Fred Schebesta Travels from Sydney, NSW

Their next venture was Finder, which exploded into the comparison market in 2009 – one of the most highly competitive internet categories.

Finder was born out of a simple concept: to educate Australians and directly compare student credit cards. The magic sauce was leveraging all the proven and best practice digital marketing strategies they used to sell to their clients.

Over the years, it expanded and evolved to compare thousands of products across different industries. Finder now compares virtually everything from cryptocurrency exchanges and wallets, credit cards and insurance to savings, travel, technology and electronics. Fred’s vision is to better all the world’s decisions by building “the Amazon of comparison”.

Following the success of Finder in Australia, Fred and Frank launched in the United States in July 2015 and in the United Kingdom in February 2017. Today, the company operates in more than 80 countries, employs 400 people globally, and attracts 10 million visits each month.

More recently Fred has gone back to his true passion of launching new businesses, by spearheading the group’s venture capital arm, Finder Ventures. The first business to launch was a cryptocurrency brokerage, HiveEx.com, after noticing a need for a brokerage service to help people buy and sell large volumes of cryptocurrency. It also helps digital asset companies get banked. Fred plans to change the way the world banks with digital assets.

As one of Australia’s most successful entrepreneurs, Fred has countless accolades to his name, including Entrepreneur of the Year by Blockchain Australia Industry Awards 2019, Blockchain Australia Fellow, three prestigious awards in 2017 by global professional services company, EY (Ernst & Young): Entrepreneur of the Year, Australian National Winner – Services Category, Australian National Finalist – Eastern Region, and Australian Regional Finalist – Eastern Region. 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.

In both 2011 and 2012, Fred was selected as a judge for the Startup Smart Awards, and in 2014 he was a judge for Money Magazine’s Best of the Best Awards. He was also named in Business Insider’s 2016 Coolest 100 people in Australian tech.

Passionate about sharing his success and giving back to the business community, Fred authored the popular eBook, ‘How to create an Online Marketing Campaign that Sells’. He also regularly speaks at blockchain and business events. He is a regular contributor and thought leader in the media.