When Ron Baron first met Elon Musk in 2010, he wasn’t convinced Tesla would succeed. He spent four years studying it before he invested. Between 2014 and 2016, his firm, Baron Capital, invested approximately $400 million in Tesla. That investment has since generated about $6.9 billion in gains, he said. 

The investment reflects a philosophy that Ron Baron has followed for more than five decades: invest in businesses, not stocks, and give exceptional companies time to grow. 

Baron, the CEO and founder of Baron Capital, shared this story with students during a conversation with Jen Prosek (MBA ’99), founder and managing partner of Prosek Partners, at a Columbia Business School Distinguished Speaker Series event. 

For Baron, who founded Baron Capital in 1982, investing is as much about the people leading a business as it is about the business itself. His conviction in Musk eventually extended beyond Tesla to SpaceX, where Baron Capital has invested approximately $2.5 billion (inclusive of historical investments in xAI and X Corp) since 2017.

But conviction doesn’t come easily. Baron said that if he doesn’t trust the management team, “I don’t care how good the business is.” 

A lifelong interest in ownership 

Growing up in Asbury Park, New Jersey, Baron's friends' families ran boardwalk rides, restaurants, and a hotel. “They owned things,” Baron said. He wanted to do the same. As a teenager, he put $1,000 in savings into his local bank’s stock. When another company bought the bank, his stake grew to $1,700.

Baron’s early jobs were demanding. In his late teens, he worked as a lifeguard by day and in a hospital emergency room overnight. Later, he worked as a patent examiner at the U.S. Patent Office while attending George Washington University Law School at night.

He left law school before graduating and spent months looking for analyst work in 1969. An unpopular sell recommendation later cost him his first Wall Street job, but a journalist who liked his work helped him land another.

Baron started managing money in 1977 before founding Baron Capital five years later. By 1992, the firm reached $100 million in assets and now manages $62.9 billion as of September 30, 2026. 

Patience as a strategy

Baron’s long-term approach stands in contrast to a landscape increasingly shaped by zero-commission trading and low-cost ETFs. 

When asked how the fund industry can connect with younger investors, Baron said the hurdle is teaching younger investors to think long term. An index fund is the better choice for most people, he pointed out, because beating the market is hard when everyone has the same information.

When it comes to commitment to patience and long-term ownership, Baron holds his own firm to the same standard. Baron Capital has never had a layoff, he said. Near-term profit does not drive his decisions. Reputation does, because it helps the firm attract the best people.

That patience has paid off for Baron’s employees too. Baron said that for the past few years he has put money into SpaceX partnerships for staff who earn less than a certain threshold each year, investing $12,000 per person each time. Those stakes are now worth $700,000 to $800,000, he said, and he expects them to make the employees millionaires.

For Baron, the philosophy is consistent. Whether he’s investing in Tesla, backing a promising leader or building his own firm: find businesses and people worth believing in, and give them time to succeed.