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SmartCard, the Frisco-based premium networking technology company behind the titanium NFC business card, announced today the formation of the SmartCard Second Chance Foundation — a planned initiative funded directly from company revenue, built to provide capital, mentorship, and access to young founders who have never had any of the three.
The foundation was not an afterthought. According to SmartCard founder Jacob McKanry, it was the reason the company was built in the first place.
McKanry, 24, grew up without access to capital or the kind of networks where opportunities change hands. At 18, he was shot in the back with a hollowpoint round in what he describes as a planned ambush. He sustained multiple life-threatening injuries. His surgical team described his survival as medically impossible.
He spent his recovery studying for his California real estate license. He passed.
"I don't know how you survived these injuries," his surgeon, former Johns Hopkins Chief Medical Officer Mahmoud B. Malas, told him at the time. "Physically, it shouldn't be possible. You have to have someone up there looking out for you."
McKanry has spent the years since building toward something that could extend that same improbable luck to someone else.
The Second Chance Foundation will be funded by a tithe of 10% of all SmartCard net revenue, with a formal launch targeted for early 2027. Its first cohort is already being assembled. The foundation is not structured as a charity — it operates as a direct bet on young builders who have the drive to execute but have never been given the shot to prove it. Selected founders receive seed-level capital, accountable mentorship, and introductions to networks that are otherwise closed to them.
SmartCard itself is evidence the model works. The company launched out of Frisco without outside capital or ad spend, rebuilt entirely from scratch after a development firm took every dollar McKanry had put into it, and is now being requested by top event organizers across New York, San Francisco, and Washington D.C.
The foundation is currently seeking organizational and individual partners — both funding contributors and committed mentors — ahead of its 2027 launch.
"This isn't about giving handouts," McKanry said. "It's about giving people a real shot."