From Stratton Oakmont to federal prison

Richard Bronson worked at Stratton Oakmont in the nineteen eighties, the corruption-riddled brokerage run by Jordan Belfort, the Wolf of Wall Street. He later started his own firm in South Florida.

Breaking securities laws cost him everything

Bronson built a one hundred million dollar business taking small cap companies public, but some success came through breaking securities laws. He was sent to federal prison for a couple of years.

“I lost everything, and most significantly, my freedom.”

Radioactive after release

After prison, Bronson struggled to find work despite his education and experience. Nobody would hire him. He describes himself as completely radioactive in the job market.

“Nobody would hire me, despite all of my education and work experience and everything else. I was like completely radioactive.”

Launching Commissary Club

Bronson created Commissary Club, an employment-focused social media platform named after the prison store. It uses AI to help ex-convicts navigate finding jobs and housing after release.

Community as the missing ingredient

Commissary Club includes a social component so users find community alongside job and housing help. Bronson says it is almost like Facebook, addressing isolation that ex-convicts experience.

“They find the other missing ingredient that's existentially important to them that isn't satisfied elsewhere. They find community.”

Small team, big ambition

Commissary Club is a team of two: Bronson and co-founder Roman Kissin, who previously worked for eBay and IBM and served as CTO of LexisNexis between twenty twenty-two and twenty twenty-five.

Freemium model with paid applications

Users get the first ten applications for free, then pay one hundred forty-nine dollars for ten applications or fourteen dollars ninety-nine cents each. Bronson sees it as a for-profit business with a mission.

AI for people society left behind

Bronson argues Commissary Club targets a huge market nobody addresses. While others worry AI takes jobs, he says they are building AI that creates employment for people society abandoned.

“We're building AI that creates employment for people that society left behind.”

Selected for Startup Battlefield two hundred

Commissary Club was selected for TechCrunch's Startup Battlefield two hundred competition, taking place at TechCrunch Disrupt October thirteen through fifteen in San Francisco.