Finder co-founder Fred Schebesta reveals his Covid success tips as Rob Adams starts SEND grocery app

One of Australia’s youngest and richest millionaire entrepreneurs has revealed his tips for success as the pandemic sparks a record surge in new businesses.

The number of actively trading businesses in Australia climbed by a record 3.8 per cent during the last financial year despite snap lockdowns, with a grocery delivery start-up inspired by a high school dropout worrying about his grandma.

Despite the upheaval of the Covid pandemic, there were 87,806 more businesses that were created than closed, new Australian Bureau of Statistics data has revealed. 

The number of new businesses increased by 365,480 or 15.8 per cent which more than offset the 277,674 or 12 per cent rise in businesses closing, as entrepreneurs embraced technology.

New, non-store retailing had an even bigger increase of 20.8 per cent as repeated lockdowns saw more consumers opt for online purchases. 

As of June 30, there were 2,402,254 actively trading businesses in Australia.  

Fred Schebesta, the co-founder of financial comparison website Finder, has written a new book, ‘Go Live! 10 Principles To Launch A Global Empire’.

The 40-year-old entrepreneur, worth an estimated $214million by The Australian Financial Review’s Young Rich List panel in 2020, said too many people put off starting a business because they wanted to have the perfect idea.

Instead, Mr Schebesta advocated the mindset of persevering and learning from small errors going by the principle: ‘If you’re not making mistakes you’re not trying hard enough.’ 

‘The last person to give up is usually the one who wins,’ he said in his book. 

Mr Schebesta also pointed out he had failed 39 times in setting up small ventures, but learned lessons along the way.

His previous businesses ranged from labouriously finding lost superannuation to a digital marketing agency helping businesses with their search engine optimisation on Google.

To succeed, entrepreneurs needed to be focused on their purpose and understand why they existed in the first place. 

‘You can’t reach hyper success without a growth mindset,’ Mr Schebesta said. 

He also suggested a good business was like a vitamin – a product used everyday to improve the quality of life – instead of an aspirin, a painkiller only used occasionally. 

During the start of the pandemic in March 2020, Finder lost $2million in revenue overnight and had to cut back on its spending.

To survive, the website introduced a listing feature enabling consumers to directly buy much-needed hand sanitiser back when these items were in short supply in shops.

It also launched an app so people would use that instead of just visiting the website, which boosted revenue.

Finder launched in 2006 and evolved into a financial comparison website in 2012.

The business, that Mr Schebesta co-founded with his high school friend Frank Restuccia, has comparison tables for products, ranging from credit cards to home loans and airfares.

Companies pay a commission to Finder for referral traffic. 

Mr Schebesta, who lives in a $17milllion clifftop mansion at Coogee in Sydney, said business that thrived during the pandemic were able to pivot.

‘The pandemic showed us how to prepare for the unexpected,’ he said.

‘It proved that those who have a growth mindset – who embrace challenges and setbacks, who can adapt and pivot quickly – who ultimately build sustainable businesses.’

With lockdowns keeping people at home in Sydney, Northern Beaches high school dropout Rob Adams, 29, started SEND in February, after a year of practice, with the aim of delivering groceries within 15 minutes, from snacks to dairy products to fresh produce.

He started Australia’s first online-only supermarket after noticing his grandmother was in the super-vulnerable category and was struggling to get basic daily necessities as traditional supermarkets became Covid exposure sites.

‘Aligned with the pandemic, it was clear that gaining access to basic daily necessities was becoming a common problem for people like my grandmother,’ Mr Adams told Daily Mail Australia.

‘It was also evident that even the least likely people to adopt technology were converting in droves as more and more people were ordering food online and via applications. 

‘Seeing how my grandmother was affected on such a personal level solidified our assumption that we were going to experience a profound shift from offline to online shopping.’

The likes of UberEats and Deliveroo focus on takeaway food, so Mr Adams took that home delivery concept and applied it to groceries.

Coles and Woolworths have shopping apps but they require customers to pick up the goods from the front of a store.

With the SEND app, consumers choose the goods they need with the promise of very quick delivery.

His start-up idea has already attracted $3.1million investment from venture capital firms including Germany based Cherry Ventures and New York based FJ Labs, with three shops spread across Sydney and Melbourne.

It has outlets at Alexandria and Potts Points, in inner-city Sydney, and Southbank in Melbourne.  

Each shop has 10 to 20 delivery riders and Mr Adams aims to have a nation-wide presence by the end of 2021 with 30 shops.

Mr Adams started his app by contacting Aurbind Sharma, the director of an Indian software development firm who he had met online.

Without capital of his own, Mr Adams convinced Mr Sharma to become a co-founder of a company that stored goods in a warehouse and dispatched them.