Marcus Taylor

Marcus founded Venture Harbour at age 21 with £500 in his bank and a broken laptop, and has since grown Venture Harbour into a multi-million-pound portfolio of innovative businesses with no outside funding.

Marcus started building websites at age 10 and, by age 25, had bootstrapped a multi-million-pound portfolio of online businesses with zero funding.

Like most teenagers, Marcus didn’t know what he wanted to be when he grew up. He did know he loved music, so he DJ’d on weekends, converted his mum’s care-home into a recording studio when it was empty, and taught himself to code websites for bands.

Unknown to him at the time, these side-hustles gave Marcus a taste of entrepreneurship that would turn out to be invaluable.

Instead of going to university, Marcus spent his late teenage years working at an Oxford-based digital marketing agency where he shadowed and was mentored by one of the UK’s most respected search marketers, Kevin Gibbons.

Marcus founded Venture Harbour in 2012 after one of the websites he built took off. Since then, Marcus and his team have built nine ventures that run on autopilot and are 100% funded by the best type of investor there is: paying customers.

Marcus is now on a mission to grow Venture Harbour, helping millions of entrepreneurs and marketers in the process, while creating one of the best places to work for tech and marketing talent in the UK.

Press & awards:

Marcus has won numerous entrepreneurship awards and regularly speaks at conferences such as TEDx on the topics of entrepreneurship and digital marketing. Marcus is particularly passionate about sharing his insights on how to build a lean business that not only runs – but grows on autopilot, allowing the business owner and its employees to lead a healthy lifestyle while enjoying the benefits of building a high-growth business.

Marcus’ press mentions/awards include:

  • Finalist for Forbes 30 Under 30 Europe 2018
  • Winner of ‘Visionary of the Year’ at MIDEM
  • Winner of ‘Young Professional of the Year’ at UK Search Awards
  • The Guardian named Marcus ‘A Rising Star’ in the digital media industry
  • Winner of a grant from The Awesome Foundation for developing the world’s first scientifically valid web app for measuring artificial mental barriers (comfort zones)
  • University of Oxford
  • The Drum
  • Campaign Magazine

Marcus has delivered guest lectures and keynotes across Europe, Asia, and Australia for Oxford Brookes University, TEDx, International Finance Expo, MIDEM, Mindvalley, One World Summit, and many more.