Use Topic

Nikhil Atharaju had already tasted exit success. In 2018, his first company Tint was acquired by FileStack after building a multi-million dollar business using SEO and content marketing. Rather than rest on his laurels, he saw an opportunity to build tools that would help other brands replicate what he'd accomplished. "After successfully selling the company in 2018, he's now working on a new product to help others achieve similar marketing success for their business." Use Topic was born in late 2019—a SaaS tool designed to automate the research and optimization work required to create SEO-driven content at scale.

The product itself is elegant in its focus: a two-part system for content creators. First, a research component that automates the work of building effective outlines. Second, real-time feedback as writers draft content. The pricing started deliberately lean at $50/month, with the unit economics designed around content briefs rather than per-seat pricing—a decision Nikhil made after studying competitors and realizing most marketing teams wouldn't pay for additional writer seats the way sales organizations buy additional licenses.

Getting the first 10 customers required grinding: "So a lot of, we went to events. We actually offered to do the work for some of our contacts who work in the SEO content department. And that's how we initially got our first 10 customers." The timing was brutal—he launched just as COVID-19 hit. "So exactly before COVID started, that's when we got our first customer and then that's what the flood and then the flight we the fact kicked in." Instead of viewing this as a setback, Nikhil leveraged his existing relationships from the Tint/FileStack ecosystem. Scaleworks portfolio companies became early customers and case studies, giving the young product legitimate social proof.

By the time of this interview, Use Topic had reached 200 customers generating $21,000 in MRR. Word-of-mouth had become the dominant acquisition channel, supplemented by strategic presence in Slack communities where marketing professionals congregated—Traffic Think Tank and Demand Curve specifically. "Right now, I think we've been focusing a lot on our product. So there's a lot of word of mouth that's working out for us. We're also experimenting with some free tools on our product that's getting us some traffic and yeah, a lot of forums posting about ourselves on different forums is actually getting that traffic right now."

Google Ads, by contrast, proved expensive and inefficient. "Right now we're paying $500 per customer on Google ads. And yeah, it's not a great channel at the moment. Why do you say it's terrible? Terrible because of the way we've implemented it." He spent about $3,000/month on Google Ads but recognized the channel had a ceiling.

One decision that backfired: launching a GPT-3 integration that generated full-form content. Customers churned when they realized Use Topic wasn't meant to replace writers, only to optimize their research and writing process. Monthly churn sat around 5-7%, partly due to this misalignment. This forced clarity about the ideal customer: not startups launching their first content programs, but agencies and established teams with existing writer relationships and workflows.

With just two co-founders (Nikhil and Teco, his original Tint partner) splitting revenue reinvested into growth, the company was approaching a $250K ARR run rate. They were experimenting with higher-tier products to unlock customers willing to pay $500-$1,000/month, moving beyond the $100/month base tier. Completely bootstrapped with no plans to raise VC capital—Nikhil saw that VC money would force aggressive scaling that didn't align with their positioning yet. "I think primarily because we see ourselves making good amount of, I mean, decent and raising money, VC money is means you have to go for the, the, in the spring of the fences. And I'm not sure yet if we can do that with our current positioning."

The vision was ambitious but grounded: "I think I can get to a million. A million with two people? Number two, but maybe a couple of them on the team." By remaining lean, reinvesting in growth channels like content and SEM, and focusing on the ideal customer, Use Topic was positioned for sustainable, organic growth.