Joy Randels

About Joy Randels

Joy launched the first of 14 ventures at age 16. Nine successful acquisitions and two IPOs later, she exercises her passion for building high-value, scalable businesses as the founder and Chairwoman of The Prowess Group and where she has helped launch and fund 113 companies. Joy and her team assist founders in building valuable companies and have worked with over 1000 founders to amplify their leadership, build scalable businesses, transform valuations, raise over $2B in capital, and experience highly successful exits.

Having successfully climbed the corporate ladder and achieved entrepreneurial success, she claimed her spot on several public and private boards of directors and proved she can win at the VC game, establishing her own fund, New Market Partners, and serving as a limited partner in three prominent venture funds. Joy is one of the few women to shatter the glass ceiling and claim her spot at the helm and in the boardroom.

Joy has led public and private companies from bootstrap through venture and IPO, raising over $360M in capital and generating more than $15B in revenue. As a founder, some of Joy’s most notable ventures include Citizinvestor, Velocitude, Business Layers, Netegrity, ISC8, ClearCube, and Cheyenne Software. She has played key roles in the design and development of software and professional service offerings for 20 years with the foremost companies in the world. As a C-level executive, her experience extends to industry leaders Apple, Akamai, and CA Technologies, where she was responsible for over $2B in revenue per year and 17 acquisitions.

Joy is an expert in cybersecurity, modern data privacy, cyber breaches and incident response, and compliance. She has extensive experience in digital transformation, go-to-market strategy, and Web3 technologies. She serves as a board member of public and private companies, including Metro-Tech, BurstIQ, Pockt Network, and Say Allo as an independent board member.

An alumnus of the University of Georgia, Emory University, and MIT, Joy also holds multiple cybersecurity, technical, and board governance certifications. She is a global public speaker, published author and frequent columnist for Forbes, Fortune, Wired, and others on topics related to entrepreneurship, diversity, women in tech and venture capital. Joy is a member of the International Womens Forum, UN Women’s Council, and Women in Cybersecurity. She has been named one of the Top 50 Women in Tech, Top 100 Women in Venture Capital, the Florida 500, and Tampa Bay Top 100. She has been honored as the E&Y Entrepreneur of the Year, Florida Technology Leader of the Year, and Business Woman of the Year, and numerous other awards.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joyrandels

Medium: https://medium.com/@joy_randels