Two Years after Rocket, Jay Farner is Anything But Retired
Jay Farner, former executive and CEO at Detroit-based Rocket Companies Inc., is building out the next stage of his career as an investor.
Farner is CEO of the investment firm Ronin Capital Partners, which he founded in 2022 and now has his full attention after his retirement from Rocket in 2023 at age 49.
Farner, now 52, serves as the principal of the firm, which has five employees operating out of its Birmingham headquarters.
Farner did not disclose the firm’s revenue, but shared that it has made $25 million in investments in the first 18 months of operations, and overall has invested in “dozens of companies,” Farner said in an interview with Crain’s. The firm aims to invest around $20 million per year in diversified industries, like hospitality, sports, technology, and more.
Some of those investments include San Francisco-headquartered Electric Fish, Seattle-based apparel retailer Filson, as well as Detroit-based companies Shinola, Kode Labs and the downtown restaurant Besa.
“When I launched Ronin, I kind of took the approach that sometimes you need to kind of just let things breathe organically and let them happen, versus being too structured out of the gates,” Farner said.
The name for the firm comes from Farner's love for cars — and is a reference to the 1998 movie "Ronin" starring Robert De Niro that featured European car chase scenes — and draws on the history of the Ronin samurai in Japan.
Farner spent a year searching for “neat opportunities and entrepreneurs,” and realized how much he enjoyed the process of getting to know founders and leaders in their respective industries. The firm, however, grew more quickly than Farner had anticipated.
Farner said he came to a realization: “‘Hey, if I'm going to do this, and this is going to become something that can be important to our community, and hopefully Southeast Michigan, I really should bring on a partner who can bring some more rigor to the process.”