I Built a Website in My Car — It Still Gets Signups 5 Years Later

I Built a Website in My Car — It Still Gets Signups 5 Years Later

A few days ago, while casually browsing through my old Google Analytics dashboards, I stumbled across something that made me pause: my old project gallery.co was still getting traffic.

And not just ghost-town levels — this thing was pulling in 5–6 signups every day.

It blew my mind, mostly because I had completely forgotten this site even existed. But what really cracked me up was how I built it.

The Backstory

Flashback to five years ago: I was sitting in my car, parked somewhere with a bit of free time on my hands and a head buzzing with ideas. You know those spontaneous moments where you feel like building something just for the heck of it? This was one of those.

Armed with my MacBook, some mobile hotspot data, and a full tank of fuel, I decided I'd spin up a quick MVP. Just for fun.

And so, gallery.co was born.

The Stack

At the time, I used:

• Next.js 9 (yeah, old school now)
• Tailwind CSS for quick styling
• Firebase for authentication and storage
• A quick integration with whatever form handler I was using back then

All coded out using Cursor, which cost me around $20. It's one of those tools I now can't live without for quick sprints.

The Real Cost of Car-Coding

Here's a breakdown of what it cost me to build the whole thing:

The total cost breakdown was pretty minimal:

• Cursor subscription: $20
• Fuel (car running): ~$15
• Mobile data (4GB): Whatever my plan charges 😅

I spent around 5–6 hours building the site — tweaking the UI, setting up auth, deploying it, and doing some quick polish.

Fast Forward to Today

The site isn't fancy. It's minimal. Functional. Just a simple idea I had around showcasing visual content in a clean gallery format. But somehow, it hit a chord.

Even though I haven't touched it in years, the traffic hasn't stopped. It's pulling in signups every single day.

I don't run ads. I don't promote it. It's not even optimized for SEO anymore. It's just… out there, doing its thing.

Lessons Learned

This experience reminded me of something we all forget in the chase for perfection and performance:

• You don't need perfect conditions to build something valuable.
• Not all side projects need a 5-year roadmap.
• Build it, ship it — even if it's from your car.

I'm already thinking about what I could do next with it — maybe modernize the stack, integrate with some AI features, or even turn it into a micro-SaaS. But for now, I'm just letting it serve as a quiet reminder that spontaneous ideas can go a long way.

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Final Thoughts

If you've got an idea, build it. Don't wait for the perfect setup. Sometimes all it takes is a laptop, some mobile data, and a few hours in a parked car.

Who knows? Five years later, it might still be alive — and kicking.