In this episode of Getting Raw, host Richard Toutounji interviews Mark Vella, an Australian‑born entrepreneur now based in Calgary. Vella recounts his varied entrepreneurial journey, from founding the niche fitness studio Sweatbox in Sydney’s Balmain, to launching a tea company, writing a movie script, and investing in property. He explains the genesis of Advertise (spelled with two I’s), a global, eBay‑style marketplace that connects buyers and sellers of ad space, especially targeting small‑to‑medium businesses that lack access to traditional media. Vella describes how Advertise solves the problem of fragmented ad inventory and pricing uncertainty by bringing both parties onto a single platform, and clarifies that the “two I’s” stand for “Buyers” and “Sellers.” The conversation covers the platform’s current launch in Canada, its strategic expansion into the US and Europe (including the acquisition of a UK competitor), and the vision to become a worldwide advertising hub within six months. Vella also reflects on why Canada offers a better launchpad than Australia, the challenges of competing with large fitness chains, and why he is focusing on scaling Advertise rather than reopening a new Sweatbox gym. The interview ends with optimism about redefining advertising and the platform’s future growth.
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Welcome to Getting Raw. It's Richard Marks-Toutounji and today we're in Canada. It's snowing outside and I've got Mark Vella here with me. How are you going?
Good, how are you doing?
Mark Vella, president of Advertisee.com, Advertisee with 2 Is though, is that right?
That's right.
And we've been— I've been in Canada for 2 months. We've been talking about Avetise. We've been doing a lot of business here about Avetise and this is the head office of Avetise.
It is.
Based in Canada but I hear the Australian accent.
That's right.
Tell me what we're doing here in Canada and what Avetise is all about.
Excellent. Long story short, I've been here for 2 years. I now call Calgary home and it's a really good platform to launch business, to work in Canada. And of course, get into the lucrative US market, which we're all trying to get into.
We're all trying to get in. And the reason why I guess we've got Mark on the show getting warm, and we've got always a lot of fitness professionals watching it, you were in the fitness industry.
That's right.
In Australia.
For a long time.
A place called Sweatbox down in Leichhardt, was it?
That's it, Balmain.
Balmain, yeah. Tell me about that.
I started the business in 2008, Sweatbox Fitness, a niche fitness studio. Focused on kickboxing, boxing, mixed martial arts.
Yeah.
And with my marketing background tied into my personal training background, we were looking for brand partnerships to help fund the business in our critical startup phase.
Like all businesses, that's— you need money, you need cash.
That's exactly it.
Yeah.
And always the issue was, was a business with, with no membership to try to get out there and get advertising dollars, it just didn't exist. It was really hard.
So you tried to get your members in but you tried to actually make another dollar on having some advertisements around.
That's exactly right. And we thought we could partner with the big brands like Gatorade, Nike, Under Armour and it simply just didn't happen.
Okay. So how long did you have the gym for? A couple of years, didn't you?
Yeah, we had the gym for 3 years.
And I mean you've been a bit of an entrepreneur. I mean you've done so many projects. I know you've had a tea company, you've written a movie. Tell me a bit about your background because that's interesting. And then we'll get into advertising because that's That's an amazing platform I want to talk about as well.
What can I say? I get bored quickly. I like a good challenge. That's what I like. You know, since leaving school, college, traveled the world, got that out of the way and started buying a few apartments. But of course, you know, business is what I was passionate to do. So, you know, starting up new businesses and getting out there, trying importing, exporting, starting up gyms, writing a movie script out of all things.
Writing a movie script? When Mark said he's going to write a movie script, I said, what the hell, who is this guy? Just because he's moved to the US or North America, he can write a movie script now, for goodness' sake. So you've done it pretty much all.
I
have. And now we're at the stage of— I guess of a— and this is the reason why I want to get you on the show because personal trainers, fitness owners, whoever we're talking to now, I think at the end of the day, everybody's into business. You know, this is a business show and Advertise, you know, I've been in Canada for 2 months really understanding the model Advertise and working a bit on Advertise. And Advertise is a growing platform so let's talk about Advertise because this is Advertise with 2 I's.
2 I's.
I'm going to put some Advertise at the bottom here and we're going to make sure this is right. It's not advertising, we're talking about Advertise—
2.0.
2.0.
That's right.
What is Advertise 2.0?
Advertise. Look, Advertise is a global platform for buying and selling ad space. It's pretty simple. What we're doing, we're taking things to the next level. So we have more advertising opportunities, we have more access for sellers to reach buyers in an extremely fragmented market, and we're making it on a level playing field.
So what you're saying is buyers and sellers stay on the same platform? That's right. And then they interact?
Absolutely.
So tell me, give me an example about this.
It's all about the transaction. So I guess if you were to relate it to the eBay of advertising, that's pretty much what we are.
So basically, if we go back to your studio, Sweatbox in Balmain.
That's right.
Let's say you've got people that are coming to the gym and these people are fitness-oriented people and you've got a space in your gym or on the front. So what Advertise does, if I'm correct, is when somebody walks past that, you can actually sell that window space. Is that what you're doing? Absolutely.
Exactly. And there's a value to that space. The problem is that advertising sellers don't know how to reach the right buyers, and they also don't know what it's worth.
And the time, obviously, to find them.
Absolutely. There's a cost tied into that.
So this is really a— I mean, the Advertiser 2.0. So it's buying and sellers on one platform.
Absolutely.
When I explain the theory The ultimate is if you can explain this theory to non-generation computer types—
Yes.
Like my mother or, you know, somebody that hasn't grown up using computers and they understand the theory straightaway, I say okay, it's an easy theory to get. I understand advertise and so the 2 I's represent what? What do the 2 I's represent in advertise?
It's really representing the buyers and the sellers. And we're bringing them together. Advertise is a new concept. It is very against the grain of the traditional advertising platform. Hence, we want to be market leaders. And of course, when we did a simple domain search and everything's pretty much been bought up over years and years of domain purchasing, Advertise with the 2 I's started as a bit of a, you know, are we going to do this? Can we get away with this? And the value proposition just made more sense as we continued to look at the 2 I's and say, We could take ownership on this as an Advertising 2.0 platform.
Because it is going against the grain. Advertising has always been—
Absolutely, it's pretty ballsy.
The Nikes, the Coca-Colas, they go out there and advertise on big billboards, they spend millions and millions of dollars. So we're giving, I guess, opportunities for the small guys, the small business owners to get in front of this platform.
Absolutely. So what we're doing is the website really targets small to medium business trying to get into the market. Trying to access the traditional media space at more affordable pricing and also access the new or non-existent ad space that doesn't exist yet, which advertising sellers will be driving a supply of, again, which doesn't exist.
That's pretty cool. So, starting to snow here. So tell me again why, you know, a platform like this had to actually start. You know, you've come We're in Calgary, Canada. It's the head office of Advertise. Why is success more than Australia? Let's talk about that story because now you're an entrepreneur in a big city. How does that work and how do you feel about that?
It works to our favor. It's a bigger playing ground. High dense population. There is the access to the US market as we've discussed. Of course, Australia is a great platform to launch a business. Unfortunately, innovation can be questioned and of course launching a business in the US market, it's very easy to spread out with spider webs and get into a market like the Australian-New Zealand market again as opposed to launching a business locally in Australia trying to get out. I did find that a bit of a challenge.
Yeah, okay, awesome. So what's the next, I guess, level? I mean, Advertise is live at the moment. What's the next, I guess, stage for Mark Beller and Advertise? Where is it going now?
We've been lucky enough to acquire a competitor's website from the UK. When we looked at the cost feasibility, is it worth buying a competitor out with a tested website and a tested platform? And the answer was yes, of course. So to get into the European market, we're already there. The website's currently going through development, and the plan is, of course, is to grow and expand the Canadian market, get into the US, and be global worldwide within 6 months.
Awesome. Well, this is the place to do it in sunny Calgary over here. And I think it's a very smart move to saturate that market and then go from there. So what about fitness? Where does fitness lie with you? Are you going to get up another Sweatbox here or anything on the horizon?
You know, the plan was to set a Sweatbox up here when I moved to Canada in 2010. It's a highly franchised model in the US so You're competing with the big boys. You've got Gold's Gym. There's a Gold's Gym on every corner just like Starbucks. You've got Goodlife, you've got World Health, and they're big boys. I mean, a niche business will be good and it will serve its purpose, but of course I dream big and small isn't good enough. So I mean, and it does require financial investments in the millions of dollars which when I looked at the Advertise platform and Sweatbox working 2 businesses same time, Advertise made more sense to put focus into an online platform.
So what is— we're staying in fitness for a little bit— what is, I guess, the fashion over here is the big, not the small clubs?
Yeah, build big and they'll come.
Awesome. All right, well, I look forward to, I guess, seeing more about the Advertise space. I'm going to put up here, and it's with the 2 I's.
Yes.
Has this been in the dictionary yet, or what's the deal there?
We're planning for it. Urban Dictionary.
Urban Dictionary, so that's him.
If you're watching.
So with the 2 I's.
2 I's. We were literally redefining advertising as we know it.
Okay, that is really exciting times ahead. I mean eBay of advertising, that's pretty cool with an Australian entrepreneur making it big in the white smoke outside.
That's it.
Awesome, thanks for your time Mark.
My pleasure Richard.
Cheers.
Thank you.
Another episode of Getting Raw. Thanks for watching and we'll see you next time on Getting Raw.
