Tim McCollum and Brett Beach fell in love with Madagascar and its people while working there as Peace Corps volunteers and they returned to start a fair trade chocolate company.

The country had the last remaining cocoa in the world that hasn’t been modified, according to a report in FastCompany. “It’s genetically identical to cocoa that was found in Mesoamerica 300 years ago,” McCollum said.

Although 70 percent of the world’s cocoa comes from West Africa, less than 1 percent of the world’s chocolate is made there. McCollum and Beach went against the odds by using cocoa grown there to make chocolate there, keeping the economic benefit within the island nation.

They started their company, Madécasse, in 2006. The company, though based in Brooklyn, New York, works with local cocoa farmers who pick the beans and a factory in Antananarivo, Madagascar, to manufacture chocolate bars that are sold internationally.

So what’s it like to launch a company in the fourth-poorest country in the world?

“You have all the headaches that a normal startup has multiplied by 10 because of trying to do something in Africa,” McCollum told FastCompany.

Finding an investor willing to risk a made-in-Madagascar product was the first challenge. “Anything is possible in Africa if you’re not in a hurry, but the typical investment culture is always in a hurry,” McCollum said.

Instability made it difficult to attract investor dollars.

“If someone Googled Madagascar, they’d realize there was a military coup, there’s been an illegitimate government for four years (that caused the country to) lose all of its foreign aid and the economy’s in a spiral. Any of those events is an enormous red flag and all of those combined sends people running,” McCollum said.

It took almost four years to find an investor who shared Madécasse’s vision and values, was patient enough and willing to overlook the political and economic risks. Developing the company slowly during that time was a blessing, McCollum said. It gave them time to learn the chocolate business — something neither knew anything about.

Another challenge with building a company in Africa is the scarce talent pool, they learned.

“Africa suffers from a brain drain,” McCollum said. “Everyone who’s educated there is educated abroad and they usually don’t come back because there are no jobs.”

The company relied on local connections and the expat community to alert them when potential talent became available — key to Madécasse’s success in recruiting, according to the report. Even if there wasn’t a position available, Madécasse created opportunities for talented people just to hold onto them.

“If we get word of someone we think is going to be a good fit, we go after them and don’t let go,” McCollum said. “The people are so few and far between that we’ll create that opportunity.”

It’s an HR strategy you wouldn’t normally find in a U.S.-based company with an endless pool of talent, the company told FastCompany.