He Scaled a Company From $7M to $60M by Acquisition | Alex Prokofjev

Épisode de La Reprise by Théau Ravier par La Reprise by Théau Ravier · 31 juillet 2026 · 58 min

Most people think a roll-up is just financial engineering: buy at 5x, sell at 10x, pocket the spread. Alex Prokofjev has done it at scale, and he says the numbers are the easy part.

A former investment banker, Alex scaled Threecolts from $7M to $60M as CFO, then founded RollUp Europe. He breaks down how roll-ups actually get built in Europe: the three possible structures, why the first question is whether you're an allocator or an operator, the real entry multiples, and why cross-sell almost never works.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction

00:45 From banking to buying software

02:57 Why separate CFO and Head of M&A

04:50 Threecolts: $7M to $60M, ~20 deals

06:04 Leaving a safe career for media

07:22 RollUp Europe today

07:57 Talent, capital, community

11:30 Why now: the generational wave

12:51 One company vs a roll-up

13:23 Allocator or operator? Exit to PE

14:51 The holdco compounders

16:24 VC-backed roll-ups

18:34 What AI changes about risk

19:17 The "doomed" software edge

20:46 How the Rollup Bootcamp was born

24:30 A new self-service course

25:39 Théau's story: operator vs dealmaker

28:23 Start with your motivation

30:53 How much control do you want?

32:26 Holdco vs buy-and-build thesis

34:17 How many targets you need

34:56 Buying with no money

36:22 You're buying founders

39:38 Target size and the tiny-company trap

41:47 Why cross-sell and central teams fail

42:33 The perfect deal

44:17 "What's your dream?"

44:59 How to finance the deal

46:17 Knowing these investors exist

49:31 The multiples that matter

51:04 Brokers and price discovery

52:42 From 5x to 10x: becoming infrastructure

55:16 Integrated vs "patchwork" roll-ups

57:45 Final word: ETA is freedom

Our guest

Alex Prokofjev: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aleksejsprokofjevs

RollUp Europe: https://rollupeurope.com/

La Reprise, Théau Ravier's podcast about buying businesses.

Théau Ravier: https://www.linkedin.com/in/theauravier/

Hébergé par Ausha. Visitez ausha.co/politique-de-confidentialite pour plus d'informations.

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Je rachète des entreprises digitales. Et je documente tout. La Reprise, c'est le podcast ou j'interview des entrepreneurs, investisseurs et repreneurs qui ont acheté, retapé et developpé des entreprises. Pas de théorie mais des histoires réelles, des chiffres réels, des galères réelles. Ce que…

La Reprise by Théau Ravier

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