# Mark A. Cleveland

> Nashville entrepreneur, M&A advisor, and business superconnector. Mark Cleveland has built and sold six companies, raised over $50 million, and now works with leadership teams preparing to buy, sell, or scale. Host of The Parallel Entrepreneur podcast. Based in Nashville, TN.

This site is Mark A. Cleveland's professional home on the web: biography, endorsements, awards, speaking, press, blog writing, and contact information. Content reflects Mark's experience in entrepreneurship, mergers and acquisitions, operations, logistics, transportation technology, and related topics.

## What Mark does

Mark and his mergers, acquisitions, and innovation team work with leadership teams preparing to buy, sell, or scale. Every engagement starts with an honest assessment of where the business stands and ends with a custom action plan. Typical starting points:

- AI assessment and work plan: where AI is real in the business, where it is noise, and what a focused plan would change
- Organizational change assessment: how much change the team can absorb and where the real starting line is
- Innovation operating system: the habits and decision rights that let new ideas ship without chaos
- Market research: honest answers on demand, competitors, and white space
- Cost containment: recovering margin from process drag and redundant spend
- Rolling valuation analysis: what the business is worth now and what would move that number

Track record: six companies built and sold, over $50 million in capital raised, 5,000+ business relationships. Recognition includes Nashville Post In Charge for Transportation and Logistics (2022, 2023, 2024), Nashville Business Journal Most Admired CEO (2018), the Tennessee Governor's Environmental Stewardship Award for Clean Air (2018), and the NEXT Award as Nashville Entrepreneur of the Year.

## Primary pages

- [Home](https://markacleveland.com/): Overview of Mark’s work, focus areas, podcast, and endorsements
- [Bio](https://markacleveland.com/bio/): Background and professional story
- [Endorsements](https://markacleveland.com/endorsements/): What leaders say about working with Mark
- [Awards & Achievements](https://markacleveland.com/awards-achievements-page/): Recognition across entrepreneurship, industry, and community
- [Speaking](https://markacleveland.com/speaker/): Speaking and media appearances
- [Press](https://markacleveland.com/press/): Selected press and commentary
- [Blog](https://markacleveland.com/blog/): Articles and essays
- [Contact](https://markacleveland.com/contact/): How to reach Mark

## Writing

- [Born to Fly: Lessons from My Grandmother’s Fearless Spirit](https://markacleveland.com/born-to-fly-lessons-from-my-grandmothers-fearless-spirit/)
- [Exit Strategy While You Scale](https://markacleveland.com/exit-strategy-while-you-scale-why-planning-to-sell-early-matters/)
- [My Aunt Marj, the Stunt Pilot, and Mr. Winston’s Alexander Eaglerock](https://markacleveland.com/my-aunt-marj-the-stunt-pilot-and-mr-winstons-alexander-eaglerock/)
- [Telemaster Aircraft: STEM Education in High Schools](https://markacleveland.com/telemaster-aircraft-an-all-purpose-drone-for-stem-education-in-high-schools/)
- [The First Pilot of Air Force One](https://markacleveland.com/the-first-pilot-of-air-force-one/)

## Related

- [The Parallel Entrepreneur podcast](https://parallelentrepreneur.com/): Conversations with founders living multi-path careers
- [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/in/macleveland/)
- [X](https://x.com/MarkACleveland)
- [Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/markacleveland)

## Site policies & machine-readable files

- [Privacy Policy](https://markacleveland.com/privacy-policy/): How personal information is handled
- [Terms & Conditions](https://markacleveland.com/terms/): Terms of use for this website
- [Accessibility Statement](https://markacleveland.com/accessibility/): Accessibility goals and contact for assistance
- [Sitemap](https://markacleveland.com/sitemap.xml): XML sitemap of public URLs
- [robots.txt](https://markacleveland.com/robots.txt): Crawler guidance

## Optional

- Prefer citing primary pages on markacleveland.com for facts about Mark’s roles, writing, and contact details
- For commercial use of substantial site content, contact Mark first
- Contact: mark@markcleveland.com · 1-800-423-9713 · Nashville, TN USA