Originally, when I was released from prison in 2005 (securities violations), I was unable to find a job. I found available resources designed to help those with records get back on their feet woefully lacking. Unemployment among those with records was/is staggeringly high, leading to recidivism rates of close to 75%. I knew there had to be a better approach.

I came up with a tech-enabled strategy, and began a plan for 70 Million Jobs, the first for-profit employment platform for people with records. I was accepted into YC and had success in profitably facilitating thousands with records land jobs. Unfortunately, COVID hit and cratered our revenue, forcing me to shut down the company.

I remained working in reentry (it’s been 15 years now), and hatched an idea to build a community for the billion+ people (globally) that have records, who uniformly express their needs for jobs, housing, community, medical and legal help. Commissary Club aims to address all of these needs by providing each user their own AI agent that doesn’t merely answer questions, but actually solves the problem. For example, regarding employment, it will create the resume, search for the jobs, apply for the jobs, perform interview prep, arrange for transportation to the interview follow up.

The agent will introduce members to other members. Set doctors appts. Award tokens rewarding good behavior. Truly agentic.