The IRT Factor: Why Ingenuity, Resilience, and Tenacity Define Founders in Emerging Markets
In Silicon Valley, startup success is often framed as a race: how fast you raise, how fast you scale, how fast you exit. But in emerging markets, where friction is the default and volatility is the norm, speed alone doesn’t win. Survival does.
Across Africa, Latin America, and South Asia, founders aren’t building inside predictable systems they’re building in spite of them. And the entrepreneurs who thrive are powered by what I call The IRT Factor: Ingenuity. Resilience. Tenacity.
It’s the unwritten rulebook of emerging-market entrepreneurship forged in scarcity, refined through creativity, and sustained by an unshakeable will to endure.
I - Ingenuity: Mastering the Art of Doing More With Less
In markets where infrastructure gaps, inconsistent connectivity, and limited funding are everyday realities, ingenuity is the oxygen.
African founders don’t innovate for aesthetics; they innovate for survival.
Nigerian fintechs build offline payment redundancies because the internet isn’t guaranteed.
Kenyan healthtech companies deliver telemedicine through USSD protocols gto reach rural communities.
Ghanaian logistics startups layer tools around power outages and regulatory bottlenecks.
Ingenuity is about designing solutions that thrive in imperfect conditions. As one Accra founder told me, “We can’t build for perfect markets because we’ve never had them.”
This is innovation defined by context beyond convenience.
R — Resilience: The Ability to Withstand the Storm
Globally, founders talk about resilience. In emerging markets, resilience is a mindset and a business model.
A single quarter can bring currency devaluation, policy changes, infrastructure breakdowns and funding scarcity. Yet startups endure not because they’re lucky, but because they’re structurally built to adapt. Resilience here means designing for shocks; Multiple revenue pathways. Local partnerships. Redundancy plans. Alternative payment systems.
Momentum is not always linear. Sometimes progress is measured by persistence, by staying in the game long enough for the market to catch up.
True resilience is refusing to stay there.
T — Tenacity: The Relentless Pursuit of Vision
Tenacity is the force that keeps ingenuity and resilience in motion. Founders in emerging markets live with the friction of broken systems, undervalued potential, and misunderstood markets. Tenacity is what transforms “no” into iteration, scarcity into creativity, and slow traction into strategic endurance.
The founders who rise aren’t always the most funded they’re the most relentless.
They outthink stagnation. They outlast uncertainty. They outperform perception.
Their advantage isn’t access. It’s endurance.
The IRT Factor vs. The Growth Mindset
The global entrepreneurial world praises the growth mindset the idea that challenges accelerate learning. But emerging markets require something deeper.
Where the growth mindset says, “How can I improve?” The IRT mindset asks, “How can I endure, adapt, and still innovate?”
Founders here don’t iterate in comfort; they improvise in complexity.
They build amidst power cuts, policy shifts, and unpredictable markets proving that ingenuity is born from constraint, not abundance.
This Is the Founder Blueprint Emerging Markets Are Built On
When I look at the entrepreneurs reshaping Africa’s innovation narrative from fintech and agritech to healthtech and logistics they all share one common denominator:
The IRT Factor.
Ingenuity to innovate inside broken systems
Resilience to rebuild after setbacks
Tenacity to stay the course through uncertainty
This is a survival kit and a long-term strategy. The IRT Factor builds successful companies and builds sustainable ecosystems.
Africa’s Founders Are Building Stability From Chaos
In mature markets, entrepreneurs are celebrated for disrupting comfort. In emerging markets, they’re celebrated for creating stability from chaos.
That ability to build where others hesitate is Africa’s greatest competitive advantage.
The IRT Factor is not a slogan; it’s the heartbeat of every founder who keeps building when the odds say they shouldn’t.
And as I tell the founders I mentor:
“You don’t need perfect conditions to build something extraordinary, just the IRT Factor and the courage to keep showing up.”
