Note: This post was written before wanderer.moe was rebranded into skowt.cc, written content has been updated to reflect these changes.
At 15, I built a platform that now serves millions of users. It started with a single TikTok comment.
## A TikTok Video
Early 2022. I was in online school after medical issues, assault, and threats made mainstream education impossible. I had time.
Scrolling TikTok one night, I found a video where users complained about accessing game assets for Genshin Impact. I'd been frustrated with storage providers for years. This was solvable.
## The Initial Launch: wtf.dromzeh.dev
I had unused DigitalOcean credits from GitHub Student. Two hours later, wtf.dromzeh.dev was live: h5ai, NGINX, Cloudflare DNS. Simple. Functional. Fast.
## Organic Growth Through Social Media
No strategy. No budget. No expectations.
I commented on TikToks about game assets and dropped my bio link. It worked.
Traffic exploded within days. Users created their own TikToks. My Discord DMs flooded. My inbox packed. Within days, 3,000 daily users. I was stunned.
## Creating skowt.cc
wtf.dromzeh.dev couldn't handle the load. I needed something robust.
I learned Svelte despite only knowing Node.js and Python. On holiday, I built skowt.cc v1 in three days and deployed it. Production bugs took both sites offline for days.
Working alone, under pressure, I missed the obvious: DigitalOcean was the problem. They had also shut down my droplet a couple weeks prior at 2am before without warning. I migrated to Cloudflare Pages. The site came back.
## New API Development in 2023
Assets were stored in the frontend initially. Cost-effective, but every update required a full rebuild. Unsustainable.
I built a custom API using Cloudflare Workers and itty-router, dynamically indexing files in R2 buckets. No more manual rebuilds. Seamless updates. Low costs.
## The 2024 Rewrite
A massive DDoS attack from VPS providers forced an early rewrite. I rebuilt skowt.cc in Next.js in 6 hours.
skowt.cc now averages 300,000 monthly active users.
## Conclusion
One TikTok comment changed everything. I've met incredible people and learned constantly.
I dropped out of college at 16 to work on skowt.cc. My parents didn't approve: I made no money from it. They wanted university. We compromised on part-time.
Dropping out wasn't easy or smart. Doubt and exhaustion were constant. But I stayed focused. A simple idea now impacts millions worldwide.
I'm building Originoid, a platform for creators to share their work. Leveraging skowt.cc's userbase, it has 15,000 people on the waitlist.
This will let me generate stable income while building useful tools for creators.
## Believe in Yourself and Your Ideas
Believing in yourself matters.
If you're passionate and see an opportunity, take it. It won't be smooth. But the lessons, growth, and rewards make it worth it. Failure teaches. That's invaluable.
You can build things. Even without programming experience, resources exist to build whatever you want.
View the full project at skowt.cc.