Leapfrogging by Jesper Kring, strategic approach to agentic AI and exponential reality

The shift from agriculture to industry took a hundred years. The one we're in now takes ten, and it is far more radical.

Agentic AI, quantum, a doubly exponential reality. And at the same time: population decline, an ageing society and a planet that cannot carry the way we have created growth so far. Growth and prosperity must now come from something other than more people and more resources. It is already rewriting how value is created, where risk arises and how companies are built and led.

A change of that magnitude can't be handled with the methods and mindset that built the world we're leaving. It demands a different approach and a new mindset. I have been experimenting with that for 15 years, in new and established companies, organisations, foundations and NGOs.

The best way to predict the future is to co-create it.

I have learned that you can't think your way into a new way of acting. You have to act your way into a new way of thinking. I've always had a natural ability to sense what's coming, often before others see it. Over three decades as an entrepreneur and venture builder, I've sharpened that ability. But I've also learned the hard way that seeing where things are heading isn't enough. Timing is everything. At KRING, we've often been pioneers, done the hard work of paving the way, and sometimes sold before the market was truly ready.

Building, making mistakes, changing course, putting things on hold and building again have taught me that curiosity and persistence, combined with customer and market insight, are a powerful combination. You need all of them when building a bridge to a future that not everyone can yet imagine. Resistance is often strong, and the path is unclear, even when the direction is clear.

As a wingman, I'm not the one laying the bricks, but the one close to where direction is set and decisions are made. I connect people, open doors and help bring the right people and resources together to make things happen. Capital and real change often move together. That's why I also follow the flow of capital. It reveals where a system can change and confirms when that change has happened. To me, sustainable change isn't about choosing between financial success and positive impact. The strongest systems deliver both.

I wrote my first code at 13 on a Commodore 64. At 21 I borrowed DKK 1 million from the bank and bought my father's company. Since then I've co-created companies from e-commerce and fintech to AI and platforms for building companies. One of them was one of the first offshore setups in e-business, with 250 in-house software engineers in India, Ukraine and the Nordics.

In 2016 I sat at Singularity University in California and heard Ray Kurzweil describe an exponential future that still sounded like science fiction. Today it's here.

Along the way, I have helped build and sell start-up and scale-up companies for more than 130 million euros, to Mastercard, Saxo Bank, Andel, Dansk Ejerkapital and others. Building is one thing. Capturing the value is another. Both taught me more than any single success could.

I've helped build both companies and private and public funds. KRING holds three today. Before I moved to Asia, I worked for more than two decades with entrepreneurship and innovation in a societal and business context. I helped shape the framework for the Væksthuse under the Danish Business Authority, today the Erhvervshuse, and served as deputy chair of Væksthus Sjælland. I helped merge three public foundations into the Danish Foundation for Entrepreneurship. Within the regional growth forum (Vækstfora), I led a cross-disciplinary group of strong profiles from research, business and culture to find new, financeable paths to growth across Region Zealand. I also chaired the Danish Entrepreneurs' Association, served on Andel's representative council and advised Dansk Erhverv.

Then I stepped away from all of it to go build in Singapore.

Back in Denmark, I bring it all together around one thing: helping to build the bridge to Europe's future, with the Nordics as the catalyst. Technology and new models should help strong teams and leaders shape what's new and take the leap to a reborn Europe that can create security, prosperity and vitality, and through that inspire the rest of the world. It feels as if the three decades were a training for exactly this.

I put my energy where I can help create real, positive change. Close to owners, investors, leaders and founders who are already in motion, have something at stake themselves and make sure there's a short path from idea to action, or who see a crisis as a springboard for something better.