First thing that came to mind when I read your question - I found the story of Bertha Benz pretty amazing : https://www.mercedes-benz.com/en/mercedes-benz/clas

First thing that came to mind when I read your question - I found the story of Bertha Benz pretty amazing : https://www.mercedes-benz.com/en/mercedes-benz/classic/bertha-benz/ https://www.mercedes-benz.com/en/mercedes-benz/classic/berth... https://medium.com/start-up-vision/a-tale-of-karl-bertha-a-revolutionary-startup-and-the-importance-of-marketing-f38b9ea77bf#.y5eb6o6hq https://medium.com/start-up-vision/a-tale-of-karl-bertha-a-r... Of course, the history of science is full of stories of perseverance despite personal and social obstacles but I am unsure whether that's what you meant by technological breakthroughs. Closer to the modern day, there is the story of India's sanitary pad man although not sure if that counts as technological breakthrough (although it was iterative and fueled by perseverance) : http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-26260978 http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-26260978