Mark Cieri

Mark Cieri is a technology operator turned angel investor based in Denton, Texas, where he describes himself as a "global tech business leader, angel investor, and business adventurist." He is the Co-Founder of TeamOfDefenders LLC (founded May 2018), an Internet-of-Things monitoring platform-as-a-service company that runs a full-stack software and hardware platform, and CEO & Co-Founder of its flagship product company, StorageDefender, which delivers smart tenant-unit monitoring and IoT solutions to the self-storage / PropTech industry. He also serves as Managing Member of QV Partners LLC, a vehicle through which he engages with founders "driving to become rule breakers and creators in their respective markets," a role he has held since around January 2018.

Before founding TeamOfDefenders, Cieri spent his career in enterprise smart-home and connected-lighting technology. He was Vice President and General Manager of Philips Hue / Philips Lighting in North America, where he built a leading smart-home business that grew sales by more than 300%. Earlier he was VP of Sales and Marketing at two technology startups, one of which he helped bring through an M&A transaction with Intel/Altera. He holds 11 patents.

Cieri earned a BS in Engineering from Rutgers University and an MBA from Lehigh University. Since relocating his venture to Denton, he has become a visible champion of the local tech ecosystem — starting TeamOfDefenders out of the Stoke Denton entrepreneurial hub, becoming a chartering member of the Denton angel-investor community, and receiving a City of Denton entrepreneurship economic-development grant (part of a combined $350,000 award to two startups), with projections to create 54 jobs and a $3.95 million payroll.

• Invests as an angel at the seed / early stage, primarily in IoT, connected-hardware, smart-home, and PropTech / real-estate-tech ventures that mirror his own operating background.
• Backs founders "driving to become rule breakers and creators in their respective markets" (his stated framing at QV Partners).
• Strong local / regional emphasis on Denton, Texas — TeamOfDefenders explicitly "supports the Denton tech scene by hiring local and investing in other startups as angel investors."
• Motivated by building the local talent pipeline: "I want to foster and stimulate having graduates come and stay… We see Denton as a destination."
• Values founders who are willing to build in Denton specifically rather than defaulting to Austin or Dallas: "We are going to be Denton. And Denton is unique."