Most venture builders start with a team and then look for a problem. Repeat Builders, a new Sydney-based operation, does it the other way around. It commits to funding a business idea first, and only after that does it go hunting for the founders to run it.
The model is straightforward, if audacious. The studio identifies and validates a business concept, then commits AUD $3 million to fund it over two years, covering salaries, technology, and marketing. It then recruits a founding team to execute the plan, offering them a 30% equity stake in the independent company from day one. The goal is to launch five such ventures within its first year [CFO Tech, 2024]. The pitch is a reversal of the usual founder grind: here is the capital, the concept, and the operational support; you bring the sector expertise and the drive.
The Quant Trader's Venture Formula
Repeat Builders is the solo project of Andonis Sakatis, a former quantitative trading executive who spent over a decade at firms like GSA Capital and XTX Markets before launching a consumer brand [CFO Tech, 2024] [Dynamic Business, 2024]. This background is the entire engine of the model. There are no disclosed external investors; the capital appears to be Sakatis's own. This self-funding approach sidesteps the fundraising circus but also caps the scale of ambition to the depth of a single pocket. The studio's website and a brief LinkedIn video outline a support system covering product, engineering, talent, and governance, aiming to be a full-service launchpad [Repeat Builders, 2024] [LinkedIn, 2024].
The appeal for a potential founder is clear. It removes the two most common early-stage friction points: securing initial capital and pivoting from a raw idea to a validated product-market fit. In theory, a technical or commercial expert can step into a CEO role with a funded, structured company already in motion. The 30% starting equity is a significant slice compared to the typical founder dilution after multiple funding rounds, though it comes with the caveat that the core intellectual property and company direction were established externally.
The Validation Gambit
The entire bet rests on the quality of that initial validation. If Repeat Builders is exceptionally good at picking problems that are both urgent and solvable, it creates immense use. If it is average, it simply becomes a very expensive way to start companies that might have been conceived differently. The public record offers no case studies yet, as no ventures have been announced, though job postings for a "Newco Startup Founder" suggest the search is active [AshbyHQ, 2024].
The model also faces a natural scaling limit. Five ventures at AUD $3 million each would require a AUD $15 million war chest in the first year alone, all from a single source. That is a substantial private commitment. The studio's success, therefore, won't be measured by the number of launches but by the performance of the first few. A single breakout could validate the entire premise and attract co-investors; a string of modest outcomes would quickly exhaust the runway.
For a climate or energy reporter, the arithmetic is always the first stop. Take that AUD $3 million per venture. Spread over two years, that's about AUD $125,000 per month to cover everything from salaries to servers. It's a serious burn rate for a pre-revenue company, more akin to a well-funded Series A operation than a scrappy seed. The question becomes what kind of business needs that level of capital from day zero. It suggests Repeat Builders is targeting ventures with immediate physical or technical build-out,think hardware, biotech, or complex SaaS,rather than capital-light software. The incumbent it must beat isn't another studio; it's the traditional seed VC model that gives founders full control and a larger initial stake, betting on the team first and the idea second. Repeat Builders is betting the idea is the harder, more valuable part to get right.
Sources
- [CFO Tech, 2024] Sydney builder backs startups with AUD $3 million each | https://cfotech.com.au/story/sydney-builder-backs-startups-with-aud-3-million-each
- [Dynamic Business, 2024] Weekly funding roundup | https://dynamicbusiness.com/topics/news/weekly-funding-roundup-seed-rounds-government-grants-and-a-16m-launch-dominate-this-week.html
- [Repeat Builders, 2024] Repeat Builders - Venture Success Engineered Right From Zero | https://www.repeatbuilders.com/
- [LinkedIn, 2024] Here's a short video that captures how Repeat Builders works | https://www.linkedin.com/posts/repeatbuilders_heres-a-short-video-that-captures-how-repeat-activity-7452577261196689408-BBRi
- [AshbyHQ, 2024] Newco Startup Founder @ Repeat Builders | https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/repeatbuilders/ab8055c3-af06-4d64-8af3-ba403d0195f2