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Most early-stage founders reach for third-party tools to move faster. Nic Mauro did the opposite. He built his own data infrastructure from the ground up, and that decision became the foundation of a business now doing $31,000 a month.
Mauro is cofounder and CEO of Virlo, a platform he describes as the Bloomberg for short-form video. It pulls data from TikTok, Instagram Reels, and YouTube Shorts to help agencies and researchers understand what is trending, who the influential creators are in a given category, and how content is actually performing.
His background runs through Gary Vaynerchuk's VX corporation, where he worked on bringing Fortune 500 companies onto emerging technology like crypto and AI, and before that, a finance career at Neuberger Berman. Both experiences shaped how he thought about Virlo from day one.
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Why He Refused to Rent the Infrastructure
Collecting real-time short-form video data at scale is really two problems stacked together: gathering the information efficiently, and turning raw data into something a customer can actually use. Mauro found that the economics of data collection mattered just as much as the engineering.
Instead of relying on third-party providers like Apify, he invested in building proprietary infrastructure on AWS, Vercel, and Next.js. That gave him direct control over cost as usage scaled, how completely the platform covered each source, and how fresh the data stayed in a space that moves fast.
"If I had to start over today, I would most likely use more custom-built, low-cost software," he says. He is candid that leaning on an established provider can become a trap once your business is built around it. Owning the infrastructure outright cost more up front, but it meant Virlo was never at the mercy of someone else's pricing or roadmap.
From $1K to $31K a Month in Seven Months
Virlo grew from roughly $1,000 in monthly recurring revenue in March 2025 to $31,000, with 35 percent month-over-month growth along the way. Revenue comes from three places: platform subscriptions, API access fees, and usage-based credit purchases.
That credit system does more than generate direct revenue. When a customer exhausts their allocated usage, it naturally creates a second growth moment, prompting an upgrade rather than requiring a fresh sales conversation.
He Narrowed the Customer Instead of Widening the Product
Virlo initially tried to serve creators, brands, agencies, and researchers all at once. Mauro eventually noticed that agency teams, account managers and strategists in particular, were the ones building Virlo into a consistent, recurring workflow rather than using it once and drifting away.
He narrowed focus to agencies specifically, and growth followed a clear pattern from there: a single team adopts the tool, then usage expands to additional seats across departments as the workflow proves itself.
Trading the Paywall for a Free Trial
Virlo used to require payment upfront. Mauro switched to a free trial model, and conversion and retention both improved as a direct result.
The logic was simple. A prospect evaluating a research tool needs to see it work inside their own market before they will trust it enough to pay. "The trial lets them explore the data, research their own market, and understand how Virlo fits into their work before committing," he says.
Growth itself came from three channels working together: organic search from agencies already looking for short-form video research, paid social on Meta to test which messaging converted best, and direct outreach offering free research tailored to a prospective agency's own client market, which demonstrated value before a single dollar changed hands.
What He Tells Founders Now
Mauro's advice leans away from over-planning and toward following real signal. Start as general as possible, then let actual usage tell you where to specialize, rather than deciding in advance who the business is for.
Follow the signal, not a business plan. Start general, then follow wherever signups actually show interest, like a bloodhound following a scent.
Watch costs relentlessly. Most tools are not the silver bullet they claim to be, and unmanaged spend compounds quietly.
Protect your own sustainability. Have fun building the thing, or the pace will eventually burn you out.
What Comes Next
Mauro's next target is $300,000 in monthly recurring revenue, with Virlo positioned not as a point solution but as the research infrastructure agencies and brands rely on to understand short-form video. He still makes time for in-person connection despite running a remote company, regularly offering to meet people for coffee and visiting customer offices directly.
If this was useful, pass it on to someone renting a piece of infrastructure they are quietly becoming dependent on. Sometimes the real competitive advantage is just owning the thing everyone else outsources.