Brand Founders

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13 founders
Global South founders

The Leaders Behind Global South Breakout Brands

Search founder resilience profiles from Russia, China, India, and Malaysia. Each one: proven revenue, category expertise, international ambition. Filter by market, generation, and sector to find leaders others overlook.

What is a Founder Resilience Profile?

Every founder profile documents a verified Transformation Arc—the moment conviction was tested, the decision made under pressure, and what breakthrough reveals about future resilience. Founders without this story remain in our database but don't receive profiles.

13 founders shown
Sean & Jesmine Tan
Resilience Profile

Sean & Jesmine Tan

Co-founders & CEO/COO

Applecrumby Petaling Jaya 🇲🇾
🏆 KEY ACHIEVEMENT
Built a brand named after their daughter's milestones (Apple, Crumby, Fish) into Malaysia's leading chlorine-free diaper company

Their daughter's first word was 'Apple.' Crumbs everywhere. Favorite meal was fish. They named their baby brand after all three.

baby-care-products e-commerce sustainable-manufacturing regional-expansion
Winnie Loo
Resilience Profile

Winnie Loo

Chief Creative Director

A Cut Above Ipoh 🇲🇾
🏆 KEY ACHIEVEMENT
First Malaysian World Master of the Craft (1997)

Bullied out of salons in London and Singapore as 'Tiny Winnie,' she became the first Malaysian World Master of the Craft—after almost quitting when her toddler's kidney failed.

hairstyling beauty-education brand-building industry-leadership
Dato Ch'ng Huck Theng
Resilience Profile

Dato Ch'ng Huck Theng

Executive Director (4th Generation)

Ghee Hiang George Town, Penang 🇲🇾
🏆 KEY ACHIEVEMENT
Rescued 168-year heritage brand from family feud through dual-product diversification strategy

Built a media empire and won Asia Art Award. Then a seven-year family feud forced him into rescuing Malaysia's oldest confectionery—the business he was never supposed to inherit.

heritage-brand-management crisis-turnaround cultural-tourism media-entrepreneurship
Chris Devonshire-Ellis
Resilience Profile

Chris Devonshire-Ellis

Founder & Chairman

Dezan Shira & Associates Hong Kong 🇨🇳
🏆 KEY ACHIEVEMENT
Built $50M pan-Asian advisory practice across 40+ offices surviving 6 major crises without formal credentials

$500 to $50M across 40+ offices. Law school dropout stayed 25 years in China while competitors flew in—building trust credentials cannot buy.

emerging-markets professional-services crisis-management cultural-immersion geographic-diversification
Georgie Yam
Resilience Profile

Georgie Yam

Founder

Dragonfly Therapeutic Retreat Shanghai 🇨🇳
🏆 KEY ACHIEVEMENT
Pioneered China's first service brand export—Dragonfly, with 23 locations across 3 continents proving service quality can scale beyond founder's hands

Celebrity hairdresser walked away from 20-year Singapore career at 43 to start in Shanghai. Built China's first service brand exported abroad.

service-standardization mid-career-reinvention institutional-culture franchise-systems spa-industry
Louis Soo
18+ YEARS
Resilience Profile

Louis Soo

Founder & Managing Director

ADA Serviced Office Bayan Baru, Penang 🇲🇾
🏆 KEY ACHIEVEMENT
Built Penang's flexible workspace fortress—7 locations dominating regional market against venture-backed national competitors

Launched during 2008 crisis from 200 sq ft. Chose ISO over lifestyle branding—built a 7-location fortress venture capital couldn't crack.

serviced-offices workspace-operations regional-strategy bootstrap-growth quality-management enterprise-sales
Boris Mikhailovich Ostrobrod
🕊️ 1957-2023
Resilience Profile

Boris Mikhailovich Ostrobrod

Founder & CEO (1991-2019)

Sela Saint Petersburg 🇷🇺
🏆 KEY ACHIEVEMENT
Turned three economic crises into growth catalysts by freezing prices, launching e-commerce, and restructuring ruthlessly

From 4 containers to 600 stores. Boris Ostrobrod froze prices during the 1998 ruble crash—building loyalty competitors couldn't buy.

crisis-management vertical-integration franchise-development emerging-markets immigrant-entrepreneurship retail-operations
Igor Samsonov
🕊️ 1973-2020
Resilience Profile

Igor Samsonov

Founder

ESSE Dolinnoe, Crimea 🇷🇺
🏆 KEY ACHIEVEMENT
Built Crimean boutique winery on authenticity others found too costly—refusing to mislabel wine as Crimean when it wasn't, creating credibility that earned posthumous "Winery of 2021"

"Once you step over your convictions, you can never wash it off." Igor Samsonov built ESSE on integrity that others found too costly.

estate winemaking terroir-driven viticulture alcohol distribution business transformation quality premium positioning
Khulan Davaadorj
11+ YEARS
Resilience Profile

Khulan Davaadorj

Founder & CEO

Lhamour Ulaanbaatar 🇲🇳
🏆 KEY ACHIEVEMENT
Built Mongolia's first organic skincare brand from kitchen to 30 employees and 12 countries, pioneering community-driven beauty movement

Facebook post: "Can anybody help?" Five minutes later, ten people in suits waded through floodwater. "It's not just about me anymore."

sustainable business development organic cosmetic formulation social entrepreneurship renewable energy policy cross-cultural leadership zero-waste retail innovation
Andrey Artemov
13+ YEARS
Resilience Profile

Andrey Artemov

Founder & Creative Director

Walk of Shame 🇷🇺
🏆 KEY ACHIEVEMENT
International fashion brand surviving sanctions

Provincial Ufa to Paris Fashion Week. Zero ad budget, Instagram-first. 150 stockists at peak, yet admits: "All the same doubts—they are endless."

fashion design brand strategy cultural storytelling international fashion
Vineeta Singh
17+ YEARS
Resilience Profile

Vineeta Singh

Co-founder & CEO

SUGAR Cosmetics Mumbai, Maharashtra 🇮🇳
🏆 KEY ACHIEVEMENT
Sustained founder conviction through 100+ VC rejections over 58 months using customer data that contradicted investor assumptions

100+ VC rejections over 58 months. Rs 25-30 lakh left. Every 'no' felt deeply personal—customer data sustained her conviction.

digital marketing D2C strategy beauty industry omnichannel retail
Bethlehem Tilahun Alemu
19+ YEARS
Resilience Profile

Bethlehem Tilahun Alemu

Founder & Managing Director

SoleRebels Addis Ababa 🇪🇹
🏆 KEY ACHIEVEMENT
First African footwear brand with global retail presence

Her first shoes weighed 6 kilograms. Two years of failures. Then she cracked it—and built Africa's first global footwear empire paying 4-5x minimum wage.

sustainable manufacturing fair trade artisanal production social enterprise

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