The Capitalyst: You transitioned from a traditional PR and marketing background to exploring the Amazon and launching wellness retreats across Peru, Mexico, Egypt, India, and beyond. What was the pivotal moment you realized that conventional career paths weren’t going to be enough for you?
Laura Bounin: I always knew. I began my career in PR and marketing, and I loved the worlds of luxury, storytelling, brand building, and connection on the other side I always had a passion for deep ancient mysteries, a fascination for people, cultures and humanity. I translated my passion in my mission creating a whole career and business around it, in connecting people from all around the world through deeply meaningful experiences and moments.
Travelling to places like the Amazon, Peru, Egypt, Mexico profoundly expanded my perspectives. Those journeys were not simply travel, they were initiations. They reminded me that life is meant to be deeply felt, and these are the experiences I try to bring into my community.
I realized I didn’t want to just build brands. I wanted to build worlds & experiences, communities, and spaces where transformation, meaningful connection, and beauty could coexist.
The Capitalyst: You’ve been living abroad since the age of 9, studying at Institut Le Rosey in Switzerland and travelling across 70 different countries. How did growing up without one “home culture” shape the way you think about community, and ultimately, the DNA of Aura Members?
Laura Bounin: I am very blessed to come from 2 different cultures. My mum is Romanian and my Father French. Though I was raised in France, I grew up with two languages and 2 different backgrounds, this helped me understand others and cultures way more easily. At 9 going to a Swiss boarding school where my roomates were from Africa, Italy, India, germany and surrounded by every nationality and culture growing up, really enhanced that multiculturality.
In many ways, Aura was born from that exact experience.
Having grown up internationally from a young age, I never felt fully tied to one geography, but instead deeply connected to people, cultures, ideas, and the feeling of belonging beyond borders.
It shaped my understanding that community is not about postcode, nationality, or status, it’s about resonance (energy), values, and shared visions & goals.
Aura was created for globally minded people who often feel “between worlds.” Founders, investors, creators, visionaries, people who may have access everywhere, yet still crave genuine belonging of people who resemble them.
The Capitalyst: “Exclusive but not elitist” is a genuinely difficult balance to strike in luxury. How do you operationalize that philosophy in practice when curating members and experiences?
Laura Bounin: For me, exclusivity should never be about ego. It should be about intentionality.
Aura is highly curated because trust is everything. When you bring exceptional people into intimate rooms, the quality of the room matters deeply. Who sits next to you and the conversation you will have makes all the difference.
But we are not accepting people based purely on titles, wealth, or social visibility. We look for generosity, intelligence, curiosity, kindness, ambition, and a genuine desire to contribute.
Luxury, to me, is not exclusion for the sake of status. It is creating extraordinary experiences with extraordinary people, in a way that feels deeply warm and human.
The Capitalyst: You’re now creating a Gen Z community for members’ children aged 18 to 25. That’s a fascinating extension. Is that about legacy, or do you see Gen Z bringing something to the table that older members genuinely need?
Laura Bounin: Both.
There is absolutely a legacy component, many of our members are extraordinary leaders, founders, investors, and families who care deeply about the next generation.
But I also believe Gen Z brings something incredibly valuable: fresh perspective, cultural fluency, creativity, speed, and a different relationship to technology, identity, and global culture.
With that being said, the most interesting rooms are often intergenerational ones. I truly believe a 25 year old can learn just as much from a 70 year old as a 70 year old can learn from a 25 year old.
The future belongs to those willing to learn in both directions.
The Capitalyst: In one of your interviews, you touched on the “loneliness at the top.” Why do you think traditional luxury clubs have failed to solve this, and how does your approach specifically address the emotional isolation of high-achievers?
Laura Bounin: Many traditional luxury members’ clubs are rooted in one physical location. They offer beautiful spaces, but the world has changed. Today, so many of us live internationally, move between cities, and build lives across borders, community should move with you.
Many traditional clubs also optimize for numbers, but not necessarily for intimacy or quality. Fewer, more selective, and deeply aligned is the way to go. Quality over quantity.
Another point is that high-achievers often carry immense responsibility. They are decision-makers, leaders, providers, builders. There are very few spaces where they can remove the armor and be totally themselves.
Aura is intentionally designed to create trust-first environments, intimate dinners, salons, private gatherings, meaningful introductions. Here conversations can move beyond performance, and the right introduction are curated. It is very tailor-made and we are very pro-active in inviting members to activities they would love, as we take the time to know each one of them very well. We also connect our members when they travel to new destinations where they don’t know anyone in the city yet. You will for sure find them having drinks or dinner till the early hours in one of the best spots of the city with other local members. I say being part of Aura is like a fast-track ticket to experiencing the best life has to offer. We have already vetted everything now your only job is to enjoy.
I think what people are truly craving today is not just access. It’s belonging. It’s intimacy. It’s genuine energy.
The Capitalyst: You spoke about the importance of being a “vulnerable leader.” In an industry like luxury and finance that often prizes stoicism and “the mask,” how do you encourage your members to drop their guard and connect authentically?
Laura Bounin: It starts with safety. It’s all about the curation of the group, the environment, the energy. When someone enters Aura, they understand the feeling straight away. I can’t explain it, it’s an energy and you can’t fake energy. When people are genuine you just know.
You can stay in the room forever. We all feel it. We also all feel it when we are in the wrong room. If the founder creates a culture of perfection and performance, others will mirror that. But if the energy invites authenticity, warmth, curiosity, and trust, something different happens, and we open.
At Aura, we intentionally design environments that naturally soften people, beautiful private homes, intimate dinners, meaningful conversation formats, shared experiences. There’s something powerful about taking people out of transactional environments and placing them into spaces where they can simply be human.
And ironically, that’s often where the most extraordinary collaborations begin.
The Capitalyst: You’ve built a yearly summit where 70 global leaders gather in Gstaad to shape conversations about the future of entire industries and investments. When the room is that small and the stakes are that high, how do you decide who belongs in it, and what’s the one quality you need every person to bring beyond their title?
Laura Bounin: Energy.
Of course, calibre matters. Vision matters. Experience matters. But beyond titles, I look for people who elevate the room. People who are curious rather than performative. Builders rather than spectators. Generous rather than transactional. Givers and builders not takers. And you feel that straight away.
One person with the wrong energy can change the chemistry of an entire room and vice versa someone with incredible energy will uplift the room. Now imagine 70 people like that, uniting in one place. At that level, curation becomes less about credentials and more about frequency.
The Capitalyst: Where do you see Aura evolving by 2030? Are you exploring deeper AI-driven personalization, new geographical frontiers, or something else entirely?
Laura Bounin: First of all, some beautiful news, we are launching the Aura app in July. With a global map of the world, allowing our members to connect wherever they are digitally and instantly, explore members profiles, and be intelligently matched through shared aspirations, interests, and even birthdays.
In the next 2 to 3 years, I also see the birth of Casa Aura, our physical boutique hotel and summer members’ sanctuary. A beautiful place where our community can gather, create, retreat, collaborate, and build meaningful things together, with daily themed events and experiences. The goal would be to have various Sanctuaries in the years to come.
By 2030, I see Aura as a true global ecosystem for extraordinary people, movers and shakers. A space where members elevate one another, contribute their unique expertise, and create meaningful collaborations, because each person is exceptional in their field, and together, we have the power to create real impact and meaningful change when we put all our skills and gift at the service of something bigger.
I would also love to have an Aura charity dedicated to fighting poverty for kids, and helping them have an education and even reaching some of their childhood dreams by supporting them toward career opportunities and brighter futures, through the Aura Network.
So yes, technology and AI will absolutely play a role in creating deeper personalization and smarter connectivity across our global network.
But at the heart of Aura will remain something profoundly human: trust, warmth, and genuine connection.
Because in an increasingly digital world, meaningful human connection will remain the ultimate luxury.
