Here's a proof of the general case that I got from Courant's Introduction to Calculus and Analysis. This is one of my favourite proofs:
"If a function y = f(x) satisfies an equation of the form y' = \alpha y where \alpha is a constant, then y has the form y = f(x) = ce^{\alpha x} where c is also a consant; conversely, every function of the form ce^{\alpha x} satisfies the equation y' = \alpha y.
It is clear that y = ce^{\alpha x} satisfies this equation for any arbitrary constant c. Conversely, no other function satisfies the differential equation y' - \alpha y = =. For if y is such a function, we consider the function u = ye^{-\alpha x}. We then have
u' = y'e^{-\alpha x} - \alpha y e^{-\alpha x} = e^{-\alpha x}(y' - \alpha y}) .
However, the right-hand side vanishes, since we have assumed that y' = \alpha y; hence u' = 0 so that u is a constant c and y = ce^{\alpha x} as we wished to prove."