Operator program · Now accepting applications

run the lens
in your city.

Twelve cities, twelve hosts. Aura nights, brand activations, member dinners — we provide the equipment, the brand, the playbook. You bring the room.

Apply to operate → See tiers Host login →
The opportunity

The booth is the bottleneck. You're the fix.

A booth can only be in one room at a time — that's the whole constraint, and the whole opportunity. We license the brand, the kit, and the playbook to a small group of operators who show up where we can't. The read is free — that's the draw. You make your money when guests order a print to take the moment home: we print and ship every order from our lab, and you keep 85%.

Free

The read fills the room

Every guest gets a free aura read and comic strip, sent straight to their phone. Free is what makes the line — no ticket, no friction, all reach.

$1.5–3K

Projected print revenue / night

Our model: 60–120 reads a night, ~25–35% ordering an archival print ($29–249). We produce and mail every order — you hold zero inventory. This is a projection, not a track record — the founding cohort is who proves it.

85%

You keep

Of print revenue after production and shipping. We take a 15% royalty — no hidden fees, no marketing markup.

A typical night — the math
120 free reads · ~30% order a print
36 orders
Average order (postcard → framed)
× $55
Print revenue
$1,980
Production & shipping — we cover it
− $540
After costs
$1,440
You keep — 85%
≈ $1,224
Our royalty — 15%
$216

Illustrative, for one 3-hour activation — a model, not a guarantee. We're a founding program with no operator history yet, and we'd rather tell you that than invent numbers. If the model holds, the $3,500 onboarding pays back within your first events.

The deal

What you get. What we get.

What we provide

  • The lens — branded laptop kit with the production version of the aura.refract reader, pre-configured and ready
  • The kit — DSLR or full-frame camera, ring light, backdrop, branded prism props
  • Fulfillment — every print a guest orders is produced and shipped from our lab; you carry zero inventory and we handle returns
  • The brand — full kit access (logos, OG images, story templates, event flyers in your city's font/lockup)
  • The playbook — 40-page operator manual covering venue prep, pricing, comping, social capture, customer flow
  • Lead routing — we forward inbound event bookings in your territory to you, exclusive
  • Training — 2-day virtual onboarding plus an in-person shadow at one of our first flagship nights (NYC or LA) before your launch
  • The web — your operator profile + city page on aura.refractventures.co (e.g. /chicago)

What you bring

  • The room — venue access, partner network, or the ability to source one (we'll help you cold-pitch)
  • The schedule — at least one event per month, on average, for the first year
  • The presence — you run the camera, the read, the customer interaction. You are the brand in the room.
  • An aesthetic instinct — you don't need to be a photographer, but you need to know what looks right
  • Social fluency — capture content from every event, share to your channels and tag us
  • The 15% royalty — paid monthly via Stripe, transparent dashboard
  • Brand standards — keep the wordmark intact, follow the voice guide, don't recolor the dot
Tiers

Three ways in.

Pick the level that matches your bandwidth and ambition. You can always upgrade — once you've completed three events at one tier, the next tier opens.

Single event
$500One-time licensing fee
85% revenue share · No royalty
  • One licensed event, one location, one date
  • Full brand kit access for that event
  • Operator manual + 1-hour pre-event call
  • Use of the production reader on event night
  • No territory exclusivity
  • Perfect for testing or one-off activations
Apply for single →
Regional chapter
$8,500Onboarding · 24-month term
85% revenue share · 12% royalty
  • Multi-metro territory (e.g. Pacific NW, Texas triangle)
  • Sub-license rights to recruit 2 additional operators
  • Co-branding on regional brand activations
  • White-glove training + ongoing strategy support
  • First refusal on national brand partner activations in your region
  • Equity-track conversation after year one
  • Requires existing event-ops experience
Apply for chapter →
The process

From application to first event.

01

Apply

Fill out the form below. We read every one.

~10 minutes
02

Interview

30-minute video call with the founding team. We're checking taste, presence, and ops capacity.

~1 week after applying
03

Onboard

Two days of virtual training. Brand kit access. Equipment ships. You shadow one of our first flagship nights in NYC or LA.

2–4 weeks
04

Launch

Your first event in your city. We'll be on standby for support. After three successful events, you're an operator.

6 weeks after onboarding
Who we're looking for

The type.

No formal credentials required — we care about the room you can fill and the brand you can hold. But here's what tends to work.

You've thrown things before.

Parties, dinners, popups, openings, residencies — anything where you've been responsible for the room. Three+ events in the last two years is a strong signal.

You're in a real city.

One of our 12 target metros: NYC, LA, SF, Chicago, Austin, Miami, London, Paris, Berlin, Stockholm, Toronto, Mexico City. Open to others — pitch us.

You have a network.

Friends in PR, fashion, hospitality, music, food. We're not looking for influencer counts, we're looking for actual cultural connectivity in your city.

You can hold a brand.

Lowercase. Italic. Optic-language. No woo. If the brand voice doesn't already feel native to you, this probably isn't the right fit.

You're solvent.

The licensing fee covers our setup costs but you're on the hook for venue, food, your own time, and event marketing in the first 90 days. Plan for ~$3–5K of working capital.

You can show up.

Minimum one event a month, on average. We're not interested in operators who buy in and disappear. The brand only stays sharp if the events stay sharp.

Apply now

Let's see your spectrum.

We're capping the first cohort at twelve. We read every application within five business days. No agencies, no AI-written applications — we can tell.

All applications reviewed personally · Response within 5 business days
Operator FAQ

The common ones.

If the read is free, how do I actually make money?

The free read is the hook — it's what makes the line and fills the room. You earn on the print: once their aura lands on their phone, guests order an archival print ($29–249) that we produce and mail. You keep 85% of that revenue after production and shipping. Free reach in, paid keepsake out — and because we fulfill every order, you never buy or store inventory.

Can I run events in a city where you don't already have an operator?

Yes — we're prioritizing the 12 target metros but we'll consider any city with a real culture scene. Pitch us in the application.

Is the equipment kit owned or loaned?

Loaned for the residency and chapter tiers. The kit returns if you don't renew. We can also help you buy your own kit at cost if you'd rather own it.

How do you handle royalty collection?

At launch, we reconcile monthly by hand and send you a transparent statement — every order itemized, production and shipping out first, then the 15% royalty. Connected Stripe accounts with automatic holdback and a live dashboard are on the roadmap for the founding cohort.

What if I don't hit the one-event-per-month minimum?

Three consecutive months without an event triggers a check-in. Six months triggers a non-renewal conversation. We'd rather have ten active operators than fifty dormant ones.

Can I co-brand events with sponsors I bring in?

Yes — encouraged. Local sponsorships are yours to keep entirely (no royalty on sponsor revenue). National-brand partnerships go through us so we can negotiate as a unit, but you get a 60% cut of any deal we close in your territory.

How long until I see profit?

Honest answer: we're a new program, so there's no operator history to point to yet. Our model has break-even landing around event three (roughly month two) and profit from event four — treat that as a model, not a promise, and pressure-test it against your own city and venue costs.