- June 16, 2021
- Posted by: Stratford Team
- Category: Business
In 2018, Joshua Nowack served three months of a six-month sentence in a Santa Ana, Calif., jail for felony fraud by embezzlement. But when he was released, Nowack learned that, despite his MBA and previous professional experience as a CFO and accountant, no employer wanted to hire him once they found out about his record. Eventually, he decided his best route was to start a business—but not any enterprise. He would found an apparel company—specifically one printing custom and pre-made t-shirts—that would hire formerly incarcerated people.
Josh Nowack
Benjamin Ackerman
To that end, in early 2020, Nowack founded Breaking Free Industries in Santa Ana, Cal., which now employs three once-incarcerated individuals. “Officially we’re in the apparel space,” he says. “Really, we’re in the second chances space.”
Nowack also is one of 60 formerly-incarcerated people with entrepreneurial aspirations who recently attended a…
