Finder founder Fred Schebesta praises teens who almost pulled off fake marriage

Two Sydney teens, busted by their parents for trying to hold a party by getting “married”, have been given a stunning offer by serial entreprenuer Fred Schebesta.

Two young Sydney school students found themselves in hot water earlier this month after they came up with a genius plan to get around coronavirus restrictions and hold a massive party by getting “married”.

But the out-of-the-box idea didn’t just catch the attention of the boys’ parents — it also caught the eye of serial entrepreneur Fred Schebesta.

Mr Schebesta, best known for starting comparison site Finder, took to LinkedIn earlier this week to praise the boys’ ingenuity.

“Does anyone know these Sydney Grammar School students? I want to hire them! These students pulled off an incredibly creative and clever way to have a party during COVID,” Mr Schebesta, a Sydney Grammar alum himself, wrote.

Fred Schebesta - co-founder of cryptocurrency broker service HiveEx.com and comparison website Finder.com

The two private school boys’ fake wedding was abruptly cancelled when their parents found out they were trying to bypass coronavirus restrictions and hold a 150-person party.

The coronavirus restrictions in NSW at the time allowed up to 20 people at household gatherings however weddings were permitted up to 150 people, provided guests follow the one person per four square metre rule and were granted an exemption from NSW Health.

The boys almost pulled off the plan before photos of the pair, posing with their certificate, were shared online, with one of the parents rushing home to stop the massive formal after-party they had planned.

Photos of the ceremony on November 12, during the HSC exam period, went viral, prompting their furious parents, who were away at the time, to intervene.

The two students from Sydney Grammar.

The parents rushed back to their North Shore mansion and quickly cancelled the party.

“Clearly, this was a silly teenage idea,” the father of one of the boys said in a statement to The Daily Telegraph at the time.

“However, no legally binding ceremony took place and we shut down the planned private celebratory event as soon as we found out about it and thankfully, nobody was put at risk.

“Furthermore, we immediately engaged a security firm to ensure that if anyone tried to attend, they would be turned away – and no-one did actually turn up.”

But Mr Schebesta — who earned a spot on the Australian Financial Review’s Young Rich List last year with a fortune of $193 million — saw the event differently.

“I went to the same school as these students and I can relate to the conflict I felt when I was young. We were taught to be risk averse while entrepreneurialism is all about challenges and taking calculated risks,” Mr Schebesta told news.com.au.

“It’s about jumping into the unknown and disrupting the traditional ways of doing things. Especially when you create something that has never been done before, it’s impossible to forecast how well it will do, and what it will achieve.

“But that’s the beauty of starting something new, you make mistakes along the way and learn to pivot and adapt.”

Sydney Grammar School.

The father of one of the boys earlier said his son was “fully aware” of the importance of complying with coronavirus restrictions and had apologised to his family.

“Our son has apologised to our family, as well as to the other families who were involved, and we have made it clear to him how important compliance with the coronavirus restrictions is,” the dad said.

A friend of the boys said the plan would go down as a “great story”.

He said the address of the party got leaked after the first social media post, foiling the plan.

“They were like, ‘The only way we can do this is by getting a marriage exemption’ so these two best friends got married,” he said.

“And it all worked out except one of their parents didn’t know, they found out through the social media post, cancelled their holiday, came back and the after-party didn’t eventuate.”