In this episode of Twice ✌️, Thibaud Elzière sits down with Aurélien de Meaux, co‑founder of Cheerz and Electra.
His journey begins in mobile photo printing and reinvents itself a decade later in EV charging infrastructure — two ventures in industries that seem worlds apart.
Aurélien looks back on the early days of Cheerz, which he launched with a friend straight out of school: the youthful mistakes, the too‑fast fundraising, the rushed international expansion, and the lessons learned over ten years of trial, error, and growth. He also talks about life after the sale, the post‑exit blues, and how the drive to “play the game again” led him to start Electra, with the ambition to build Europe’s fastest and most reliable EV charging network.
From a small photo lab to industrial hyper‑growth, Aurélien shares a clear‑eyed view of entrepreneurship: learning to hire top talent, execute quickly, align with a mission that excites you, and build — this time — with method.
We talk about:
Starting a company fresh out of school
Cheers’ early strategic mistakes: product, mobile, and internationalization
Building an industrial lab from scratch in Gennevilliers
The pivotal shift from a “cool little product” to a real photo‑printing service
Why hiring an HR lead early is crucial (and often overlooked)
The sale to a German industrial group and the reality of an earn‑out
Life after an exit: post‑exit blues and choosing a new sector
Why electric will replace combustion faster than people think
Launching a heavy‑infrastructure startup and raising €700M
Recruiting top players from day one as the foundation for growth
The EV charging race: product, speed, design, and flawless execution
Timeline
00:00 – Introduction & Aurélien’s early entrepreneurial years
05:40 – Cheers: mistakes, pivots, and growth
17:30 – Industrial tooling: the backbone of photo printing
25:10 – Fundraising too fast, international expansion too soon
33:40 – Why you need to hire an HR lead early
42:00 – Selling to a German group & post‑exit life
51:30 – Starting over: why mobility?
58:00 – Electra: mission, model, and fundraising
01:07:20 – Building an industrial startup at massive scale
01:14:50 – Electra’s product strategy & international expansion choices
01:22:00 – After Electra: the desire to start again — but even better
