Tech • AI • Robotics • Game
He recounts his descent into hell up to the courtroom | Aurélien De Nunzio, Eric Larchevêque
5/10TL;DR
Aurélien turned a difficult start in school and a manual trade career into a sequence of entrepreneurial bets, including a failed startup, before re-emerging as the head of Scale, a business support company focused on AI, experts and community.
KEY POINTS
From academic struggle to skilled trade
Aurélien said school never suited him and that he was pushed into vocational training after middling grades. At 16, he chose house painting, first reluctantly, then with ambition, becoming top of his class and a regional silver medalist in WorldSkills, the international skills competition. He worked on high-end private renovation projects, including homes of professional footballers, and said the trade gave him his first real sense of competence and purpose.
A route shaped by pressure and self-financing
After signing a permanent contract at 18, he left a year later to resume studies and move toward construction project management. He financed the shift with a €35,000 student loan because his parents, a hospital nursing assistant and an aeronautics mechanic, could not fund higher education. That debt became a forcing mechanism: he said failure was no longer an option with future repayments of about €600 a month hanging over him.
A business born from a practical bottleneck
While studying, he tried a series of odd jobs, including pizza-making and sushi delivery, and was repeatedly dismissed. A teacher then pointed him toward a common pain point in France: helping homeowners prepare building permit applications. He turned that into a business almost immediately, creating a brand, a website and lead generation channels, while outsourcing some technical drawing work and focusing on sales.
Permits as a scalable startup opportunity
What began as a small service for individuals became Permettez-moi de construire, later renamed Algar. The company handled permit files and, over time, digitized the process, building knowledge of how planning offices and local rules differed across France. The service addressed a major administrative headache for households, sometimes solving cases that had been blocked for years, and clients reportedly sent gifts or invitations in gratitude once permits were secured.
EDHEC and the LinkedIn gamble
Determined to keep studying while building the company, Aurélien applied to business schools and was admitted to EDHEC despite lacking a traditional profile. Tuition was €10,000 a year, which he could not pay directly, so he pursued a work-study arrangement. He contacted senior figures at Leroy Merlin on LinkedIn, reached the group’s chief financial officer, and turned that cold outreach into an interview process that reportedly included eight interviews up to top management.
An unusual deal with Leroy Merlin
The outcome was a tailor-made work-study setup: 50% of his time inside Leroy Merlin and 50% on his own company, while the retailer funded his education. The arrangement placed him in the e-commerce division of one of France’s largest retail sites and gave him exposure to skills in SEO, SEA, product management and online merchandising. It also reinforced a theme that runs through his career: direct outreach to decision-makers can work when paired with a clear proposition.
Growth, fundraising and collapse
Algar expanded and raised funds, but the company later failed, leading to court proceedings and receivership. The collapse was personally severe: Aurélien said he could no longer pay himself, gave up his apartment, sold his furniture, moved in with friends and gained 100 pounds in three years. He described 2024 as the worst year of his life, saying there were days when he did not get out of bed and feared he might die under the weight of the crisis.
Public accountability and a second act
Rather than conceal the failure, he disclosed it to investors and went through the consequences publicly. That response became central to his professional rebound. Eric Larchevêque, known for co-founding Ledger, later argued that having confronted failure directly made Aurélien more valuable, not less, because it demonstrated resilience, honesty and the ability to rebuild.
Leading Scale after the crash
Aurélien now runs Scale, part of TBSO, as chief executive for the product. The company offers support to entrepreneurs ranging from freelancers to industrial SMEs through three pillars: AI tools, access to about 40 experts, and a peer community. It hosts two to three live sessions a day, uses AI to diagnose business priorities and direct members toward the right specialists, and has begun organizing in-person events such as Scale Experience, which gathered 300 people in Paris.
A philosophy of audacity
Alongside his work at Scale, Aurélien is writing a book on audacity and what he calls opening doors intelligently rather than blindly. His account suggests that boldness alone was never enough; timing, preparation and the person waiting behind the door also mattered. That mix of nerve and method runs from his apprenticeship years to startup fundraising and his current role helping other founders grow.
CONCLUSION
Aurélien’s path links vocational training, startup ambition, collapse and reconstruction into a broader lesson about social mobility and entrepreneurial risk. His current role at Scale shows how failure, when fully owned, can become part of a founder’s credibility rather than the end of it.
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