We give a construction that associates a small category $\mathcal{C}(X)$ to a CW-decomposition $X$ of a manifold. We obtain interesting families of finite categories from spheres and projective spaces as examples. Under some conditions this category $\mathcal{C}(X)$ seems to represent the homotopy type of $X$. Interestingly, for finite dimensional $X$ the Poincaré dual $\hat{X}$ has associated to it the opposite category $(\mathcal{C}(X))^{\rm{op}}=\mathcal{C}(\hat{X})$.

This is part of a joint project with Benjamin Heredia.