Joy Randels

Joy Randels is a serial entrepreneur, technology executive, investor, and founder adviser. The Prowess Group says she launched her first venture at age 17 and has since been involved in 14 ventures, nine successful acquisitions, and two IPOs. She founded New Market Partners, where she has helped launch and fund 96 companies and worked with more than 900 founders and leaders on scaling, valuation growth, and exits.

Randels launched The Prowess Group in 2020 as a wholly owned New Market Partners subsidiary focused on helping founders, including underserved founders, build companies that scale and secure investment capital. The Prowess Group describes her as an active early-stage investor and says she has established her own fund and been a limited partner in two venture funds.

Her operating background spans public and private technology companies from bootstrap through venture financing and IPO. The Prowess Group says she has raised more than $360 million in capital, generated more than $15 billion in revenue, and held C-level roles at Apple, Akamai, and CA Technologies, where she was responsible for more than $2 billion in annual revenue and 17 acquisitions. Her founder and operating credits include Citizinvestor, Velocitude, Netegrity, ISC8, ClearCube, and Cheyenne Software.

Randels is an alumna of the University of Georgia, Emory University, and MIT. She has served on public and private company boards, including Metro-Tech, BurstIQ, Say Allo, and The Undercroft, and has written or spoken on entrepreneurship, venture capital, cybersecurity, data privacy, AI, governance, and leadership.

• New Market Partners describes its model as “high touch”: the team works actively with founders and senior management on business counsel, strategic direction, relationships, scaling, and go-to-market execution.
• The firm looks for founders and companies with clear indicators of high success probability; New Market Partners says those criteria are core to both its investment diligence and the partnerships it forms.
• Randels emphasizes building real businesses over chasing investor attention. In her Medium/Fortune piece “Why the Startup World is Nothing Like Shark Tank,” she warns founders against “defining success with getting funding” and says they should focus on customers, validation, revenue, and real traction.
• She is especially relevant for founders who need operator-investor help: team design, technical architecture guidance, product-market fit, launch strategy, revenue growth, fundraising preparation, and exit planning.
• The firm states it can provide seed capital up to $1.5 million, participate in follow-on rounds, and help syndicate future rounds with venture capitalists and strategic partners.
• Randels’ recent writing emphasizes founder integrity, investor alignment, governance, cybersecurity, AI ethics, data privacy, and “conscious leadership” that prioritizes people, resilience, and long-term company health.