[3] Around 1965 Ron moved to San Francisco and started a small loans business called Guaranteed Factors.
Not long after, he loaned money to the Grateful Dead to buy equipment and quickly joined as a photographer and later the band manager.
In July 1972, he was invited to Bill Kreutzmann's house to present the initial idea to the band.
Ron was also the executive producer and appears in the 1977 documentary film, The Grateful Dead Movie.
On April 11, 2007, Rakow was sentenced to five years in federal prison for tax evasion of $2.2 million since 1985 from income unrelated to his relationship with The Grateful Dead.