Antonio Gracias, founder of Valor Equity Partners, recently appeared on stage at Los Angeles’ Upfront Summit. There, he gave a preview of a radically hopeful new idea he’s started mining: “proentropic” startups. This term, originally coined by Kroc in 2013, describes businesses that are built to succeed in disorder and disruption. As Gracias explains, the very structure of today’s economies requires businesses to be agile enough to maneuver through ever more volatile conditions.
In his presentation, Gracias clarified what he meant by “proentropic.” This, he explained, comes from the second law of thermodynamics, which tells us that disorder in a closed system will always get worse with time. He argues that deglobalization in tandem with new technologies will upend traditional power hierarchies the world over. This outlook fuels his hope for what lies ahead.
Gracias emphasized the importance of resilience in startups, stating that proentropic companies “really take into account what might happen at the edge cases and actually benefit from them.” As the economy changes, entrepreneurs will need to have the quality of “moral courage,” he said, to create a new world.
In his opening remarks, Gracias addressed the prevailing cultural conversation taking place around artificial intelligence (AI). He noted that people across the globe are afraid of economic disruption and increase in social unrest that AI may catalyze with job losses. That, he argues, is the wrong way to look at it.
“I think this is not true. I’m going to work really hard in the next five to ten years to make it not true,” – Antonio Gracias
Gracias knows firsthand that innovation can make change possible. By creatively combining software and hardware, companies can make these big leaps while running things on small computational budgets. He stated,
“You can build great stuff with not a lot of compute if you know how to integrate the software and the hardware.”
Looking forward, Gracias is encouraged by the future AI could help create. Powerful ideas He argued that this is the moment for society to make a choice about which path we take going forward.
“We will decide whether we have a utopian future or a dystopian future,” – Antonio Gracias
The Upfront Summit serves as a pivotal event for venture capitalists and entrepreneurs, where thought leaders gather to discuss evolving trends in technology and economics. The next one is set to happen in San Francisco, California, from October 13-15, 2026.
Dominic-Madori Davis, a senior venture capital and startup reporter for TechCrunch, reported on Gracias’s comments at the event. Davis currently resides in New York City. You can email him securely at dominic.davis@techcrunch.com or message him encrypted on Signal at +1 646 831-7565.