Writer, investor, and musician.

Joel came to investing by an unusual road. In high school, his work on DNA computation of NP-complete problems won the international science fair; at Rice University he studied chemistry, graduating magna cum laude, with research across DNA computation, nanotechnology, and organic chemistry that produced several publications and a U.S. patent. From the lab he moved into intellectual property: eighteen years as a patent agent, eventually leading a team of attorneys stewarding a multi-billion-dollar patent portfolio.

In 2013 he co-founded Austin Value Capital, a value-investing partnership run on the principles of Graham, Buffett, Fisher, and Marks, with a focus on risk and in-depth analysis. For roughly a decade he managed the fund and wrote for his partners — the essays gathered under Financial. Alongside them he kept a quieter series, Rational Awakening, on attention, desire, will, and what a life is for.

These days he is the CFO of RippnerTennis, his family's tennis business, and he builds things — software, websites, the occasional game. And always the music: guitar and voice, covers and originals, recorded at home.