Another interesting to note is that if you solve the differential equation $\dfrac{d}{dx}f(x) = f(x)$, you get $\dfrac{\dfrac{d}{dx}[f(x)]}{f(x)}=1$, or $\int {\dfrac{\dfrac{d}{dx}[f(x)]}{f(x)} \text{ d}x}= \int{1 \text{ d}x}$ to get $\text{ln}(|f(x)|) = x + C$, or $|f(x)| = e^{x+C} = C_{1}e^{x} \implies f(x) = C_{1}e^{x}$.
Financial and actuarial fields use powers of $e$, say $e^{\delta t}$ to represent continuous dividend and compounding rates. Actually, these are defined by the $\dfrac{\dfrac{d}{dx}[f(x)]}{f(x)}$ expression.