Corneliu Său
Corneliu Său

Corneliu Său

  • Founder of TANDEM — from $300 to €18 million in annual sales
  • 22+ years in business, 2 factories, 300+ employees
  • Showrooms in Chișinău, Bucharest and Brașov
  • Exports to France, Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Belgium
  • Mentor and author of the ACME — Life by Design programme
  • Man of the Year 2022 — VIP Magazin
  • Host of the ÎN TANDEM podcast — 20 episodes
  • Investor and partner to entrepreneurs in Moldova and Romania
  • Explorer: Antarctica, Tibet, Peru, India
  • Husband, father, traveller
ACME MentoringSpeaking & eventsInvestment & partnershipsTANDEM · bespoke furniturePodcast & mediaContact

Mentoring with Corneliu Său

The ACME group after a session in Chișinău

Mentoring with Corneliu Său · edition 8.0

ACME.

Life by Design

A programme in which you build a life plan that genuinely works — alongside an entrepreneur who built his own starting from $300.

ACME participants outdoors during the immersion weekend

22–24 September · Oxentea

3 days away from routine

The immersion weekend: reviewing your life, shaping the vision and the first plan — away from the phone and the office.

An ACME session held in a circle, in Chișinău

Chișinău · 3 monthly sessions

Reflection, feedback, plan

In the morning each participant presents their progress and receives individual feedback. In the afternoon — a session with a special guest.

Corneliu Său alongside a guest of the programme

Special guests

People who have done it

Entrepreneurs, investors and experts who come to explain how they built what they built — without textbook theory.

  • Safar MammadovPhD in economics
  • Veaceslav CunevPhD in computer science
  • Ecaterina GoncharovaPersonal finance and investment consultant
  • Vasile TofanPrime Minister of the Republic of Moldova
  • Ion SturzaEntrepreneur and investor
  • Victor SholoshencoSpecial guest
A gathering of the ACME community

The ACME community

8 editions. One community.

Graduates stay in the programme: meetings, trips and mutual support long after the final session.

8editions
3months of programme
6special guests

Next edition

Limited places

About the programmeApply

Registration and details

Victoria Ciobanu

+40 730 718 433[email protected]
TANDEM — bespoke furniture
VIP MagazinMan of the Year 2022
TANDEM CASA10 years on the Romanian market
Business Magazin“From $300 to €18 million”

TANDEM — bespoke furniture

In 2002, Corneliu and three university classmates turned a bankrupt sock factory into a mattress factory. The first product was ready in 10 days, in a 12 m² office.

Today TANDEM makes bespoke kitchens, sofas, bedrooms and walk-in wardrobes in two factories in Chișinău and sells in Moldova, Romania and five further European countries.

300+employees across the two factories in Chișinău
10,000+clients served every year
PRIMUL ATELIER · 2002

2002 — the beginning

The business that began with $300 and 12 m²

Before TANDEM there was a barber's shop opened during his student years and a sock factory that went bankrupt, leaving $20,000 in debt. From that empty building, in 2002, came the first mattress factory.

  • starting capital, in 2002
  • combined sales, 2021
  • clients every year

The journey

  • 1977

    Râșcani

    Born on 16 May, in the north of the Republic of Moldova.

  • 1995

    Physics and mathematics

    Qualifies as a teacher of physics and mathematics. Later adds an MBA in management.

  • 1998

    The first business

    Opens a barber's shop during his student years. His first lesson in clients and cash flow.

  • 2000

    Bankruptcy

    The sock factory closes with $20,000 in debt. The lesson that built everything that followed.

  • 2002

    TANDEM, $300

    With three university classmates he turns the bankrupt factory into a mattress factory. The first product — in 10 days.

  • 2006

    Own furniture

    From mattresses to bespoke furniture. Eight designers in the team.

  • 2008

    A major player

    In the middle of the financial crisis, TANDEM becomes a significant manufacturer on the Moldovan market.

  • 2015

    Romania

    The first showroom in Bucharest. Within a few months — five.

  • 2017

    The Petricani factory

    Construction begins on the new factory in Chișinău, on 25,000 m².

  • 2021

    €18 million

    Combined sales across both markets, with a profit margin of 7%.

  • 2022

    Man of the Year

    VIP Magazin names him Man of the Year. The Băneasa showroom opens.

  • 2024

    ACME

    Launches the ACME — Life by Design mentoring programme and becomes a partner of the Megacampus Summit Dubai.

Investment & partnerships

Investment & partnerships

Corneliu invests in businesses in Moldova and Romania — manufacturing, retail, services — and comes in as a partner where he can contribute more than capital: operational experience, systems and access to markets.

If you have a project you believe in, send it in a single page: what you do, who for, where you are now and what you need.

Write directly[email protected]
Invite Corneliu to your event
Invite Corneliu to your event
Invite Corneliu to your event
Invite Corneliu to your event
Invite Corneliu to your event

Speaking & events

Twenty years of building a factory from nothing, an international expansion and a bankruptcy that taught him everything — told without corporate slides and without a rose-tinted narrative.

He speaks about starting a business from nothing, scaling and expansion, Kaizen in manufacturing, the balance between business, family and health — and about designing your life deliberately.

Topics

  • Entrepreneurship from nothing
  • Scaling and international expansion
  • Kaizen and efficiency in manufacturing
  • Life by Design: balancing business and family
  • From bankruptcy to profit

Formats

  • Keynote, 30–60 min
  • Panel & moderation
  • Masterclass for teams
LanguagesRomanian, Russian
Business BrainsMegacampus DubaiJCI BalkanTekwillAFAMAcasă la MăruțăTitaniaDAD PodcastBusiness BrainsMegacampus DubaiJCI BalkanTekwillAFAMAcasă la MăruțăTitaniaDAD Podcast

Podcast

Long, unhurried conversations with people who have built something real in Moldova and beyond it: how they started, what it cost them and what they learned along the way.

20 episodes

All episodes

Listen on

The philosophy

The philosophy

Life does not simply happen — it is designed. Business, family, health, travel — held in balance, not taken in turn.

Kaizen — 1% better every day — works just as well in a factory as it does in personal life. The rest is discipline, new experiences and the people you help to grow.

He has explored Antarctica, Tibet and Peru — and learned that the mountain is like chess: you play against yourself
He has explored Antarctica, Tibet and Peru — and learned that the mountain is like chess: you play against yourself
He has explored Antarctica, Tibet and Peru — and learned that the mountain is like chess: you play against yourself
He has explored Antarctica, Tibet and Peru — and learned that the mountain is like chess: you play against yourself
He has explored Antarctica, Tibet and Peru — and learned that the mountain is like chess: you play against yourself
He has explored Antarctica, Tibet and Peru — and learned that the mountain is like chess: you play against yourself
He has explored Antarctica, Tibet and Peru — and learned that the mountain is like chess: you play against yourself

Explorer

For me, mountains are like chess — you play against yourself, and mistakes are not allowed. Only you, the mountains and those ahead of you or behind you matter.

Antarctica, Tibet, Everest, Peru, India — not as a tourist, but as someone looking for new experiences and for his own limits.

With his family he goes camping, without internet, cooking outdoors. He says that is where you learn best who you are.

Latest appearances

Podcasts, TV interviews and press features from Moldova and Romania — from the story of a factory started with $300 to burnout, Kaizen and the balance between business and family.

45 items in the archive

All appearances
Moldoveanul care lucrează la Boeing: o poveste despre pasiune, aviație și visuri devenite realitateMarin Vidrașco este angajat al The Boeing Company, una dintre cele mai mari companii aerospațiale din lume și unul dintre cei mai mari exportatori ai Statelor Unite, cu peste 180.000 de anga08/28/2026ÎN TANDEM · ZIUA PlusPodcasts
Adrian Hotineanu, despre chirurgie, Repromed, vocația de medic și omul din spatele halatuluiProfesorul Adrian Hotineanu este medic chirurg, profesor universitar, directorul și fondatorul Spitalului Repromed și una dintre personalitățile care au contribuit la dezvoltarea chirurgiei 08/21/2026ÎN TANDEM · ZIUA PlusPodcasts
Moldoveanul care a construit un business de milioane în America. Povestea lui Vasilii TipaVasilii Tipa este un antreprenor ambițios și orientat spre rezultate, activ în industria transporturilor din SUA.08/14/2026ÎN TANDEM · ZIUA PlusPodcasts
FOTO DE ARHIVĂ · COPILĂRIE · RÂȘCANI

Biography

  • Teacher of physics and mathematics, then an MBA in management
  • First business — a barber's shop, during his student years
  • Second — a sock factory that went bankrupt
  • 2002 — founds TANDEM with $300 and three university classmates
  • 2015 — opens the first showroom in Romania
  • Has lived in Bucharest with his family since 2018
I am at my best as a husband, a father and a traveller

Family

With his family he goes camping, without internet, cooking outdoors — he says that is where the things that matter take shape. Alongside his businesses, in Romania he has funded five heart operations for five children.

Choose the right direction — you reach the person who handles it directly.

For anything else: proposals, collaborations, questions.