Richard Bronson, an entrepreneur who recently launched a startup called Commissary Club, has an unusual background for a founder: in a previous life, he spent time in prison.

In the 1980s, Bronson worked for the notorious Stratton Oakmont — the corruption-riddled brokerage firm that was run by Jordan Belfort, the “Wolf of Wall Street” whose story became a 2013 film. The firm collapsed in the mid-1990s under the weight of misconduct accusations.

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’t.

“I built a $100 million business taking these small cap companies public,” Bronson told TechCrunch. “Some of the success, however, came through breaking the law — securities laws — 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.”

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.

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

Bronson’s 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.

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