What The OSINT Curious Project does

The OSINT Curious Project (TOCP) was a non-profit, community-driven educational initiative founded on December 3, 2018, in Papendal, Netherlands, by a group of OSINT (open-source intelligence) practitioners who met at the DEX-XL conference. The project produced free OSINT training materials targeting professional and enthusiast investigators, including journalists, human rights investigators, government officials, corporate security personnel, and newcomers to the field. Its founder and President, Micah Hoffman (WebBreacher), led a visible contributor team that included Nico Dekens, Kirby Plessas, Steven Harris (nixintel), Rae Baker, Ritu Gill, and others, each bringing prior experience in military, defense, or commercial OSINT work.

The project's product surface consisted of three content channels: a blog at osintcurio.us, a YouTube channel hosting videos and podcasts, and an archive of recorded live streams. Content covered social media OSINT (Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Snapchat, Discord, Strava), image geolocation, corporate reconnaissance, dark web research, audio OSINT, cryptography, and metaverse investigations. In November 2022, President Micah Hoffman also released SMART (Start Me Aggregated Resource Tool), a crawler that aggregates over 84,000 URLs from more than 200 OSINT start.me pages. The organization operated no proprietary SaaS products, no AI/ML systems, and no commercial APIs; all content was freely accessible.

The business model was donation-based. The project relied on voluntary Patreon sponsorship suggested at $1 per month, and explicitly positioned itself as a free, non-commercial knowledge commons rather than a vendor. Distribution was global through digital channels only, with no geographic restrictions, no formal sales motion, and no disclosed revenue or funding. The OSINT Curious Project was governed by Board Members and ran for approximately five years before the Board elected to close the organization on February 27, 2023, citing the need to adapt to changing times; the website and YouTube archive were preserved for ongoing community use.

Name

The OSINT Curious Project

Legal name

The OSINT Curious Project

Website

https://osintcurio.us

Company type

Private

Founded year

2018

Operating status

Closed

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

The OSINT Curious Project was a non-profit, community-driven educational initiative that produced free open-source intelligence (OSINT) training content — blog posts, videos, podcasts, and live streams — for practitioners in journalism, human rights, government, and corporate security before closing in February 2023.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

OSINT Education and Community Content

NAICS

Educational Support Services (611710), Web Search Portals and All Other Information Services (51929)

akta.pro primary industry

Digital/Online Investigations & OSINT (Non-cyber) (BPAKAEAF)

akta.pro secondary industry

Interactive Practice & Skill-Building (Drills, Games, Mastery Practice) (EDAFACAC)

Keywords

• Open source intelligence
• OSINT education
• Investigation techniques
• Intelligence community
• OSINT training

Headquarters

HQ city

Phoenix

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Digital Commerce or Content

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Technology or R&D, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. Community Support/Patreon: The project was supported through voluntary community contributions via Patreon, with sponsorship suggested at as little as $1 per month. This was a donation-style support model rather than a commercial revenue stream.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

The OSINT Curious Project was a free, community-driven educational platform that produced and distributed open-source intelligence (OSINT) content for practitioners worldwide. It delivered OSINT techniques, tool reviews, and investigation methodologies through three primary channels: a website blog with tutorials, a YouTube channel of videos and podcasts, and live stream webcasts, supported by an active Discord community of thousands of international members.

Product overview

The OSINT Curious Project (TOCP) was an educational community platform providing free OSINT (Open-Source Intelligence) knowledge through three main content channels: Live Stream Archive, Videos & Podcasts (YouTube channel), and Blog Posts/Tutorials. The project closed in February 2023 but maintains its website and YouTube content online for community use. The educational materials cover techniques for investigating social media platforms, image geolocation, corporate reconnaissance, and various OSINT methodologies.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Live Stream Archive Archived recordings of live OSINT Curious webcasts and educational streams covering various open-source intelligence techniques and investigations; intended for OSINT practitioners and learners worldwide.
• Videos & Podcasts YouTube channel and podcast content featuring OSINT tutorials, technique demonstrations, and community discussions on open-source intelligence topics; targeted at OSINT learners and practitioners globally.
• Blog Posts and Tutorials Written educational content on the osintcurio.us website covering OSINT techniques across social media platforms (Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Snapchat, Discord, Strava), image geolocation, corporate reconnaissance, dark web research, and investigation methodologies; targeted at OSINT learners and practitioners.

Segments1 record

Ideal customer profiles1 record

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Partnerships

One partnership is on record.

• SANS InstitutecoreGTM or Marketing PartnerThe OSINT Curious Project collaborated with SANS Institute for events. Several team members attended the SANS OSINT Summit in 2020, where they conducted a live podcast/webcast recording. Team members Nico Dekens and Micah Hoffman conducted a SANS live stream on OSINT investigations and GDPR in 2021.

Scale indicators1 record

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights4 records

Direct peers

• Trace Labs: Trace Labs runs a global OSINT community organized around crowdsourced missing-persons investigations ('Search Parties'). Comparable as a volunteer-driven OSINT community platform with global membership and practitioner training.
• Bellingcat: Bellingcat is the most prominent open-source investigations collective, conducting journalism, human rights, and conflict investigations using OSINT techniques. Directly comparable as a community-led OSINT investigations brand sharing knowledge publicly.
• Intel Techniques (Michael Bazzell): Michael Bazzell's Intel Techniques is a long-running OSINT education and tradecraft site offering books, podcasts, and a community forum. Closely comparable as a practitioner-led OSINT educational platform targeting the same investigator persona.
• Hunchly: Hunchly is an OSINT capture-and-evidence tool used by investigators, paired with a community and educational resources. Comparable as a practitioner-focused OSINT product and learning ecosystem serving the same investigator persona.
• Sofia Santos (Practical OSINT): Sofia Santos publishes Practical OSINT tutorials on social media, geolocation, and online investigations. Comparable as a single-practitioner OSINT educational brand with a similar audience of newcomers and professionals.
• Quiztime: Quiztime publishes weekly OSINT challenges on social media (Twitter/X, LinkedIn) to build practitioner skills. Closely comparable as a free, community-facing OSINT skill-building content format.
• Sector035: Sector035 is a well-known OSINT blog and weekly newsletter run by Jan Koppelaar, providing tutorials and tool reviews. A direct peer in free, practitioner-authored OSINT educational content.
• Aware Online Academy: Aware Online Academy offers structured OSINT training and exercises for law enforcement and corporate investigators. Comparable as a dedicated OSINT training provider targeting professionals in the same persona.

Broad incumbents

• SANS Institute: SANS Institute is the dominant cybersecurity training organization offering paid OSINT courses, summits, and certifications. Comparable as a broader incumbent OSINT training provider that the subject company has partnered with and whose curriculum sits in the same buyer consideration set.

Emerging players

• Hatless1der (Griffin Glynn): Griffin Glynn is an OSINT practitioner and creator of tools like BACKMOJI, with educational content across platforms. Comparable as an emerging individual OSINT educator whose work overlaps with OSINT Curious's tutorial format.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat3 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights5 records

Customer concentration

• YouTubeyoutube.com/c/TheOSINTCuriousProject
• Xx.com/OsintCurious
• Facebookfacebook.com/osintcuriousproject
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/the-osint-curious-project

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles9 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about The OSINT Curious Project