The Chaser Report - We're *Officially* the Worst Business Ever | Fred Schebesta

Episode Date: November 13, 2022

Co-founder of Finder.com Fred Schebesta joins Charles and Dom to give them some business advice, unaware of how unsalvageable this company is. Fred also explains Finder’s partnership with charity Good360 to help people donate spare laptops to disadvantaged community members - find out more and donate money or a laptop here https://www.finder.com.au/laptop-launchpad Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Chaser Report is recorded on Gatigal Land. Striving for mediocrity in a world of excellence, this is The Chaser Report. Hello and welcome to The Chaser Report. It's Charles Firth and Dom Knight. Our guest today is Fred Shabesta. He's the co-founder of Finder.com, website where you go to find your credit card comparisons, tips on crypto, all kinds of things. And lots of things to talk about, Fred. Welcome. Thank you so much. I'm in the silo here. This is the Batcave. Yeah, the Chaser Bunker. glamorous.com office that we have.

And we're desperate to get your business tips on how to make a successful business out of the chaser. Because a couple of weeks ago, I saw you giving a speech and you talked about how important it was in business to be a chaos monkey. And I thought, why don't we get Fred to see what a genuinely chaotic internet business, not like your successful one, one that's been around for how many years is it now? We've been around for 23 years. And yet is completely chaotic and disastrous.

By the way, Fred, if you would like an inflatable avocado for your pool, there. I appreciate that. That's what we're selling this summer. That's our latest attempt to make. Oh, actually, can we get Finder.com to review that avocado and give it like, I mean, come into, you know. That'd be nice. You should come over to my house, zoom in the pool. Yes. On the avocados.

Shoot a little bit of a promo video. Yeah, like a promo video. Yes, that's it. When Fred says come out of my house, we're talking about the Crypto Castle. Jewel Leeper was there this week. What? I honestly think you'd sell avocado. If Fred, let me do that, you'd actually sell the avocado.

I'm trying to boot up your business as much as I possibly can. Okay. Done. That's a genuinely valuable offer and very, very kind. Okay, but Fred, let's start with what you've been up to this week, because you went to Reginal New South Wales to give away a laptop. Why on earth? When I was a kid, my mom, I was about 16 years old,

she went out and bought me a computer, and this is in the early 90s and buying a computer back then was like it was a significant investment of money yeah you know multiple thousands of dollars to buy this white box that you know had one button that's all it didn't and one button that was a bit of a real thing yeah

you probably shouldn't it should have got a keyboard for him I didn't get a keyboard I had a keyboard but anyway I from the sticks yeah I could only afford one key one screen light on light off You made it the queue, hopeless. And that changed my life because I learned how to build websites on that computer,

taught myself. Can I ask what type of computer it was? It was just a PC, hobbled together with the whole, you know, like how you can just put all the bits together? But it was like, how early are we talking? How, like, it was a 4-8-6. Oh, no, it was a Pentium. Charles used to, you know, because I used to build computers at school, yes.

You used to sell them as CF-4PM computers. It's true. And he made a bit of money out of it, actually. So you had a penny. What did you program in? It's out of interest. I was just writing initially I wrote HTML and then I wrote ASP and then I wrote PHP. Ah, lovely.

And finders actually built on WordPress. It runs on PSP. This will probably be cut out of the actual podcast. But whatever happened to ASP, because I loved ASP. ASP was so good. I built the Chase of website, the first iteration of the Chase of website, which actually functioned for about four or five years. It was all building ASP.

He just programmed. the whole thing himself. And it was before content management systems existed. Yes. And so when Crikey started, they were all boasting, oh, we've got HTML, like, come and see our hot shit. And I showed them what we were doing. Because I just came up with a few principles to make it, because it was all about

speed load time. So you didn't put all the content into the database. You'd put it into text files and reference the, you know, use the SQL. Fred's nodding as I speak in this in comprehensive I should use those queries to just reference sort of files and stuff of that

like I designed it quite light and they were going oh we should buy that you know anyway so I'm quite proud of you should be good that was the OG stuff this is one of many unsuccessful

I should have done into that I should have ditched the rest of the thing and concentrated on a CMET like I had I fucking built one of the first proper CMAS you could have sold it to finder.com You're like Atlassian before there was Alassian.

Yes, exactly. And also, and I'll just say one more thing, which is when the Olympics came along in 2000, right, so we had the Chaser website and we went, why don't we copy and paste the HTML design of the Olympic website? The official Olympics website. And I plugged it into the back end of the Chaser thing and made it work.

So the content management system worked with this skin. It looked exactly the same. S and stuff like that. This was like... OG. Yeah, it was OG. HTML. This is all going to be cut out of the podcast.

So Charles has made many bad life decisions. The first one was not using his genuine IT talent to start a successful business. But Fred, you are, you've got this scheme to unleash future Charlesers. Yes. By giving them laptops in regional Australia. Yeah, so I went out and met and gave a guy messaged me on TikTok and he said, you know, I was talking about a laptop and he said, and I told the story about my mom giving me a computer

and he said, can I get one? And I wrote back and I replied and I said, I said, sure, like, where are you? And, you know, he told me, and we had some direct messages and then I got on a plane yesterday and flew out to regional New South Wales and I gave him a laptop. I mean, you wouldn't think that would normally work.

Well, offering gift to 13 year old boys through direct messages on TikTok. No, there's nothing wrong with that at all. But this is a huge problem, right? There's a lot of kids out there who just don't have access to this stuff, basically. It's actually a major issue, digital inclusion, like, especially during COVID. Like, you were basically excluded if you didn't have a computer. Yeah.

And I'm very passionate about that because a computer changed my life. And I know a lot of other people, the computers have changed their life and brought them, you know, the wealth and what they've got. And so I'm calling upon others to come and join me and help, you know, give, like, I'm talking about these are refurbished computers. They're the ones that still work. But you just, yeah, they're all these great things being built on them. And now you just, you know, you've got that spare. Yeah, you've upgraded just sitting in a drawer. You don't want to do with it.

Can't be bothered eBaying it. Exactly. There must be so many of them out in there. So many. Yeah, and I'm really passionate about that. And I really want to get, yeah, help people. And then the next part is obviously getting data. So if there is someone out there listening who can help with data as well, that's

another key thing. What do you mean data? So, like, not everyone has internet, like broadband in their house. Oh, right. Most people don't, and they use their phone to tether. Obviously, that costs a lot and it's not reliable. And so trying to figure out ways to get them more and more reliable data and better is just another thing I'm really passionate about.

Okay, so trying to provide kind of 4G connections. But Charles, do you remember we had Tony Burke on during the lockdown? And he was talking about Western Sydney, Southwestern Sydney, and saying that you had entire families, multi-generational families, you know, 10 people living together where there's one computer for all of them. And so the kids couldn't go to school. because they couldn't spend the whole day

I mean it was just assumed that everyone would have a laptop and Zoom and they could just do Zoom schooling but they couldn't in many houses it just wasn't a thing that it didn't have laptops I mean even at my son's school they went oh you can come and pick up a laptop if you need to right but it was a sort of shame based system

right it was terrible that that was the you know you have to fess up to being poor or whatever but one of my son's friends when it got one and it just didn't work Like, it was just a piece of shit. Anyway, right. It's tough. And I think, I think if you don't have that access, there are so many things.

Like, he was trying to build, like, a little business. He was trying to sell stuff. And he had a very intense story. Like, I don't know how much it should share. Yeah, look, I know you don't want to identify him. He's requested that. But, yeah, it sounds as though he's been through some tough stuff. Very.

And this is going to be life changing for him. And so are you organizing people to do this, or is this a sort of? Working with Good 360. It's a charity. And I don't think people know about this. No. So I just thought, like, what can I do? Well, I thought I could bring some attention to it.

And I can start going out and, you know, helping people directly. And I'm also trying to, you know, talk to tech founders, tech companies that have got lots of laptops, even non-tech companies. Bring us your laptops. We'll refurbish them and get them out to people who need them. Well, Twitter and Australia has dissect all their stuff. So I'm sure they'd have a lot of laptops. A couple of hundred just lying. We need a couple of those.

Yeah, yeah. Call them up. And you're going to try to get to a million, a million of these laptops. And then get 10 mil to refurbish by the end of 2025. So a lot to, do we have any spare laptops lying around, Charles? Just trying to think. I've got one at home. Okay, well, you should give one then.

Yeah, yeah, all right. What do I do? If I've got a laptop and I'm listening, I'm thinking, okay, let's give this to someone who deserves it. Well, we've got a site. Obviously, we've got a page on Finder as well. step you through the steps. It needs to go through refurbishment, like getting, you know, get, get all the... Because I've got one that I poured a beer on, and it's never worked particularly well since then.

How old are you taking? It turns on, but the keys. It's a little messy, like it's a little drunk. At least one key works, though, which is where you got your start. Yeah. Like, is that... The control key. Yeah, the delete key.

It's very useful for me. But, no, but, like, is that... Are you wanting, or they have to be perfectly working to... Like, as, you know, we obviously can try and fix up what we can, but we're just trying to, you know, the better they are, the better they are for people. It's not really. The less than it's got to be wiped out of them probably.

Well, I think also it's a really good incentive for companies. So if someone, you know, you give people, obviously, laptops to work. But if you have this incentive, then I think that people will take care of their laptops because they know where that laptop's going afterwards. In some small way, I think that would, you know, potentially save some money for companies. And crucially, you and the team are you're refurbishing them,

which means wiping off all the porn, giving them completely fresh and all new. So if you want to do this, it's finder.com.com. You slash laptop-launchpad, or I'm sure you can just search for Finder or Fred Shabester and laptop and figure out how to do it. Good 360 Australia is the charity that's doing this. Well, let's hope you get to a million in a few years' time.

That'd be amazing. That'd be incredible. I'm excited. It takes a lot of time to do these things, but I think... Yeah, let's do it. I'm still trying to think of the data angle, though. Like, how do you then get the data? Well, you've got to go to a telco.

I know who you should go to. Yes. I know a telco. Yes. Which really needs to rehabilitate its image. Yes. The only problem is they'll definitely release all the details of these kids online. But surely optus wants any chance they can get to refurbish their image.

They gave away all their personal data. Maybe they can give away some... And data, you know, to make you just bandwidth as well. We put the call out. Why not? Why not? We'll see. Like, I'm happy to help and, you know, we need more help.

If it's in the regions, Vodafone's another good thing because they could offer all the data that they wanted, but it doesn't work in the regions. It would be a very cost-effective donation for them. Anyway, maybe we need to workshop that one a little bit more. All right. So that's the bit where we've actually done genuine good in the podcast. On to our problems, Charles. Yes.

is Fred actually, you know, knows how to set up a tech business that works. You've set up many in a time. None of which work. Well, not financially, but they've got interest. They've created chaos. Yes. But apparently to have a sustainable business,

you've got to actually make more money through the door than you spend. That's never been a forte of ours. Yeah, well, I only realized it the other day. So I was sitting down doing the accounts and somebody pointed out that, and I had never known that. That's tough. That's a very short life cycle businesses.

Well, how do we still exist? If you keep growing. If you keep growing, then it's the Elon Musk trick. Isn't that a pyramid scheme? If you just keep using the news subscribers. Shut up. Actually, I think our newspaper says I can't answer that question. Our newspaper that we started technically was a pyramid scape because we used the money

for the new subscribers to print the editions. Shut up. Anyway. On advice of counsel. I mean, it just. I used to show how terrible we are at business, that the first thing we did was start a newspaper, a print newspaper. And we all knew that the internet was coming and that it was all, and we joked about it, but we did it anyway. But we also, like, in 2000, our website was the seventh

highest trafficked comedy website in the world. During the Olympics, right? And we didn't go, oh, let's pivot to the internet. We went, let's get back to the newspaper. That was a fun two weeks. We're just fuck with But I actually think I have a theory about the chaser ride Which is you know how you Believe in disruption and chaos and anything of that I think the most

Disruptive thing that could happen to the chaser Is bringing in somebody who's really straight-laced And does things properly Like that would be genuine disruption That would be chaos for us Someone came in and said You're supposed to make money And actually try and have a survival business

We wouldn't know what to do No That'd be like a stunt on us So I want to pitch to you, Fred, a couple of the products that are causing me a bit of problem. Okay. The first tomatoes, inflatable avocado? Yeah, you saw that. They're nice.

To be clear, these are big. These are about as tall as Fred. The pitch is, it's not bad. The pitch, should I go and get it? I'll just, yeah, they're pretty cold. Yeah, I mean, Charles tends to have these ideas for business. Demonstration. And he orders them in bulk from China.

And by the time they arrive, Fred, and this is a supply chain issue, by the time they arrive, they're not. The point is that, okay, tell me about this avocado. Well, exactly. So, just, like, this is the story, right. What do people who don't have a house like? Don't have a house. What a millennials spend on money? Okay, so you know a house, you like avocados.

Yeah, you buy a smashed avocado. And that's the whole reason they can't afford a house. This is because they buy too many avocados. Yeah, yeah. So, first of all, they like avocados. Like, this is an avocado? They like avocados. Now, what's the logic beyond this?

Well, there's several problems which we've identified. The first is that it's a smashed avocado, and that's an intact avocado. So the point is, this is the perfect gift for non-homeowners, right? To rub it in. And because the whole idea is when you're doing a Christmas piece of merge, it's got to be distinctive, it's got to have an angle. And also, crucially, you're wanting the rich people to buy. You're wanting, you know, old bitties who are 65 years old,

to give to their millennial. children, something, oh, I don't know what they want. You know, and the problem is people don't hone houses anymore, so you can't give them a vase or something like that because they don't have a house to put it in, right? But what they do know is, oh, my son really likes smashed avocado on a Saturday. Boom. Oh, look, here's a pool toy that they'll enjoy because they like avocado.

And the problem is, Frank, we were talking to Charles about this. Craig and I had a whole podcast. And the ball comes out. And Charles hadn't realized, because he didn't run it past us. He just ordered these things. He didn't realize, quite a lot of them. He didn't realize that one of the issues with millennials, not only did they not own homes, but the houses that they can afford don't have pools.

So what can we do to pivot this product? What are your thoughts? All right. The business brain's ticking over here. What's the opportunity? You know, we're trying to save money. So we need to reduce our rents. Yes.

So we're going to bunk together, buy a couple of avocados, and have a sleepover party. Right? Oh, and this is the bed. Yeah, that's the bed. That would be a very uncomfortable... No, I think that's a great idea. Yeah, let's sell them as inflatable beds, you're right.

Well, now not only are we buying avocados, we're using them to save money. Yes. Yes, this saves you money. You can sleep in the park under that thing. Can I put on the website, saves you money finder.com? That'd be the quote from finder.com. Saves you money. Yeah, yeah.

Yeah. And then, and then also... When you need a gift and you're not sure what to give someone, yes. You're long a gift. You're good. You're already done. Because you've already bought an avocado.

Yes, and you don't want it. And everyone will be gifted. It's also a fabulous hat. It is the perfect. It's a very good hat, actually. Particularly if you have an enormous hat. It's like a hat song. None of the medical advice contained in the Chaser Report should legally be considered medical advice.

The Chaser Report. Can it just to be clear, Fred's written a book about it. how to set up a successful business right so this is the this is the whole thing you've got what's your book called it's called go live go live right so we've done that we've done the going live i feel like i should probably should probably read that it's the going live with an with an offer that is actually profitable that's probably i guess the subtext of the of the book and and just to be clear just uh for our listeners uh chaseroshoshop dot com chaser shop dot com chaser shop dot com for the uh saving money avocado yeah yeah but then the other one is a bit more of a disaster it's more

of a business problem than a product problem at a moment because it hasn't arrived from China. So what we did is we decided that Qantas always loses your bag, right? So if you're flying Qantas, you shouldn't check your baggage in. Or if you do, you're going to lose it anyway, right? So we got printed up a whole of backpacks with Qantas, the Qantas logo on it, like our... A-R-S-E. A-R-C. And then with a little sign saying, the airline lost all my other bags.

like all my checked-in bags or something. And I think that's a good, because there's a lot of anger towards Qantas. You know, you can, you know, these holidays, buy a Qantas travel bag and you're flying with the thing. The only one is they just have not arrived from China.

Is that because you got Qantas to deliver them? It's the most ironic piece of merch I've ever done. They've got lost. What do you do? These aren't quite, these are on the shop. Yeah. They're not on the Chaser Shop.com, but.

They're not on the Chaser Shop. No, that one, like, they're not arrived. Yes, because never put on... Can't take a photo of them. I did that a few years ago with toilet paper. We imported some toilet paper during the pandemic right from China. Which was a hot product back then.

It was a hot product, yes. Except by the time I arrived from China, it was no longer a product. But it was custom printed, you know, with chasing your lines. Yeah, yeah. I like that. And it was good. But we put it on sale and then it just never turned up from China. Like it took months.

And so we had lots of angry... Presumably people who were needing toilet paper just waiting for this toilet paper. So there's a few issues with our business planning. I think my favourite, though, just to give Fred the full picture, is the mugs. Oh, the mugs. Oh, no, the mugs. Every company needs, like, so we've got these nice chaser mugs here. I imagine you make, you know, Fines.com mugs for the office and all that kind of stuff.

We put our values on them. Yeah, exactly. Because that's one issue, they have values at Fred's company. That's an issue which is a word. Oh, that's not going to do that. Charles managed to somehow order mugs from overseas and ship them to customers. And they're actually very popular. What was on the mugs?

Yeah. I got them printed locally. I got them printed locally. Oh, was the back in black? Remember when Josh Frydenberg announced that the budget was back in black next year, right? And then the pandemic happened. And so it never happened, right? More in red than we'd ever been ever.

And so we sold, and the Liberal Party had immediately sold tons of coffee mugs which said back in black. to all their supporters, right? And so we sold identical mugs, which were that, but with the black crossed out and instead a huge fucking deficit as the thing. They were very popular, right? However. However, whenever they shipped to a customer,

they arrived broken. It turns out customers who buy mugs don't like them arriving in more than one piece. Yes, huge business. But I paid extra, like I paid the dispatcher extra to wrap them in bubble wrap, but that was the thing. I obviously didn't say the instructions careful enough. So the bubble wrap was around the box rather than around the mark.

So it just sort of created this more bouncy version of a breaking. It's like a puzzle. It's a puzzle. It's a puzzle. You shouldn't have pocketed as a jigsaw. So he's lateral. Where were you, friend? I needed that.

That was a huge money. That cost us so much money. I guess the question I have is, you know, in Silicon Valley, in the tech world, At what point do you say, you know what, just dissolve the company. It's not going to get it. Are we at this point here? Well, you know, I think you got a lot of attention. Like, there are obviously people who want your products.

Yes. And you've got a good subscriber list. And, like, you know, I think that's really important. Yes. You know, like, I think maybe we just got to find the one product and focus a little bit. Oh, okay. Well, the one body. The avocados are pretty good.

The avocado's good. The one product that we actually do have that sales every year is, is the Chaser Annual available at chasershop. but it's a book there's a lot of effort see this is why we want to go into merch right because there's a lot of effort in a book you've got to write the book we don't want to have to write a book every year like we want to I mean we do but you know ideally you want merch to where you have you know half a brain thought and then suddenly you make $50,000 what about like if you only have a certain number of them and you sign them with all the people in the podcast well actually we know we are doing that with this

If you want to buy a signed version of the avocato, it's $10 off. The signature washes off in the pool. I've had a few requests to sign them. Yeah. You should. I mean, it really is, Fred, to the extent to which we've built a business, which has, it's got a quite good name. People know about the chaser.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. The problem is that they don't want to give it money in that they don't, they trust it. So advertisers, for instance, are terrified of us. Very, very well-renowned. We sort of known as the fucking chaser. Yeah, they're terrible. terrible chaser you don't want to be involved with but we do have a reputation and what do you do when you have a reputation but that no one wants to give you money you'll be associated with your

product yes what how do you do with that there are there are lots of companies people don't like and then they'll what would you become a bank would become a bank well but like you know I guess um normally you people people people there are people who have strong it's not so much don't like because if there's someone who don't like doesn't like you there's someone who does love you as well. They're people who love you as well because you can't control you'll be one way. So normally, you know, you get into pills, you know, sell vitamins and, you know, the Well, I actually tried that a few years ago.

We did a, we did a range of Swiss vitamins, like knock off Swiss vitamins. There was gullibility guard, we saw, and we saw, which you really need if you're buying Swiss vitamins, right? And we sold, um, water, what are water? We sold one, I'll get to water and see, I have done water in the, past. Wow. You guys got,

like your product development's incredible. So, you know the problem. Actually, I'll tell you the problem with the water. I'll tell you,

the other Swiss vitamin that we loved, which we sold a lot of, was helps you choose between all the fucking vitamins, vitamin. Yeah. And anyway, but the water story is great because

it was bottled locally up in sort of Gosford. There's a, Pete's Ridge has a big sort of plant, it's spring there. that does a lot of off-label water. But for some reason, I think we were just buying the sort of cheap end of that sort of...

Yeah, not from the spring, but from the pizza ridge tap. No, spring water. No, we knew it was spring water because the problem was, like, every sort of 10th batch would come in really muddy, right? So it would bottle of water, but it would have mud in it. And you'd have to make sure. And when you're dispatching quantities of water, water, what you don't want is to dispatch a batch of, of muddy water, because everyone

goes, this is muddy water. And so there was a huge logistical problem, which is you had to go through, or you had to employ someone to go through and check that you weren't sending out muddy water. So this is actually giving me an idea for a business. What you need is a website that actually independently reviews products and works out which are good and which are bad. And for instance, let's say, let's call it finder.com. and the people would actually review the Chase's product

and warn consumers that they're incredible not to buy them. Is that something we could set up? No. So it's an idea. Yeah. Someone should do that. What's the most successful product?

The most successful product we have ever made was a couple of years ago. We made beach. Do you remember Scott Morrison right at the height of the bushfires went off to Hawaii for a holiday for two weeks? And then came back and said, well, I don't hold a hose ever. Anyway, whatever.

There's a lot of anger about that. And so we saw that the summer after we sold beach towels with a photo of a semi-naked Scott Morrison lying on a beach in Hawaii. And it just said greetings from Hawaii, right? And it was perfect because beach towels, very cheap to get, I mean, no, high-quality beach towels. They were very expensive to make in China. Ship them over their light.

We sent them out. And people, people, there were good beach. That are actually a very good beach. Lovely. And we sold a fucking shit done, right? And that's what, that's why I did the avocado, because I thought, you know, in the lead up to Christmas, you want to sell something outdoorsy, something related to swimming, right? Except this fucking year, it's the fucking El Nina.

It rains every day. No one's going to be able to use the... That's why it's a hat. It's a multi-purpose... And an umbrella. Yeah. It's a very good. There you go.

Yeah. So beach towels is what we should probably... Beach Tower. So, yeah, so you seem to be, you've got the beach vibe, you've got the pool. Yeah. So now you need to make a collection set. Right. Yeah, it's a gift pack.

You've got the Christmas bundle. Yes, Christmas bundle. I like that. Okay. Mother's Day, Father's Day. Yes. Like 15th of January day, which is when the bags will arrive. Boxing Day.

What about you? Exactly. Who you're selling these products to? Who's interested? I don't know. Isn't that the great mystery? Well, I think, I think confused people. I think, like, the Chaser has an enormous reach of very intelligent listeners to its podcast.

Like, I think they're the sort of highbrow end of the market. But then we've got 270,000 followers on Twitter. We've got, like, our Facebook reach is like 60 million a month. Yeah, I think what it is. It's people who used to like our TV shows and now pity what we've become. I think that's the market for the chaser. I think it's a combination of old people who remember us from when we were successful. And then young up and coming people who, I don't know why they...

They want awesome comedy. Who just want awesome comedy. And we're all the tracks in the Australian market. Thank God for that. Yeah, because we just, you know, kill it. We're their sorts of news. I reckon each product needs to be like a drop. You only have a limited number.

Oh, like Yeezy. Yeah. That's brilliant. Yeah, that's the chaser drop. It's coming out. Oh. So this is the avocado. The drop.

The avocado drop. Yeah, it's the avocado drop. What a fewer and charge more. Yeah. Yep. Okay. So there's only. And it's signed.

It's got a little, it's got a little plaque. Yes. I'm going to say, I'm going to tell them. They're going to come next year with the plucks. Like you can order it to now, but they're coming next year. All right. Okay. Yeah, I think that's good.

Okay. High end. It's a drop. So. The chaser drop. Yes. So, actually, there's only 10 of these avocados that we ever got printed. So all those previous anecdotes about...

As soon as we sell out 10, there's another 10. All right. Okay, that's good. Final question, Fred, should we launch our own cryptocurrency? Oh, my goodness. Or an FD's. I mean, Charles, I explained, was the least successful Bitcoin investor. Can I tell you what happened?

You might know what to do about it. Listeners will know, this story, but I'm going to tell you this story anyway, Fred, which is back in 2012, 2013, we were, I had an advertising company and a TV show. And so we had about 30 or 40 computers in advertising company offers. And every night we networked them up and mined Bitcoin, right? Because back then it was like, I think it was about 40 bucks or something. Yeah, I can't remember. And we just thought it was funny.

You know, you'd get a few Bitcoin each time. day overnight and just to accumulate it. And 2015, the company, we wound up all those companies. I ended up with all the hard drives. It went not live, basically. It went not like. We got axed. So I've got like hundreds of hard drives in my garage.

Somewhere on those hard drives would be, I don't know, but at least a few hundred Bitcoin, right, which is quite a lot of money. Probably thousands. I mean, who knows? That's like literally you have a gold mine in your garage. Yes. Literally. But every time I try it, like, because the thing is, Fred, you cannot get somebody else to look through it.

I mean, I've offered, I've offered to look for the hard drive. Because you'd never be able to trust them. Like, if I were hired to do that job and I found the untraceable anonymous Bitcoin wallet that we're looking for, I'd just go, oh, sorry, it didn't find it. Bobby and post. You know what I mean? Like, is it on there? Is there a private keys? It'll be somewhere.

It'll be somewhere. I don't know where it is. So, Charles, why don't you stop making stupid avocados? Shut down every other business and just find the hard drive? Well, actually, Alexa, one of our interns, offered to go, like to literally do the, like, because it would be probably thousands. Because I started the process and then I realized, this is probably thousands of hours of work with no necessary. Like, it'll be somewhere, but there are. hard drives that have just failed now so you know that's like one of the greatest

opportunities like that's like literally like if you have like a hundred bitcoin what's that like you're talking like well now that's probably only 15 million dollars or something yeah it's probably nothing one point five million one point five million yeah see this is my plan was to wait until it goes back down to about 40 dollars and that's when i'll start looking that's when I'll find it so should you start a cryptocurrency Yes. Chase a coin. I reckon chase it.

It's got to be hilarious. Like it's got to be for something like, I'm not sure. You guys can come up with that. But like, yeah, like a like some, maybe an avocado. Why don't we call it hit coin? And it's, it's for assassins. Yeah, start with Elon Musk. Like save Twitter.

That's how you buy. Blue Ticks. Yeah. That's right. Blue hits. I don't know. All I know is somehow, Fred, I got stuck with the worst entrepreneur in the history of Australia.

But thank you, your time and all the best with the laptops. Thank you. There you go. You can check out Fred's laptop scheme, good 360 or finder.com. com.com.com. u slash laptop dash launchpad.

Gary is from Road, we're part of the Acast to create a network. Catch you next time.