Proentropic Startups Are the Future — And Most Founders Are Not Ready
What does it take to build a company that does not just survive disruption but actually gets stronger because of it? According to Antonio Gracias, founder of Valor Equity Partners, the answer is a single, powerful idea: being proentropic. Coined by Gracias himself, the term describes startups that are deliberately engineered to thrive in chaos — from climate volatility and geopolitical tension to the relentless pace of artificial intelligence. If you are building a company in 2026, this concept may be the most important framework you have not yet heard of.
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| Credit: Eva Marie Uzcategui/Bloomberg |
What Does "Proentropic" Actually Mean?
The word sounds technical, but the idea is surprisingly intuitive. Proentropic comes from the physics concept of entropy — the natural tendency of any system to move toward disorder over time. The second law of thermodynamics states plainly that chaos is not an anomaly. It is the default direction of all systems, including economies, markets, and societies.
Gracias took this scientific truth and applied it directly to entrepreneurship. Rather than building companies that resist disorder or try to operate in stable conditions, proentropic startups are designed from the ground up to absorb uncertainty and convert it into competitive advantage. The disruption that breaks other companies becomes the very fuel that powers proentropic ones. It is a mindset shift as much as it is a structural strategy.
Gracias introduced the concept during his appearance at the Upfront Summit in Los Angeles in March 2026. The audience was a room full of investors and founders, but the message was clearly aimed well beyond that crowd. This is a framework for anyone trying to build something that lasts.
Why Antonio Gracias Started Thinking About This in 2013
Many people treat the current era of disruption as something new or unprecedented. Gracias disagrees. He said he began developing the proentropic thesis back in 2013, when he noticed two converging forces that he believed would eventually reshape global power structures: deglobalization and accelerating technological change.
At the time, it may have seemed like an abstract concern. But consider what has happened in the years since. Supply chains have fractured and been rebuilt. Geopolitical alliances have shifted dramatically. Artificial intelligence has gone from a research curiosity to a technology rewriting entire industries in real time. Climate events have moved from background risk to front-page business liability.
Gracias saw all of this coming — not in the specific details, but in the overall direction. His conclusion was that the companies built for a stable, globalized, predictable world would struggle. The ones built to absorb and adapt to constant change would dominate. That insight from over a decade ago is what eventually became the proentropic framework.
The Three Forces Driving the Need for Proentropic Thinking
Gracias pointed to three overlapping forces that make proentropic design essential for any serious founder today. Each one alone would be enough to stress-test most business models. Together, they represent a fundamentally different operating environment than what existed even five years ago.
The first is climate volatility. Extreme weather events, shifting regulatory landscapes around carbon, and the physical disruption of supply chains and infrastructure are no longer distant risks. They are present realities that affect operations, logistics, insurance, and investor confidence. Companies that have not built climate resilience into their DNA are structurally exposed.
The second is geopolitical instability. The end of a smooth, frictionless global economy means that companies relying on cross-border stability — whether in manufacturing, data flows, or talent pipelines — are increasingly vulnerable. Tariffs, sanctions, shifting alliances, and domestic political upheaval all create uncertainty that most traditional business models were never designed to handle.
The third, and perhaps most immediate, is the artificial intelligence revolution. AI is not just automating tasks. It is restructuring entire categories of work, rewriting competitive moats, and accelerating the pace of change in ways that compound all other sources of disruption. A proentropic startup does not fear this acceleration. It is built to move faster than the chaos around it.
What Makes a Startup Truly Proentropic?
This is where the concept becomes both exciting and challenging. Being proentropic is not simply about having a flexible business model or calling yourself an AI company. It requires a fundamentally different approach to how a startup is designed, resourced, and led.
Proentropic startups tend to have structural adaptability baked in from day one. Their teams are built to pivot without losing momentum. Their revenue models are diversified enough to absorb market shocks. Their technology stacks are modular rather than monolithic, allowing rapid adjustment as conditions change. And crucially, their founders have the psychological makeup to treat uncertainty as an asset rather than a threat.
Gracias acknowledged that the term is not easy to grasp immediately, and that even explaining it requires a shift in how most people think about building companies. Traditional startup advice emphasizes focus, repeatability, and scaling what works. Proentropic thinking asks founders to hold a different question at the center of every decision: does this make us more resilient to chaos, or more dependent on stability?
Why This Matters More in 2026 Than Ever Before
The timing of Gracias publicly championing this idea is not accidental. We are at a moment where the pace of disruption across multiple dimensions is genuinely accelerating simultaneously. The AI transition alone is producing changes in competitive dynamics on a monthly timescale. When you layer climate pressure, geopolitical realignment, and social volatility on top of that, the environment for startups has become structurally different from anything that came before.
Investors are beginning to reflect this in how they evaluate deals. The question is no longer just about market size and unit economics. Increasingly sophisticated capital is asking: what happens to this company when the next shock hits? Proentropic startups are built to answer that question confidently.
For founders, the shift in thinking is significant but not impossible. It starts with an honest assessment of where your business model assumes stability and where it is genuinely built for disorder. The companies that do this work now will be far better positioned than those who wait for the next crisis to expose their fragility.
A New Language for a New Era
One of the most valuable things Gracias has done by introducing this term is give the startup ecosystem a new vocabulary. Language shapes thinking. When founders and investors have a shared term for this quality — proentropic — it becomes easier to identify, build toward, and reward it.
The concept joins a growing set of frameworks being developed specifically to address the reality that the world is not becoming more stable. It is becoming less predictable, more interconnected in its volatility, and more demanding of companies that can adapt at speed. Proentropic is not just a descriptor. It is a standard.
Whether or not the term becomes widely adopted, the underlying insight is undeniable. The startups that will define the next decade are not the ones that found perfect market conditions and scaled into them. They are the ones that were built to grow stronger precisely because the conditions were never perfect at all.
