Why Exponential Ventures backs founders solving civilization-scale crises—at the speed they demand.
Hosted by Salim Ismail and James Drage
Exponential Promise explores the fragile gap between the future we could have—a world of AI-enabled abundance—and the one we'll actually get if we ignore the humanity-scale problems in our way. Each short series focuses on one of those issues and what it would really take to move at the speed these crises demand.
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Exponential Promise is created by Exponential Ventures, a fund backing founders solving existential, civilization-scale problems—and helping them move at the speed these crises demand. The show is hosted by members of the Exponential Ventures team alongside partners and collaborators from the broader Exponential Organizations and OpenExO communities.
Co-author of Exponential Organizations, co-founder of OpenExO and Exponential Ventures. Founding executive director of Singularity University, advisor to leading tech companies and governments on exponential thinking. Moonshot mate on the Peter Diamandis Moonshots podcast.
Ex-M&A professional with multiple exits as a founder, followed by 20+ years as a serial venture capitalist. “Eyes in, hands in” investor helping companies scale to 10–100X valuation increases; early believer in the ExO methodology’s impact on founder success and valuations.
Two full AI venture partners—one qualitative, one quantitative—trained over nearly a year. Backed by 1,600+ certified OpenExO coaches and consultants, plus a network of subject matter experts from a 44,000+ member community.
Exponential Promise explores the difference between a thriving future—where industrial-scale AI helps “solve everything”—and a dystopian one where we solve math and physics but fail to address the crises that abundance depends on. Each short series dives deep into a single humanity-scale issue, bringing together founders, clinicians, policymakers, and systems thinkers to ask what it would actually take to move exponentially faster on that problem.
“We know we can't do everything we would like to. We focus on a few problem spaces where we can help catalyze investable solutions.”
Our debut series looks at antimicrobial resistance and sepsis as quiet civilization-scale threats—and a test of whether we can keep the promise of exponential health.
“AMR & Sepsis” treats antimicrobial resistance and sepsis not as background clinical problems, but as threats that could roll back much of antibiotics' contribution to life expectancy and turn AI's exponential promise into a darker future. We'll talk with epidemiologists, economists, regulators, founders, and hospital leaders about why the bottlenecks are incentives and systems—not science—and how exponential organizations and better-aligned capital can accelerate solutions.
Recording in March 2026—First episodes airing early Q2 on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube, and more.
Notify me at launchBeyond biology and regulation, Exponential Promise will explore the emotional and social fractures that could make an AI-powered future more painful than prosperous if we leave them unaddressed.
How do intolerance and the erosion of empathy destabilize societies—and what does it look like to rebuild them through storytelling, education, and new models of connection? In partnership with The 99 Kids and experts in tolerance, empathy, caring, kindness and understanding
Anger is exploding in our homes, workplaces, and politics. We'll explore the ‘anger epidemic’ as a systems and brain-level problem—and the exponential tools that might help us regulate it at scale. Featuring neuroscience experts and digital therapeutic innovators
Unresolved grief quietly shapes decisions, relationships, and communities. What would change if we treated grief as a civilization-scale issue and built systems to help people process loss? With top experts, therapists and researchers focused on grief and loss
These are just some of the humanity-scale issue areas where Exponential Ventures is exploring and supporting investment opportunities. We can't do everything—so we focus where we can have an exponential positive impact. Have an idea for a series? We'd love to hear it.
We're actively scheduling conversations for our launch series. If you're a founder, clinician, scientist, researcher, policymaker, or systems thinker working on these problems—we'd love to talk. Whether you want to reach investors, policymakers, clinicians, or founders—this is your platform.
Interested in investment, partnership, or co-creating a series?
Talk to Exponential Ventures