How Aethynex
Actually Works.
A complete breakdown of the Capital Bond, the 72-hour mandate, the settlement logic, and how each component addresses something that was genuinely broken in creator-brand outreach.
The Core Premise.
Aethynex is a B2B transaction protocol. One job: facilitate the first contact between a brand and a creator with accountability.
It does not manage campaigns. It does not take deal commissions. It does not act as an agent or intermediary. It handles one specific moment, then steps back entirely.
What Was Broken.
The creator economy runs on a broken outreach model. Brands cold DM creators with vague messages. Creators ignore them or spend hours separating signal from noise. Both sides lose.
A creator with a meaningful following can receive hundreds of inbound messages a week. A small fraction are genuine, budgeted opportunities. The rest are free product requests, exposure offers, or messages that never had a budget attached. There is no filter for intent because contact has always been free.
A partnerships manager sends dozens of outreach messages a week and hears back from very few. Response rates are low not because creators are difficult, but because there is nothing to distinguish a real pitch from the noise around it. It all looks the same.
Link-in-bio tools addressed discovery, not accountability. A brand could click through, see a creator's stats, and send a low-effort inquiry for free. Finding a creator was easy. Getting a real, timely response from one was not.
The Capital Bond.
Every pitch submitted through Aethynex requires a Capital Bond, an authorization hold placed against the brand's payment method at the moment of submission. The bond is $12.99 on The Bridge tier. Subscription plan holders may have discounted add-on rates depending on their plan. The hold confirms the payment method is valid and that funds are available. No money has moved.
$12.99 is a rounding error on any real marketing budget. It will not deter a legitimate brand. It filters out anyone without a real budget or genuine intent behind the outreach.
What the Bond Is Not
The Capital Bond is not a payment to the creator. At submission, it is a hold only. The money has not moved. It is a financial commitment held by Stripe, signaling that accountability is attached to this pitch.
The Protocol Flow.
Here is every step of a protocol transaction from start to finish, in order.
Settlement Logic.
There are exactly three outcomes in an Aethynex protocol. Every transaction resolves into one of them.
The RRI Score.
The Capital Bond protects brands financially. The RRI tells them who they are dealing with before they pitch. A creator with a high RRI has a documented history of responding on time, built pitch by pitch through the protocol.
The RRI exists because brands need more than financial protection. A creator with an RRI of 96 has a documented track record across many pitches. One with an RRI of 60 has shown a pattern of slow responses or gaps in their history. Brands see this before the bond is placed.
A creator starting on Aethynex begins with a neutral score. It is built over time through a combination of response rate, response speed, protocol history, and consistency. The single fastest way to damage it is to let pitches expire without a response. Responding, whether accept or decline, is always the right move for your score. The factors are weighted, so a strong history across all dimensions builds a meaningfully higher score than just responding consistently.
How It Works
For Creators.
For platforms with an official API, your portfolio pulls stats directly and refreshes daily. Follower counts, engagement rates, average views. The numbers brands see reflect what the platform is reporting, with no manual input needed. For platforms without an official API, you enter your own stats, which are clearly marked as self-reported on your portfolio.
You Get Paid to Respond
Every Definitive Response, whether you accept or decline, earns you $4.00. The review fee is released upon response, before any deal is discussed. This means your time reviewing a pitch has monetary value regardless of outcome. If a brand pitches you 10 times over a year and you decline 8 and accept 2, you have earned $40 in review fees before a single deal closes.
Your Rate Card Is Your Filter
Publishing your rates publicly is intentional. A brand that reads your minimum and still pays the Capital Bond has already cleared the budget filter. Every pitch that reaches your inbox is from someone who has seen your rates and proceeded anyway.
You Control Availability
Your availability status (Open, Selective, or Closed) can be changed at any time from your dashboard. When set to Closed, your portfolio remains visible and brands can see your stats and rates, but the pitch button is disabled. You do not disappear from the directory. You pause inbound intake while staying discoverable, which matters during busy seasons or when you are between campaigns and not looking for new work.
How It Works
For Brands.
Aethynex gives you a directory of verified creators with transparent stats and published rates. You know before you pitch whether a creator's audience, engagement, and pricing fit your campaign.
The Structured Brief Removes Ambiguity
Every pitch you submit goes through a standardized brief: campaign overview, deliverables, budget range, and timeline. This format was designed because vague outreach gets vague responses. A creator who receives a structured brief with a clear budget and specific deliverables can make a decision in minutes. A creator who receives "hey would love to collab!" cannot, and you both lose time finding that out.
A Declined Pitch Is Still a Win
In the traditional model, an ignored DM is the worst outcome. You do not know if the creator saw it, if they are interested but busy, or if they actively do not want to work with you. You wait. You follow up. You still do not know. Aethynex eliminates that. Every pitch receives a Definitive Response within 72 hours, or the bond is voided and you move on immediately.
A decline comes with a reason. The creator tells you why it did not fit, whether that is timing, budget, niche, or something else. And in some cases, a decline can come with an opening: the creator may flag the pitch as eligible for resubmission after a cooling period. A no with context and an open door is more useful than silence.
Zero Commission on Deals
Aethynex takes nothing from the resulting deal. A $50,000 campaign negotiated after an accepted pitch costs the brand $12.99 to initiate. Aethynex takes nothing beyond that.
Payment Infrastructure.
All financial transactions on Aethynex are processed through Stripe using Authorization & Capture logic. The same payment infrastructure used by Airbnb, Lyft, and most major hotel booking platforms for holding deposits.
What Aethynex
Does Not Do.
Aethynex's role ends when contact is unlocked. Everything that follows is between the brand and the creator directly.
This scope is deliberate. The moment Aethynex takes a commission on deals, the incentives change. Revenue becomes tied to deal value rather than deal quality. By charging only for the introduction and nothing after, Aethynex has no reason to push either party toward a higher-value deal that is wrong for them. More good matches. Nothing else.
Platform Comparison.
How Aethynex compares to the other ways brands reach creators.
| Feature | Aethynex | Managed Platforms | Link-in-Bio Tools | Direct DM |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Verified Stats | ✓ Always | Partial | ✗ | ✗ |
| Spam Elimination | ✓ Bond required | Platform gating | ✗ | ✗ |
| Response Guaranteed | ✓ 72hr mandate | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Creator Paid for Review | ✓ $4.00 per response | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Brand Risk on Ghost | ✓ Zero. Bond returned | Lost time | Lost time | Lost time |
| Deal Commission | ✓ $0 | 15–30% | N/A | $0 |
| Structured Brief Format | ✓ Required | Optional | ✗ | ✗ |
| Creator Portfolio Free | ✓ Always free | Paid plans | ✓ Free tier | N/A |
| RRI / Trust Score | ✓ Public | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
Specific Questions.
The clock starts the moment the brand submits the pitch and the Capital Bond authorization is confirmed by Stripe. Not when the creator opens the notification, not when they read the brief. The window opens at submission. This protects the brand from any delay in notification delivery and ensures the 72-hour mandate is enforceable regardless of when the creator first looks at the pitch.
No. Once a pitch is submitted and the bond is authorized, the protocol is active and the retraction window is closed. The creator has already received the pitch and has 72 hours to respond. If the creator does not respond within that window, the hold voids automatically and the brand pays nothing. A brand who changes their mind after submitting can note that in a follow-up if contact is later unlocked, but the protocol itself cannot be recalled mid-window.
Both options include a message field. When a creator declines, they are prompted to provide a reason, which is delivered to the brand as part of the protocol close. This is where a creator can also flag the pitch as eligible for resubmission after a cooling period. When a creator accepts, they can include an opening message that accompanies the contact unlock. Neither field is a full negotiation. They are short, structured responses designed to give the brand enough context to know what comes next.
Yes. Each pitch is an independent protocol transaction. A brand can have multiple active pitches running simultaneously, each with its own 72-hour window and its own bond. Subscription tiers come with a monthly credit allocation for this purpose. The Professional tier includes eight credits per month, the Agency tier includes fifteen, and the Authority tier includes thirty, with add-on credits available on all paid plans.
Authorization holds confirm that funds are available at the time of submission. If a capture fails at the point of response, which is rare given that the hold already cleared, Aethynex retries the capture and notifies both parties. In cases where capture cannot be completed, the creator is still credited for their response and the platform covers the review fee. The creator's Definitive Response is recorded in their protocol history regardless of the payment outcome.
Creator portfolios are free to deploy. Brand pitches start at $12.99 with a guaranteed 72-hour response. If the creator does not respond, the hold is voided and you pay nothing.