Number of Current Board & Advisor Roles 4
Number of Founded Organizations 1
  • Investor Type  Investment Partner

Mr. Fontenot is a Managing Partner of Trailblazer Capital. At Trailblazer, Joel is responsible for all aspects of the General Partner of an early stage and growth capital venture fund. Joel has brought to Trailblazer Capital unique insights built on his many years of banking, investing and early-stage technology company operating experience.

Through his investing activity at Trailblazer Capital, Joel sits on the Board of Directors of Koupon Media and Nitero.

Prior to joining Trailblazer Capital, Mr. Fontenot worked for Cisco Systems, Inc. Joel joined Cisco through the acquisition of Metreos Corporation in June 2006. Joel was a Director of Business Development in the Voice Technology Group and managed the partnerships and strategic alliances involving the Cisco Unified Application Environment and related application offerings.

In the fall of 2002, Joel assisted Metreos Corporation in establishing itself as the first enterprise voice over IP applications platform for the development and deployment of innovative, media-rich IP communications applications. Metreos enabled the enterprise to more effectively leverage and extend their investment in IP Telephony and allowed System Integrators, Independent Software Vendors, and Enterprise IT organizations to leverage a common environment for converged voice and data applications. From the fall of 2003 until the sale to Cisco Systems, Inc., Mr. Fontenot served as Metreos' CEO and was instrumental in securing equity and debt funding, establishing strategic relationships, closing its first customers and the sale of the Company to Cisco.

Previously, Mr. Fontenot co-founded Netrake Corporation and was responsible for all areas of the Company which created a unique, patented IP network processing system capable of recognizing, remembering and responding in real-time to network traffic on a session basis. Mr. Fontenot's strategic input brought the company from concept in January 2000 to successful beta trials in June 2002.

Mr. Fontenot is a member of the Executive Board of the Bobby B. Lyle School of Engineering at Southern Methodist University and was appointed by Governor Perry to the Texas Emerging Technology Fund Advisory Committee. He also previously served on the Advisory Board of Silver Creek Ventures and the Board of the Cistercian Preparatory School. Joel currently serves on the Board of the Dallas Entrepreneur Center.

Joel holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics from The University of Texas at Austin and a Masters of Business Administration from Southern Methodist University.

Number of Partner Investments 4
Announced Date  
Organization Name  
Investor Name  
Lead Investor  
Funding Round  
Money Raised  
Nov 4, 2014
Koupon
Trailblazer Capital
Series C - Koupon
$7.1M
Jul 1, 2013
Koupon
Trailblazer Capital
Venture Round - Koupon
$750K
Aug 7, 2012
Nitero
Trailblazer Capital
Yes
Series B - Nitero
$3.1M
Apr 9, 2012
Koupon
Trailblazer Capital
Yes
Series B - Koupon
$4.5M
Number of Past Jobs 5
Joel Fontenot has had 5 past jobs including Managing Partner at Trailblazer Capital.
Organization Name  
Title At Company  
Start Date  
End Date  
Trailblazer Capital
Managing PartnerSep 2008Jan 2019
Koupon
Executive ChairmanJan 2018Jan 2019
Cisco
Director of Business DevelopmentJul 28, 2006Oct 1, 2008
Metreos Corporation
CEOOct 1, 2002Jul 27, 2006
Netrake
Founder and President2000Jul 31, 2002
Number of Current Board & Advisor Roles 4
Joel Fontenot holds 4 board and advisor roles including Chief Strategy Officer and Board Member at vSpatial, Board Member at Garland Insulating, and Chairman of the Board at Nitero.