Marcus CentMarcus Cent

I've been building businesses on the web since 1997 — over 28 years of starting things, scaling things, and occasionally selling things. Along the way, every venture seemed to pull me further into the world of travel.

It started with Marcat in 1997, a web agency in Glasgow that grew into one of Scotland's most recognised digital firms. We landed three consecutive entries in the Deloitte & Touche Fast 50 Technology Companies list and I was runner-up in the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Awards in 2001. A lot of our work was in the travel and hospitality space, which suited me just fine.

That same year I also launched On The Spot Internet, a specialist domain and hosting business. It's still running today under my brother Stefan's management — with some of the original customers still on the books. That's the kind of longevity I respect.

In 2003 I launched Clearfuse, which became iBooking.com — bespoke web applications and online ticketing systems for the hospitality sector, well before SaaS became mainstream. Hotels, theatres, travel companies — we gave them the tools to sell tickets on their own websites. Clients worldwide gave me the perfect excuse to explore, meeting customers on their own turf from Southeast Asia to the Middle East.

Around the same time, Affiliata (later Clickspace) took off — an affiliate marketing business that hit $1.5 million in revenue with peak monthly earnings over $120,000, all within 18 months. It was a masterclass in scaling repeatable processes.

In 2006 I co-founded ResDiary, and was instrumental in building the product from the ground up. An online restaurant booking and customer management platform that grew to serve thousands of venues globally. In 2020 it was acquired in an all-cash deal by a French multinational hotel brand. It now powers restaurant reservations in dozens of countries. Seeing something you helped create reach that scale never gets old.

By 2008, Clickspace had merged with Dubai-based Forsight to form DistinctMEDIA, which meant relocating to Dubai. That was when everything shifted to operating at a truly global scale. In 2010, DistinctMEDIA became part of the Clicksco Group — growing to over 200 employees worldwide. We became world leaders in search arbitrage. Clicksco later evolved into Quixco and was subsequently acquired by a major advertising group.

With teams and operations spread across Russia, Serbia, India, the Philippines, and the UAE, there was never a shortage of reasons to visit new places. Every business trip became an opportunity to experience a different culture — and the people behind the work were always the best part. Real people, real experiences. That thread runs through everything I've ever done.

I started registering domain names in the mid-90s and built up a portfolio of premium travel domains over the years. I always planned to do something clever with them, but other projects kept getting in the way — until now.

Visit Network is the project that ties it all together. An AI-driven platform to build comprehensive travel websites for the places I visit — and the places I want to visit next. Three decades of SEO, content, and digital marketing experience, funnelled into the thing I care about most. AI has changed web publishing immeasurably, and we're fully immersed in this new world — creating better solutions quicker than ever, with the only limit being our imagination.