Ex-Stratton Oakmont Broker Launches AI Platform for Ex-Convicts

Richard Bronson, a former partner at the brokerage firm Stratton Oakmont who served roughly two years in federal prison for securities violations, has launched Commissary Club, a startup that uses artificial intelligence to help people leaving prison find jobs, housing and community, according to TechCrunch.

Bronson described the platform as both an employment tool and a social network built specifically for formerly incarcerated people navigating reentry.

What is Commissary Club and how does it work?

Commissary Club takes its name from the prison store where inmates buy snacks and toiletries, Bronson told TechCrunch. The platform applies AI to help users work through what he called the confusing process of finding employment and housing after release, and it includes a benefits-access feature alongside the job and housing tools.

Bronson said the site also functions as a social network. "It's almost like Facebook," he told TechCrunch, "where people can not only find jobs, and get the help with the jobs and the housing and access to benefits, but they find the other missing ingredient that's existentially important to them that isn't satisfied elsewhere. They find community." TechCrunch reported the site also appears structured to support referrals between users and includes a feature for finding dates.

Why did Bronson build a platform for people leaving prison?

Bronson worked at Stratton Oakmont, the firm run by Jordan Belfort and later dramatized in the 2013 film "The Wolf of Wall Street," before leaving after a year to start his own brokerage in South Florida, according to TechCrunch. That venture grew into what he described as a $100 million business before it collapsed under securities-law violations he acknowledged committing.

"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."

After his release, Bronson said employers would not hire him despite his education and work history. "Nobody would hire me, despite all of my education and work experience and everything else," he told TechCrunch. "I was like completely radioactive." That experience, he said, led him to ask what chances existed for people with less education and less work history than his own.

How big is the team behind Commissary Club?

Commissary Club currently operates with a team of two, Bronson told TechCrunch: himself and co-founder Roman Kissin, whom Bronson described as the technical lead on the project. Kissin previously worked at eBay and IBM, according to TechCrunch, which did not report additional detail on the company's funding, user numbers, or technical architecture.

By the numbers

• $100 million — size of the small-cap brokerage business Bronson said he built in South Florida before his conviction, per TechCrunch.
• A couple of years — length of the federal prison sentence Bronson served for securities violations, per TechCrunch.
• Two — number of people currently working at Commissary Club, Bronson and co-founder Roman Kissin, per TechCrunch.

What can't be verified yet about Commissary Club's results?

TechCrunch's reporting describes the platform's stated purpose and founder's account of its design but does not include independent data on how many formerly incarcerated users have found jobs or housing through the site, nor does it cite outside research on reentry employment outcomes. The company's claims about its reach and effectiveness remain, at this point, self-reported by its founder rather than measured through published figures.

What should job seekers and ex-convicts watch for next?

• Whether Commissary Club publishes data on job placements or housing matches among users.
• Whether the two-person team expands staffing or raises outside funding as the platform scales.
• Whether the referral and dating features TechCrunch described remain part of the core product or are adjusted as the company grows.
• Whether competitors or established reentry nonprofits respond with comparable AI-driven tools.

TechCrunch's full account, including additional detail on Kissin's background, is available at the originating story.