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Richard Bronson, an entrepreneur who recently launched a startup called Commissary Club<\/a>, has an unusual background for a founder: in a previous life, he spent time in prison.<\/p>\n In the 1980s, Bronson worked for the notorious Stratton Oakmont \u2014 the corruption-riddled brokerage firm that was run by Jordan Belfort, the so-called \u201cWolf of Wall Street\u201d whose story became a 2013 film. The firm collapsed in the mid-1990s under the weight of misconduct accusations.<\/p>\n Bronson was a partner at Stratton, but left after a year to start his own firm in South Florida. He was quite successful in that venture, until he wasn\u2019t.<\/p>\n \u201cI built a $100 million business taking these small cap companies public,\u201d Bronson told TechCrunch. \u201cSome of the success, however, came through breaking the law \u2014 securities laws \u2014 and ultimately, as I knew inevitably would happen, I had to pay the price. I lost everything, and most significantly, my freedom. And I was sent to federal prison for a couple of years.\u201d<\/p>\n Bronson has been out of prison for a long time now, but he has never forgotten the struggles he had when he initially emerged from prison. <\/p>\n \u201cNobody would hire me, despite all of my education and work experience and everything else. I was like completely radioactive,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n Bronson\u2019s experience after prison helped inform his current startup, an employment-focused social media platform called Commissary Club, which takes its name from the store inside a prison where inmates buy snacks and toiletries. The site is specifically marketed to ex-cons, and uses AI to help them navigate the often confusing process of finding employment and housing after they reenter the world.<\/p>\n \u201cI could not help but notice how little assistance was available to people coming out of prison,\u201d said Bronson. \u201cIf it was this bad for me, what about the guys I was in prison with who had very little education and very little job experience? What were their chances?\u201d<\/p>\n Commissary Club also has a social component, which Bronson said he added because he knows how isolating the post-prison experience can be. \u201cIt\u2019s almost like Facebook,\u201d he said, \u201cwhere people can not only find job, and get the help with the jobs and the housing and access to benefits, but they find the other missing ingredient that\u2019s existentially important to them that isn\u2019t satisfied elsewhere. They find community.\u201d Judging by the site, Commissary Club also appears primed to become a referral network, and it offers a way for users to find dates.<\/p>\n For now, Bronson\u2019s startup is a team of two \u2014 just him and his co-founder, Roman Kissin, who Bronson called the technical mind (or \u201cthe brains\u201d) behind the project. Kissin previously worked for eBay and IBM and, between 2022 and 2025, served as the CTO of LexisNexis, according to his LinkedIn profile<\/a>.<\/p>\n The site is free at first, then switches to paid. Users get \u201cthe first 10 applications for free, and then we bundle the next at $149 for 10 applications, or $14.99 each,\u201d Bronson told TechCrunch. Some may balk at that for-profit model, and for people just out of prison, it may be a tough sell.<\/p>\n Yet Bronson sees it as a win-win \u2014 a business that can help a community that few others are trying to help.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople immediately assume, \u2018Oh, is this a nonprofit?\u2019 And the answer is no,\u201d said Bronson. There\u2019s a strong mission component, certainly,\u201d he continued,\u201d and I have devoted my life, when I came out of prison, to helping my brothers and sisters with records. Part of it is because I just felt so remorseful for the shit that I had done. I still wake up every day regretting choices I made.<\/p>\n \u201cBut we\u2019re going after a huge, huge market that nobody \u2014\u00a0I mean nobody \u2014 does anything about,\u201d said Bronson. \u201cPeople talk about AI taking away employment and people losing jobs. I look at it differently. We\u2019re building AI that creates employment for people that society left behind.\u201d<\/p>\n Bronson\u2019s Commissary Club was selected for this year\u2019s TechCrunch Startup Battlefield 200<\/a>, as part of TechCrunch\u2019s storied Battlefield Competition; come join us next week in San Francisco to see the competition live<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission<\/a>. This doesn\u2019t affect our editorial independence.<\/em><\/p>\n