic overnight.

So a big priority is diversifying income streams and reducing dependence on SEO. I want to build something with more defensible distribution — whether that's a SaaS with strong word-of-mouth, a product with built-in network effects, or something completely different.

The freedom I have now is exactly what I was chasing when I quit my job years ago. Now I want to build on that foundation and see how far I can take it.

Follow along

You can find me on:

• X/Twitter: @piotrkulpinski

• GitHub: github.com/piotrkulpinski

• Website: kulpinski.dev

And check out my projects:

• OpenAlternative: openalternative.co

• Dirstarter: dirstarter.com

I share my journey building in public, so follow along if you're interested in directories, SEO, or indie hacking. Always happy to chat!