I'm Manuel Biot, Manu to most people. I've been a backend engineer for fifteen years, and I'm building Topiks: a news feed for TV shows, movies and games where you're in control. No ads, no tracking, no mystery algorithm.
The irony is that I've spent almost my entire career in advertising. I built an ad platform for audio, radio and podcasts, which handles two billion requests a day. So I know first-hand how the content you see gets chosen, and why. And I had no wish to build the same thing again.
Topiks didn't come from one bad day. It came from frustrations that piled up over years. One click on an article and my whole feed decides that's all I care about. Sponsored articles that keep multiplying, some labeled as such, many just pushed to the top because someone most likely paid. Knowing that being behind on a show, or not having seen a movie that just came out, means scrolling past half the headlines in my feed squinting, scared of getting spoiled. And don't get me started on the headlines that promise the world and drop you on a paywall.
Anyway, I could go on, but you get the idea: that's why I'm building Topiks. I had to start somewhere, so I started with TV shows, movies and games. But this is only the beginning!
You can find me on X and Discord, or write to me through the contact page.