Richard Bronson, an entrepreneur who not too long ago launched a startup referred to as Commissary Membership, has an uncommon background for a founder: in a earlier life, he frolicked in jail.
Within the Eighties, Bronson labored for the infamous Stratton Oakmont — the corruption-riddled brokerage agency that was run by Jordan Belfort, the so-called “Wolf of Wall Avenue” whose story turned a 2013 movie. The agency collapsed within the mid-Nineteen Nineties underneath the load of misconduct accusations.
Bronson was a companion at Stratton, however left after a yr to start out his personal agency in South Florida. He was fairly profitable in that enterprise, till he wasn’t.
“I constructed a $100 million enterprise taking these small cap firms public,” Bronson informed TechCrunch. “Among the success, nonetheless, got here via breaking the legislation — securities legal guidelines — and finally, as I knew inevitably would occur, I needed to pay the value. I misplaced every little thing, and most importantly, my freedom. And I used to be despatched to federal jail for a few years.”
Bronson has been out of jail for a very long time now, however he has by no means forgotten the struggles he had when he initially emerged from jail.
“No person would rent me, regardless of all of my training and work expertise and every little thing else. I used to be like utterly radioactive,” he mentioned.
Bronson’s expertise after jail helped inform his present startup, an employment-focused social media platform referred to as Commissary Membership, which takes its title from the shop inside a jail the place inmates purchase snacks and toiletries. The positioning is particularly marketed to ex-cons, and makes use of AI to assist them navigate the customarily complicated technique of discovering employment and housing after they reenter the world.
“I couldn’t assist however discover how little help was obtainable to folks popping out of jail,” mentioned Bronson. “If it was this dangerous for me, what in regards to the guys I used to be in jail with who had little or no training and little or no job expertise? What have been their possibilities?”
Commissary Membership additionally has a social part, which Bronson mentioned he added as a result of he is aware of how isolating the post-prison expertise will be. “It’s nearly like Fb,” he mentioned, “the place folks cannot solely discover job, and get the assistance with the roles and the housing and entry to advantages, however they discover the opposite lacking ingredient that’s existentially essential to them that isn’t glad elsewhere. They discover group.” Judging by the location, Commissary Membership additionally seems primed to develop into a referral community, and it presents a approach for customers to search out dates.
For now, Bronson’s startup is a staff of two — simply him and his co-founder, Roman Kissin, who Bronson referred to as the technical thoughts (or “the brains”) behind the venture. Kissin beforehand labored for eBay and IBM and, between 2022 and 2025, served because the CTO of LexisNexis, based on his LinkedIn profile.
The positioning is free at first, then switches to paid. Customers get “the primary 10 functions without spending a dime, after which we bundle the subsequent at $149 for 10 functions, or $14.99 every,” Bronson informed TechCrunch. Some could balk at that for-profit mannequin, and for folks simply out of jail, it might be a tricky promote.
But Bronson sees it as a win-win — a enterprise that may assist a group that few others are attempting to assist.
“Individuals instantly assume, ‘Oh, is that this a nonprofit?’ And the reply is not any,” mentioned Bronson. There’s a robust mission part, actually,” he continued,” and I’ve devoted my life, after I got here out of jail, to serving to my brothers and sisters with data. A part of it’s as a result of I simply felt so remorseful for the shit that I had completed. I nonetheless get up day by day regretting selections I made.
“However we’re going after an enormous, enormous market that no person — I imply no person — does something about,” mentioned Bronson. “Individuals discuss AI taking away employment and other people shedding jobs. I have a look at it otherwise. We’re constructing AI that creates employment for those who society left behind.”
Bronson’s Commissary Membership was chosen for this yr’s TechCrunch Startup Battlefield 200, as a part of TechCrunch’s storied Battlefield Competitors; come be a part of us subsequent week in San Francisco to see the competitors reside.
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