Backing two ambitious Australians

After reviewing the final entries, Stake founders Matt Leibowitz and Dan Silver landed on two stories they couldn’t look past. Two very different founders. Two very different ideas. One thing in common: the determination to build something thoughtful, original and genuinely worth supporting.

So instead of choosing one winner, Matt and Dan put in another $10,000 of their own money in order to back both.

That means our Ambition Project winners are Cat of Naluka and George of Sandie – entrepreneurs pushing in different directions, each with a clear point of view about what they want to build and why it matters.

Cat – Naluka wetsuits

Cat’s ambition is to turn Naluka into a global, environmentally friendly women’s surf brand. It’s the kind of ambition that starts with a personal frustration, then keeps growing.

After moving to Australia for the love of surfing, Cat struggled to find women’s wetsuits that felt right for her. As she put it in her entry, the options in market were either plain and uninspiring, or overly decorative in a way that felt juvenile. Just as importantly, many of them didn’t live up to expectations in the water. So she decided to create the wetsuit she wished existed: one that felt elegant, looked timeless and held up from a performance point of view.

That idea now lives in Naluka, a Sydney-based brand focused on women’s wetsuits made from Japanese limestone neoprene. This material offers stretch, warmth and durability while reducing reliance on petroleum-based alternatives. Naluka positions itself around ‘performance, elegance, and conscious manufacturing’. The name blends the Hawaiian word nalu, meaning wave, and the Australian Indigenous word iluka, meaning by the sea.

What makes Cat’s story compelling is that Naluka isn’t just a product idea – it’s the meeting point of design training, lived experience and long-held intent. Cat says she has wanted to build an environmentally friendly fashion brand since graduating in Design & Management from Parsons School of Design, in New York. Her career has taken her from NY to Milan to Sydney, including roles at Saint Laurent, Alexander Wang, Carolina Herrera, Bally and Oroton.

That background helps explain Naluka’s point of difference. The brand is not trying to be a generic surf label. It’s aiming for a more refined design language. As Matt puts it, 'You can see the deep love she has for what she is doing and the attention to detail of each element of the wetsuit. Ambition mixed with mastery is a recipe for magic!'

The wetsuits are inspired by corsetry, minimal branding and a strong focus on flattering fit across body shapes. The existing product range includes springsuits, wetsuit tops, shorts and a Long Jane, all designed for women and sold directly online.

“Cat has brought together her passions across surfing, design and the environment and created a wetsuit that looks awesome and is designed with the customer at heart.”
— Dan Silver

There’s something especially resonant about the stage Cat is at right now. In her entry, she speaks about officially selling wetsuits since May 2025 while still working four days a week in a corporate fashion design role. The ambition she presents isn’t a polished end state, but a real balancing act: building a business, shaping a brand and trying to push a ‘first season’ into something sustainable. Her next step is already clear too, with plans to expand into recycled swimwear and apparel.

Naluka is design-led but practical. Environmentally minded without losing sight of product. Above all, it comes from a founder who saw a gap, trusted her vision and decided to build the thing she couldn’t find. That really resonated with Matt and Dan.

George – Sandie furniture

George’s story begins in a very different place: not in fashion or branding, but with recycled plastic sheets, a big press and a willingness to figure things out on the fly.

In his entry, George explains that two and a half years ago, he and his mate Paddy moved to country Victoria to start a recycled plastics business. The early years were scrappy. By his own account, they didn’t really know what they were doing at first and took on whatever work they could in order to survive. 

Rather than framing ambition as certainty, George frames it as persistence – learning through doing, staying in the game and refining the idea once the signal becomes clear.

That signal came through repeat orders for kids’ furniture sets. This meant they were onto something, but also that the product could be pushed further. The ambition George shared with us is to build affordable, good-looking, long-lasting kids’ furniture made in Australia using 100% recycled materials. The brand is called Sandie. This one simply blends their mum’s names, Susie and Amanda.

“Ambition oozes from Paddy and George. The sacrifice the guys have made to get the business off the ground is so inspiring. To be able to support them on their journey is very exciting too.”
 — Matt Leibowitz

The idea sits at the intersection of several real pressures at once. Australian families want products that last. Design-conscious customers increasingly want sustainability to be built into the product itself rather than added as a marketing layer. Manufacturing in Australia still matters, especially when a product’s durability and material quality are central to the pitch. Sandie speaks directly to all three.

There’s restraint in the way George talks about it. He isn’t claiming to have built an empire. The two mates are still close to the workshop. Still close to the material. Still immersed in the hands-on problem-solving that defines a lot of Aussie small businesses. What George sells is the forward vision: making kids’ furniture that looks good, lasts well and is made from 100% recycled materials. That focus gives the ambition weight. It feels grounded, not inflated. 

Dan says, 'Paddy and George have spent over two years of true hustle. They kept experimenting and found their niche. The product looks great and I want to get it for my kids!'

More than trying to make a product, they’re trying to build a better use for waste, a better manufacturing story and better objects for family life. That’s definitely worth backing.

Two different paths, one shared quality

Cat and George are innovating in different categories, but they share the thing the Ambition Project was created to recognise: the willingness to back yourself before the outcome is guaranteed.

For Cat, that meant turning a design frustration into a surf brand with a distinct aesthetic and environmental point of view. For George (and his mate Paddy), it meant moving to the country, learning through uncertainty and finding a bigger product vision within the work that kept the lights on.

Neither story feels finished, and that’s what we love. They’re ambitious because both founders are clearly in motion. They’ve found something worth pursuing and are committed to taking it further.

That’s why one winner was not enough.

Follow @catduval and @geor.gejohnston, as well as @nalukaofficial and @sandie.street