In 2020, Cyril Aboujaoude and his two co-founders were in their mid-twenties, scattered across France, the Middle East, and Tahiti, watching VC valuations detach from any logic. They decided the real opportunity was the opposite: cashflow-positive, niche European manufacturers with succession problems and no obvious buyer. They signed their first term sheet in the spare bedroom of Cyril's parents' apartment. Five years later, Tioopo has €100M in AUM, eight portfolio companies, two real estate developments, over 500 employees, and its first exit — OG Medical, a four-company rollup in surgical implant manufacturing that returned a 30%+ gross IRR, with 70% of value created through EBITDA growth. In this episode, Cyril walks through the full journey: how the deal-by-deal model worked with two families backing them before growing to 80, the economics of the early deals, and the thesis that connects leather goods, hypercars, and orthopedic surgery supplies (it's about know-how, not sector). He gets specific on the deals: CDV, found because a co-founder was helping someone move boxes next to a leather shop; Technic, the only manufacturer in the world doing what it does for hypercar interiors, growing 40% in year one; Vectain, adding crash simulation to build a full engineering-to-manufacturing stack. He also covers the deal that went wrong — losing their biggest customer, who acquired their competitor instead — and why the business is now debt-free and paying its first dividend because of how they responded. Takeaways: The founding thesis in 2020 was a direct reaction to the VC bubble: real cashflow, real barriers to entry, healthy multiples — and it proved right when the VC tide went out Every single deal has its own origin story: the first came from a co-founder helping someone move boxes next to a leather shop; Technic came from a banker who moved to corporate finance and remembered to call; none came from a formal process The one-line investment thesis: high know-how, producing a high-end product in low volumes, sold directly to businesses — by definition customer-concentrated and niche within a larger industry Losing 33% of revenue overnight because your biggest customer acquired your competitor is survivable — if you stress-tested it before buying and the business was built right Chapters: 00:00 — The biggest myth about buying SMEs, and what Cyril had to unlearn in five years 06:07 — How Tioopo started: three co-founders in three countries during lockdown, a name from a Tahitian surf wave, and the first term sheet signed in a spare bedroom 13:03 — From deal-by-deal to TP1: how 2 families became 80, and why they chose to get their own CSSF registration rather than rent one 16:28 — The investment thesis: what glass manufacturing, luxury leather goods, automotive, and surgical implants actually have in common 22:38 — AI at the fund level: CRM as the brain that doesn't forget, and why they stopped enforcing tool adoption 29:41 — CDV, the first deal: a leather goods manufacturer found through a sneaker shop, quadrupled in three years, and a factory built from scratch 39:08 — OG Medical: the rollup thesis, 70/30 split between EBITDA growth and multiple expansion, and what made the exit process work 47:44 — Technic and Vectain: hypercar interiors, 40% growth in year one, and building a full engineering-to-manufacturing stack 56:42 — Operations-first investing: two days a month minimum per company, one operating partner on-site four days a week, and the limit of the model 1:02:45 — Walking in at 25: how Tioopo navigated the credibility gap with sellers twice their age 1:07:44 — Rapid fire: max debt at 2.5x EBITDA, losing a customer who became a competitor, and why Poland looks like France did 20 years ago
