Hi. 1997 seems so long ago. That’s the year I started web agency, Marcat, in Glasgow, Scotland. Over the course of 5 years I helped steer the company to 3 consecutive entries in the Deloitte and Touche Fast 50 technology companies. I was also a runner up in the Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year Awards in 2001. Leaving the company I founded in 2003, I created Clearfuse Ltd as a specialist provider of online ticketing and booking applications. This was later renamed to iBooking.com
In 2004 I grew curious about the development of the paid search marketplace and created Affiliata.com as a vehicle to own and manage a number of affiliate marketing projects and joint venture operations. Affiliata became Clickspace in 2006. Clickspace merged with Dubai-based Forsight in 2008 to form DistinctMEDIA. DistinctMEDIA then became a part of the Clicksco Group in 2010. The here and now sees me as Group CEO, managing a company that delivered around $60m worth of revenue in 2010. I live and work in Dubai, UAE piloting both Clickso Group and iBooking.com to the best of my ability.
A brief history of my work life…
Currently CEO of Clicksco Group. Within the Group, DistinctMEDIA was formed in October 2008 from the merger of web search specialists, Forsight Ltd, with price comparison specialists, Clickspace Ltd. The company owns and operates a network of price comparison and vertical content web sites in the UK, USA, Europe & Australia. The business generates millions of $s, £s and €s for global online leaders including Yahoo, Infospace, Pricegrabber, Pricerunner and many more. The core competence is to drive large volumes of high quality traffic to advertisers and merchants. Clicksco Group has 35 staff across 3 continents with a management team including industry veterans from the online and retail sectors.
Managing Director, iBooking.com Ltd. Since 2003iBooking has focussed on the development of a range of web-based online booking and ticketing products for the tourism, travel and hospitality sector. The company operates from Scotland, UK and Dubai, UAE with customers worldwide using solutions that enable direct booking and ticketing from the company web site. More details at http://www.ibooking.com
Past
1997 – As an offshoot of Marcat, created On the Spot Internet to specialise in domain names and web hosting. Now ably run by Stefan Cent, On the Spot is still going strong, maintaining many of the original customers nearly 10 years later! See http://www.onthespot.co.uk.
2003 – Created Clearfuse as a provider of web applications and online business solutions. The move to focus on web applications for online ticketing and booking resulted in the company being renamed as iBooking in 2006.
2003 – First started dabbling in affiliate marketing, learning how to exploit Google’s newly launched AdSense product. Initially started as a side interest making a few dollars per day, but quickly became an obsession and evolved into a money-making machine reaching peak earnings of $120,000 a month. Business vehicle affiliata.com created and later relaunched as Clickspace Ltd.
2004 – Helped to launch clearclick Restaurant, an online booking and customer management solution for restaurants. The company is now renamed restaurantdiary.com. I remains a shareholder. The business is run by veteran restaurateur, Mike Conyers and was partially acquuired by daily deals giant Groupon, in 2011.
2004 - My first company, Marcat Multimedia, latterly known as Marcat, further evolved to be known as Vamosa. The company was focussed on the content migration marketplace but shut it’s doors in 2010.
2008 – Clickspace revenues grow to more than £5m annually run remotely by a team of around 8 people. In November of 2008, Clickspace merged with Dubai based, Forsight to become a global force in PPC and Price Comparison. Marcus relocates to Dubai and becomes MD of the newly named DistinctMEDIA.com.
2010 – DistinctMEDIA still the primary revenue earning business unit within Clicksco Group.
Investments
I continue to hold investment stakes in companies I founded or co-founded.