Mark Cleveland lives the Parallel path—offering presence, perspective, and pattern recognition for founders building bold, integrated lives.
Business Relationships
Companies started from scratch and sold
Capital Raised
Are Your Growth Strategies Aligned with Your True Capacity?
Mark Cleveland and his Mergers, Acquisitions & Innovation team deliver high-leverage assessments and custom action plans to help you:
Whether you’re preparing to acquire, exit, or evolve—Mark helps you move from complexity to clarity.
Mark Cleveland has launched startups, led turnarounds, scaled teams, and navigated multiple exits across a spectrum of industries. He brings a unique gift for pattern recognition—seeing how energy, opportunity, and timing align.
More than experience, Mark offers clarity. He helps founders and leadership teams:
On the Parallel Entrepreneur Podcast, Mark sits down with visionary founders building not just one venture—but a whole life of aligned endeavors.
These are the leaders shaping industries, mentoring teams, managing risk, and staying true to their why across multiple domains. They share what it really takes to:
Tune in for real stories of resilience, reinvention, and rhythm—from entrepreneurs living the Parallel path.
No leader better exemplifies the energy, drive and determination required of an entrepreneur than Mark Cleveland. Successfully leading the growth of numerous companies across his career he has been a role model for me, modeling the optimism and enthusiasm required to rally a team to accomplish amazing goals. Mark’s ability to develop a strategy, articulate a vision to achieve that strategy, and inspire the innovation required to execute on it distinguishes him as a entrepreneur worthy of the many accolades he has received across his productive career.
Mark is a great guy who knows how to get things done when others don’t he is made up of equal parts enthusiasm and drive and has a knack for getting even the biggest projects off the ground. Mark often helps you see ways to accomplish your goals when you yourself don’t find them possible. And he makes a mean pair of socks!
Mark is one of the most dynamic individuals I have ever known. His energy, commitment, and intellect is amazing and contagious. I am thankful for the opportunity and experience gained under Mark’s direction.
When you look up the word “entrepreneur” in the dictionary you are likely to find a picture of Mark. Without question he is one of the most driven people I’ve met in business – he cares about the bottom line, the people that work for him and building organizations that perform at the highest levels.
While Mark was President at TripPak, I worked with him in my capacity as a DHL National Account Manager with great results. He is an outstanding, creative thinker and a natural leader who has spearheaded many positive and innovative programs. In addition, Mark is honest, driven and a real pleasure to work with and brings years of experience and a distinguished record of achievement to every new project, virtually assuring successful results.
It’s rare that you come across people with amazing vision and creativity, but that happened when I got to meet Mark. I participated in a pandemic-era online conference in which he brought together diverse experts to explore the future of transportation, an impressive feat of coordination and insight. … Mark thinks big, builds clear plans, and executes with excellence. Anyone who works with him gains not just a leader, but a true mentor and visionary.
When Mark isn’t heads down building his next successful venture, you’ll find him deeply engaged in Nashville’s startup and entrepreneurial community. He was honored as NTC’s Emerging Company of the Year and Nashville Entrepreneur of the Year, and he consistently shows up for organizations like the Rotary Club of Nashville and Leadership Nashville. … If you have the chance to connect with Mark, take it. He’s endlessly curious, generous with insight, and yes, he loves biking.
If you want someone with deep M&A expertise, entrepreneurial experience, and transformational wisdom, Mark is the real deal. He’s one of the sharpest minds I know in M&A, strategic planning, and scaling organizations. He combines the vision of a serial entrepreneur with disciplined execution across logistics, manufacturing, and software. Mark quickly identifies the real value drivers in a business and delivers insight in a way that elevates your own thinking. He leads with integrity, foresight, and a collaborative spirit—shaping not just companies, but people.
Mark is one of the most energetic, innovative and motivating leaders I have worked with. You can’t help but be infected by his enthusiasm and passion for his work and for life!
Mark is one of those rare people everyone respects. If you don’t like him, you’re probably the problem. We met over 20 years ago in a typical vendor–client scenario, and even then it was clear he was different, smart, transparent, and never talking down to anyone. He didn’t buy from me, but I valued his reasoning, and that conversation became a friendship I’m grateful for. Mark is creative, clear in his thinking, and leads by elevating everyone around him. He could run any business with excellence, but what truly sets him apart is his integrity. He does exactly what he says he’ll do, even when it’s hard, and that matters more than any skill set.
