Unleashing Potential Everywhere
Mark Cleveland is a Parallel Entrepreneur—a lifelong builder of companies, ecosystems, and relationships grounded in purpose. He’s known for walking beside founders as they navigate the complex, exhilarating journey of leading multiple ventures with clarity and intention.
At heart, Mark is a connector. Insatiably curious and contagiously optimistic, he believes good ideas deserve momentum—and that the right people give them air to breathe and space to grow.
Mark’s entrepreneurial career spans satellite systems, software development, transportation logistics, and consumer products. He’s led software teams building mission-critical systems for financial transactions and fleet operations at major carriers like Schneider National and Swift Transportation.
In maritime operations, he launched a cross-gulf barge line serving Brownsville, Texas and Tampa, Florida. In consumer goods, he served as Co-Founder and CEO of Swiftwick, a premium performance sock company that scaled nationally while honoring a mission of U.S.-based manufacturing. He also led Hobby Express, a specialty hobby retailer, managing global supply chains and building a beloved family brand.
Mark was also the Co-Founder and CEO of Hytch Rewards, a transportation technology startup that incentivized shared mobility through cash rewards. The platform combined sustainability, behavior change, and big data to reduce congestion and emissions—and earned statewide recognition for its environmental and civic impact. Hytch’s story reflects Mark’s long-term commitment to innovation with purpose, even through moments of disruption like the COVID-19 pandemic.
Mark is the founder and host of the Parallel Entrepreneur Podcast and Network—a storytelling platform for visionary founders building lives of multiplicity, meaning, and resilience. Through real conversations with multi-venture leaders, he explores how alignment, stillness, and structure fuel innovation and long-term value.
Today, Mark serves as Managing Director at Kensington Park Capital, where he helps growth-stage and founder-led companies prepare for successful exits and acquisitions.
Having started and sold six companies—and experienced life post-acquisition inside a Fortune 500 environment—Mark brings not just financial savvy, but emotional intelligence to the M&A process. He’s the entrepreneur’s advocate at the deal table: strategic, steady, and focused on creating outcomes that honor everyone who built the journey.
Mark has been named:
Nashville Chamber’s Entrepreneur of the Year
Most Admired CEO by the Nashville Business Journal (at three different companies)
Governor’s Award for Trade Excellence recipient
Winner of Sustainable Transportation and Environmental Innovation Awards during his tenure leading Hytch Rewards, a cash-incentive platform for smarter mobility choices
A 35-year Rotarian, outdoor adventurer, and lifelong learner, Mark is committed to building not just ventures, but lives of depth and alignment. He embraces his Masonic journey, treasures time with family, and leads from a place of purpose and presence.
For Mark, entrepreneurship isn’t just a career—it’s a calling. And his mission remains clear:
Build aligned. Lead whole. Unleash potential everywhere.