# Ex-con founder builds jobs platform for people with records

> Richard Bronson, who served federal prison time for securities fraud, has launched Commissary Club to help formerly incarcerated people find employment and housing.
- Title: Ex-con founder builds jobs platform for people with records
- Summary: Richard Bronson, who served federal prison time for securities fraud, has launched Commissary Club to help formerly incarcerated people find employment and…
- Keywords: richard bronson, commissary club, employment platform, formerly incarcerated, startup battlefield 200, techcrunch disrupt, technology, startups, Ex-con, founder, builds, jobs
- Source: TechCrunch — https://techcrunch.com/2026/10/08/a-startup-founder-who-served-time-in-prison-is-looking-to-court-an-untapped-market-ex-cons
- Author: Lucas Ropek
- Published: 2026-10-08T16:45:00+00:00
- Read time: 2 min
- Topics: richard bronson, commissary club, employment platform, formerly incarcerated, ai, startup battlefield 200, techcrunch disrupt, technology, startups
## 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.
## Key takeaway

Richard Bronson, a former securities fraudster turned entrepreneur, launched Commissary Club, an AI-powered employment platform for ex-convicts, selected for TechCrunch Disrupt's Startup Battlefield 200 competition.