Salim Ismail

Early life and Canadian connection

Salim Ismail was born on May 17, 1965, in Hyderabad, India. He moved to Toronto at age ten. Ismail is an Indo-Canadian serial entrepreneur, author, speaker, and technology strategist. His career later took him to work in Europe and the United States.

Career beginnings and early ventures

After completing his university education, Ismail began his professional career in Europe, initially working as a software architect for CSC Europe to gain technical experience. He later transitioned into business consulting, taking a role at ITIM Associates in London, before moving to New York City in 1999 to become the Chief Operating Officer of New York Business Forums. Ismail's entrepreneurial drive emerged strongly in the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks, leading him to found the New York Grant Company (NYGC) that same year, where he served as its Chairman and CEO until 2005. The company aimed to secure federal grants to aid the local economy, and in its first year of operation, NYGC attracted over 400 clients and successfully delivered more than $12 million in federal grants, demonstrating his ability to build organizations aimed at solving large-scale problems.

Technology entrepreneurship and corporate leadership

In 2002, Ismail co-founded PubSub Concepts, which laid some of the foundation for the real-time web. In 2006, he co-founded Confabb.com to create a centralized place to get information about conferences, and it received $200k in angel funding. In early 2007, Yahoo appointed Ismail as Vice President and Head of Brickhouse, Yahoo's internal incubator for new products. The objective of Brickhouse was to form teams to work on disruptive ideas, and during his tenure he launched products and created a relationship between Yahoo and NASA.

During his tenure with Yahoo, Ismail worked on several products and launched new products for them. These included WildFire, Yahoo Pipes and Fire Eagle. He also created a relationship between Yahoo and NASA to explore various collaborative projects. His role was to lead the Brickhouse incubator for disruptive ideas.

• WildFire, a social application platform.
• Yahoo Pipes, a web application for aggregating and manipulating web feeds.
• Fire Eagle, a location broker service.
• The strategic relationship with NASA for collaborative projects.

Ismail left Yahoo in the wake of the failed Microsoft bid in 2008. With his friend Rohit Khare, he co-founded Ångströ, a company that used social networks to find news. The service notified users in real time and attracted the attention of Google. Google ended up acquiring Ångströ in 2010.

Leadership at Singularity University and exponential thought

By November 2009, Ismail had taken on the role of executive director of Singularity University, which was based at NASA's Ames Research Center, and for two years, he worked closely with founders Peter Diamandis and Ray Kurzweil to build the institution from the ground up. He was instrumental in assembling its core team and faculty, establishing its curriculum, and leading its first educational programs, with key founding partners including NASA, Google, Cisco, Autodesk, and Genentech providing support and resources. By 2013, approximately 45 startups had spun out of the university's summer Graduate Studies Program, demonstrating its impact as an incubator, and in late 2010, Ismail transitioned to the role of Global Ambassador for Singularity University, a position he still held as of 2012. In this capacity, he represented the university at conferences and industry events worldwide, promoting its mission of educating leaders about exponentially accelerating technologies, and his work there directly led to his authorship of the book Exponential Organizations, which he began writing in 2011 with co-authors Mike Malone and Yuri van Geest.

The book Exponential Organizations was published by Diversion Books in October 2014. It was named Frost and Sullivan's 2014 Growth, Innovation, and Leadership Book of the Year. The book aims to provide information on why new organizations are ten times better, faster and cheaper. It comes down to a simple philosophy where how you organize your efforts is the key to growth.

ExO Works, OpenExO and venture capital activities

Building on the concepts from his book, Ismail founded ExO Works in 2016, and the organization developed into a global movement offering a platform, consulting teams, educational programs, and tools designed to help companies change into exponential organizations. In 2024, the ExO movement's entity, OpenExO, merged with Genius Group, a global entrepreneur education company, and Ismail serves as Chairman of both OpenExO and Genius Group, guiding their combined mission to foster exponential growth. Ismail also expanded his activities into venture capital, with Rokk3r Fuel launching as a venture capital firm in March 2017, and by September 2017, Bloomberg reported that Ismail was joining the Miami-based firm as a general partner to help guide its investments. The fund, described as Rokk3r Fuel ExO, was reported by PR Newswire in 2018 to be a $150 million global venture-capital fund focused on investing in exponential organizations, and his board appointments reflect his standing in the innovation community, including being named to the board of the XPRIZE Foundation in March 2017 to help guide its mission of incentivizing breakthrough technology.

Salim Ismail is the Founding Executive Director of Singularity University. He is the lead author of Exponential Organizations and the founder of ExO Works and OpenExO, where he serves as Chairman. He is also the Chairman of Genius Group. In March 2017 he was named to the board of the XPRIZE Foundation.

• Chairman/CEO of New York Grant Company (2001 to 2005).
• Vice President & Head of Brickhouse at Yahoo! (2007 to 2008).
• Executive Director of Singularity University (2009).
• Global Ambassador for Singularity University (2010 onward).
• Founder of ExO Works (2016).
• General Partner at Rokk3r Fuel (2017).
• Board Member of XPRIZE Foundation (2017).
• Chairman of OpenExO and Genius Group (2024).

Public speaking and thought leadership

Salim Ismail is a frequent keynote speaker at major conferences and industry events around the world, with his speaking topics consistently focusing on the implications of exponential technological change for various sectors of society. He covers subjects such as disruptive convergence, the future of entrepreneurship, the future of democracy, and the future of education, and he has been a featured speaker at prestigious forums including various TED conferences, the Noco Foundation, and Ciudad de las Ideas in 2012. In 2012, he also participated in a debate at the historic Oxford Union as part of Saïd Business School's Silicon Valley Comes to Oxford programme, engaging with academic and business leaders on technology's role. As the Global Ambassador for Singularity University, much of his public speaking from 2010 onward was dedicated to representing the university's vision, and his talks are known for translating complex technological trends into actionable insights for business leaders and policymakers, extending the reach of the ideas central to his book and his consulting work globally.

Questions about Salim Ismail

What is Salim Ismail known for?

Salim Ismail is known as the Founding Executive Director of Singularity University and the lead author of Exponential Organizations. He is a serial entrepreneur having co-founded tech companies like PubSub Concepts, Confabb, and Ångströ, which was acquired by Google. He also led Yahoo's internal incubator, Brickhouse. He is the Chairman of Genius Group and founder of ExO Works and OpenExO.

What is the book 'Exponential Organizations' about?

The book Exponential Organizations was published in October 2014. It aims to provide information on why new organizations are ten times better, faster and cheaper than yours. The book comes down to a philosophy where performance is key and how you organize is key to growth. It was named Frost and Sullivan's 2014 Growth, Innovation, and Leadership Book of the Year.

What is Salim Ismail's connection to Canada?

Salim Ismail was born in Hyderabad, India. He moved to Toronto at age ten. This establishes his status as an Indo-Canadian. His early life included this move to Canada.

What was Singularity University and what was Ismail's role?

Singularity University was an educational institution founded with partners including NASA and Google, based at NASA's Ames campus, to study exponentially accelerating technologies. Salim Ismail served as its founding executive director from 2009, helping build its team, faculty, and curriculum. He later became its Global Ambassador, representing it worldwide. Under his early leadership, the university's programs spawned about 45 startups by 2013.

What companies did Salim Ismail found?

Salim Ismail founded the New York Grant Company in 2001. He co-founded PubSub Concepts in 2002 and Confabb.com in 2006. He co-founded Ångströ in 2008, which was acquired by Google in 2010. He also founded ExO Works in 2016 and is the founder of OpenExO.

What is Ismail's role in venture capital?

Salim Ismail joined the Miami based venture capital firm Rokk3r Fuel as a general partner in September 2017. The firm was originally launched as a venture capital firm in March of that same year. This role involves investing in and supporting new business ventures. By 2018, the fund associated with this firm, known as Rokk3r Fuel ExO, was reported to be a $150 million global venture capital fund. This position is part of Ismail's broader career as a serial entrepreneur and technology strategist, which also includes founding companies and leading corporate incubators.

Sources and further reading

• Salim Ismail (Wikipedia)
• Salim Ismail, Exponential Strategist & AI Advisor (salimismail.com)
• Salim Ismail Profile Page (xprize.org)
• Salim Ismail, Founder, OpenExO and Author, Exponential ... (econclub.net)
• Blog, Growth Institute | Salim Ismail (blog.growthinstitute.com)

Checked by the Yadude Books desk. Last updated 2026-11-05.