Fred Schebesta, co-founder of Finder
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To contact Fred
TikTok: @fred.schebesta
Instagram: fredschebesta
LinkedIn: Fred Schebesta
Twitter: @Schebesta
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Finder is about providing a platform for empowerment, to help you live a better life.”
As a best-selling author, cryptocurrency expert and international speaker, Fred Schebesta is one of Australia's most respected entrepreneurs.
Fred is the co-founder of Finder – Australia's leading comparison website and a global fintech – which sees more than 10 million visits each month globally. At just 26 years of age, Fred entered the comparison market, one of the most highly competitive online categories in Australia, before expanding globally and revolutionising the comparison site into a fintech, diving deep into the crypto space.
Following its success in Australia, Fred and his business partner, Frank Restuccia, and co-founder Jeremy Cabral, launched finder.com into the United States in July 2015, before expanding to the United Kingdom in 2017.
However, Fred's entrepreneurial journey started well before finder.com. At just 22 years of age, while studying a Bachelor of Finance degree at Macquarie University in Sydney, he and Frank created Freestyle Media and grew the business into a successful digital agency that sold to a publicly-listed company in 2007.
More recently, Fred has focused on cryptocurrency and developing new business ideas. In 2018, Fred established a venture capital arm, Finder Ventures, and the first business to launch was a cryptocurrency brokerage, HiveEx. Fred spearheaded the group's evolution as a fintech company with the Finder App in 2020, which is an Australian-first innovation that combines personal finance management with comparison, as well as cryptocurrency trading and the high yield product, Finder Earn.
Fred launched Schebesta Ventures in 2020, a platform to help more startups develop their business ideas. His first published book, "Go Live! 10 Principles to Launch a Global Empire" is a #1 Amazon Best Seller and shares Fred's journey of building online businesses for the past 22 years and the principles behind his success.
With a continued passion for crypto, Fred launched blockchain investment fund Hive Empire Capital in 2021, and co-founded Balthazar, a leading NFT gaming platform empowering a community of gamers to create a self-sustaining, wealth-building ecosystem.
As one of Australia's most successful entrepreneurs, Fred has several accolades to his name, including LinkedIn Top Voices of Australia 2020, Entrepreneur of the Year by Blockchain Australia Industry Awards 2019, Blockchain Australia Fellow 2019, three prestigious awards in 2017 by global professional services company, EY, including Entrepreneur of the Year, Australian National Winner – Services Category. Fred was also awarded ADMA Australian Young Direct Marketer of the Year in 2006, and at just 23, he was listed in Australian Anthill's 30 under 30.
For media enquiries, please contact Michelle Hutchison at michelle@finder.com.
More guides on Finder
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Graham Cooke, Head of Consumer Research | International
Graham Cooke is the Insights Analyst at finder.com.au, with a heavy focus on online content curation and strategy.
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Frank Restuccia, Co-founder of finder.com.au
Frank Restuccia is committed to helping all Australians find better deals and make better product choices that will save money with finder.com.au.
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Michelle Hutchison, Global Head of PR & Money Expert at finder.com.au
Michelle Hutchison is finder.com.au's resident Money Expert, talking all things finance and helping Australians learn how to save money.
Ask an Expert
Hi Fred!
We haven’t met before – my name is Liz Kaelin and I am the founder of Caitre’d. We’re the catering platform that your staff uses to buy lunches for your team.
I just wanted to say thank you so much for your business! We really appreciate being able to serve Finder.
I know that you give talks here and there but we’ve not managed to cross paths. So thought I would reach out, intro myself and say thank you!
Thanks again and hope to run into you at an event soon!
Regards,
Liz
Hi Fred I just found out about you because your my entrepreneur in HASS p.s I’m in yr 7. What is 3 of Fred Schebesta’s problems that he faced in the growing of his business and how did he solve them.
Hi Abbey,
Thank you for asking your questions about the business and how it was built. Firstly, there are 120 great people at finder that have built it to what it is, I didn’t built it myself ;-) . I applaud your tenacity as a young entrepreneur to get out there and give it a go. I hope your HASS course is going well.
To answer your questions:
”
What is 3 of Fred Schebesta’s problems that he faced in the growing of his business and how did he solve them.
”
My 3 problems I faced in growing the business:
Finding great people to work at finder – To solve it I built a great machine that sorts and tests to find the best people.
Getting lots of people to see finder – To solve it we worked out some really great ways to get people’s attention and invite them to visit the finder website. “Internet Marketing”!
Getting lots of clients onto the website – We went out to their offices and we showed them with pictures and words why they should put their businesses on finder.
I too have a 7 year old daughter her name is Portia. Maybe you guys might be friends?
I admire your courage to ask your questions and encourage you to always keep asking questions to other people all your life. Most of the time, they will help you achieve what you are trying to do. I am inspired to see such a great little entrepreneur starting out and asking for help.
If you ever need any more questions answered, please send me more emails I would be delighted to help.
At your service,
Fred Schebesta
This is now my second inquiry – it is well over two weeks since I requested to cash out my cards. Now feeling a bit cross that my money hasn’t been credited to my bank account.
Hi Clare,
Thanks for your feedback.
Please note that you’ve come through to finder.com.au, an online comparison service. We are not a product issuer and we’re not directly affiliated with MasterCard.
It’s probably best for you to speak to MasterCard directly to enquire about the status of your funds.
Please ensure you review the relevant Product Disclosure Statements/Terms and Conditions for more details about your card.
Just passing on my previous response to your first inquiry in case you didn’t receive it, your request should be processed within 10 business days. Please note that your funds may take longer to be seen in your account due to delays in the banking system.
Cheers,
Shirley
How you going Fred? Your business is good and very successful and i admire you. Thanks
Thanks for your support Mitch!