Kosta Drakopoulos is the founder of the firm Drakk. The company builds small apartment projects in the $5 million to $30 million range around Melbourne and Geelong. He also established the employment website Profilr.

He is featured in the Australian Financial Review (AFR) in the BRW Young Rich list for 2016 and Young Rich list 2017 as one of the most successful businessmen in the construction sector. In 2016 he was in place 42 with a fortune of $60.00m, whereas in 2017 he was ranked in 32nd place of the Financial Review Young Rich 2017 with a total fortune of $75m.

He was packing boxes for Nike and Fila after dropping out of a construction course when, at age 20, he decided to get back into the industry.

He first took an administration job before stints at Buxton Construction and the Hickory Group. He later gained his building licence before founding property firm Drakk in 2006.

Kosta wasn’t born into the business, nor did he invest his capital in it. He started low, from a warehouse, as a construction worker, and moved his way up with a lot of hard work and faith in his abilities. He is the definition of self-made, but even with a fortune worth more than $60 million, he still stops to enjoy the simple things in life; being a husband and a father to two daughters, as well as a caring son.

Coming from a small family of migrant parents from Kalamata and Limnos, he knows all too well what struggling to make a living means. Now that he can afford it, he visits Greece every second year with his wife and children, to ensure they stay connected to their Greek heritage.

To make his own living, young Kosta spent quite a few years packing boxes in a warehouse with a friend. At some point later on, he was hired as a form worker with the same company that employed his dad, a concrete finisher. They would take on jobs together as a team, but he soon realized it wasn’t his calling. Even though he loved the industry, he could not cope with the labour-intensive job and returned to the warehouse until he could figure out what to do with his life.

That first administrative position, at a small family company called F Vitale and Sons, paid a minor $24,000 a year, but for Kosta it became the springboard for his current success. He in fact worked for a few companies, before venturing out on his own.

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