Dan and Jennifer Gilbert started ROCK to create connections across their more than 100 companies and organizations and to promote to the For More Than Profit philosophy.
Read MoreIt’s only when you cut the rock open that you can visualize its journey, with each layer telling a story.
This is our story. These are our layers.
Dan Gilbert launches Rock Financial with $5,000 in capital. Now known as Rocket Mortgage, one of the largest mortgage lenders in the world.
Dan Gilbert leads an investor group that purchases the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Rock Ventures is launched, serving as an umbrella company for the Gilbert family’s portfolio of businesses.
Dan Gilbert, Brian Hermelin, and Kevin Prokop, launch Rockbridge, a unique private equity platform with a distinct investment philosophy focused on long-term business building.
Dan Gilbert moves his companies to Downtown Detroit, bringing 1,700 team members to the city. The Family of Companies has grown to employ more than 15,000 team members in Detroit.
Dan Gilbert leads the creation of Detroit Venture Partners (DVP), a Detroit-based venture capital firm. DVP has invested nearly $500 million in more than 150 startups and funds.
Bedrock is created to redevelop properties in Detroit. Its first purchase is Detroit’s historic Madison Theatre Building. The Madison is now a collaborative tech hub encouraging partnership among local entrepreneurs. Bedrock has invested more than $7 billion and owns more than 120 buildings in Detroit and Cleveland.
NFForward hosts the first beNeFit, an annual gala in support of awareness and research to cure Neurofibromatosis (NF), a genetic disorder that causes tumors to grow on nerves anywhere in the body. Since 2012 the annual event has raised more than $65 million.
Dan Gilbert is named as a co-chair of the Detroit Blight Removal Task Force by the Obama Administration, which reveals the scale of property tax foreclosure as a contributing factor to blight.
The Rocket Community Fund is created to simplify complex and inequitable systems to ensure that every American has access to stable, healthy housing.
StockX launches in Detroit, creating the first stock market of things for high-demand, limited edition products.
The Cleveland Cavaliers make history by winning their first-ever NBA championship
Bedrock breaks ground on Detroit’s first new skyscraper since 1993, the Hudson’s Site.
The QLINE opens. It is the first major American transit project launched by a partnership of private businesses, philanthropic organizations, and state and local government.
Rocket Companies goes public under the ticker RKT.
The Gilbert Family Foundation and the Rocket Community Fund launch a joint $500 million commitment to Detroit over the next 10 years to support economic mobility through housing stability, entrepreneurship, arts & culture and placemaking.
Bedrock and the City of Cleveland announce Cuyahoga Riverfront Master Plan.
Rock Ventures rebrands to ROCK
Dan is the Founder and Chairman of Rocket Companies, which listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker RKT in 2020; and the Chairman of Rock Holdings, Inc. (RHI), the largest shareholder in Rocket Companies. Dan is also the Governor of the NBA Cleveland Cavaliers basketball team and the operator of the Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse in Cleveland, Ohio.
Dan founded real estate investment firm Bedrock, which has made significant investments in developing, and reviving, more than 100 properties in Detroit and Cleveland.
In 2010, the Gilbert’s launched Detroit Venture Partners (DVP) to support an entrepreneurial ecosystem in Detroit. To date, DVP has invested in more than 100 companies, helping founders scale, improve, and grow.
In February 2016, Dan co-founded Detroit-based StockX, the world’s first “stock market of things,” combining the visible, liquid, anonymous, and transparent benefits of a stock market with the online consumer secondary market.
Jennifer leveraged more than 20 years of experience in interior design to launch POPHOUSE, a commercial design firm that uses data-based research to create cutting-edge workplaces for clients across a broad spectrum of industries.
Jennifer founded Amber Engine in 2015, a Detroit-based home furnishings services and solutions technology company. Amber Engine’s mission was to provide the most accurate, complete and timely records and descriptions of products used in home furnishings through a simple and affordable SaaS solution. Amber Engine was sold to Material Bank in March 2022. Prior to Amber Engine, Jennifer founded Doodle Home, a digital platform for residential interior designers. Doodle Home was acquired by Dering Hall in 2015.
Jennifer is active with numerous non-profits focused on the arts, Jewish causes and finding a cure for neurofibromatosis (NF). She is President of NF Forward, Chair of the Cranbrook Academy of Art Board of Governors and serves on the board of the Detroit Institute of Arts. Jennifer founded the Detroit Art Collection to beautify and inspire public spaces and structures in downtown Detroit with sculptural and mixed media works from local, as well as national artists, galleries and dealers.
Dan serves on the boards of the Cleveland Clinic and the Children’s Tumor Foundation. In 2015, Dan and Jennifer Gilbert established the Gilbert Family Foundation and in 2017, formed NF Forward to fund cutting-edge research dedicated to finding a cure for neurofibromatosis (NF).
Dan and Jennifer both graduated from Michigan State University. Dan also earned his law degree from Wayne State University.
