My journey began with a question: Where's the best place in the world to invest?

Given my job, it's something friends and family would often ask and, despite having penned countless articles speculating on which countries might be the next to bounce or bomb, I could never provide a satisfying answer. Most news and research is focused on what might happen in the coming days, hours or minutes rather than years or decades. I'm indebted to those who asked the question and the ten investors who led me to an answer.

Having a journalist traipsing along, earwigging and butting in on sensitive conversations with ministers and executives, isn't every money manager's cup of tea. Life on the road for most amounts to an exhausting series of meetings crammed into short pockets before heading to the next country to do it all again. Traveling with Mark Mobius – and trying to keep up with the 78-year-old's frenetic run of factory tours, gym workouts and evening engagements – was truly a privilege. I'm grateful to Julian Adams for his meticulous note taking when I was called away from Argentina as my father-in-law fell ill, and to Kevin Daly and Derrick Irwin for gracefully re-arranging high-level meetings in Nigeria and Ghana to postpone our trip. I was suitably impressed by Brett Rowley's determination to press ahead with our Kenya plans in the face of terrorist attacks and Andrew Stobart's unwavering resolve to visit Egypt in what turned out to be one of the country's worst weeks of violence. Howie Schwab, the only fund manager of the group still half Mobius's age, who went from honeymooning in a Kenyan elephant camp to join me in Myanmar, boosted my confidence early on in the project as the first committed sign up. Tim Drinkall was great company in Sri Lanka (until he tore ahead of me on our jog around town) and Andras Szalkai and Sean Taylor were the fountains of local knowledge I needed to make sense of Romania and Saudi Arabia's markets.

The deep insights, wide connections and engrained skepticism of Bloomberg journalists helped me get a warts-and-all picture in each country. My thanks to Paul Richardson, Eric Ombok, David Malingha Doya and Sarah McGregor in Nairobi; to Kyaw Thu in Myanmar, whose constant translations and interviews with religious leaders were invaluable to that chapter; and to Daniel Cancel in Argentina, who jumped in with both feet when I had to leave in a hurry. I'm hoping the careful proofreading by Romanian reporters Andra Timu and Irina Savu at least might have helped send Irina's baby to sleep. My evening driven around Saigon by a near-blind motorcyclist made Jason Folkmanis's birthday unforgettable, while in Hanoi, Oanh Ha pulled from her rolodex the communist nation's only billionaire. Blonde-haired Chris Kay, in full African robes and speaking fluent Pidgin, was my uniquely qualified guide to Naija. With Anusha Ondaatjie's help I found some of the most beautiful and tragic corners of the world in Sri Lanka, before Andres Martinez chilled a weary traveler in Ghana.

None of this would have been possible without the support of the managers at Bloomberg News, from Editor-in-Chief Emeritus Matt Winkler and his deputy Reto Gregori – who only once intervened after my “Egyptian adventure” to suggest a little more “visibility” on my travel plans – to Ken Kohn, who gave me the right connections to get the project off the ground. I'm grateful to Laura Zelenko, Justin Carrigan, Heather Harris and Mark Gilbert for smoothing my transition from the newsroom and back again. The crew of Bloomberg TV Africa steered by Ijeoma Ndukwe and Karin Johansson recorded my travels through Nigeria, Ghana and Kenya with the help of Kelly Wainaina and Gabriel Rotich of A24 Media, and Eddie Saade. Bloomberg's travel bookers including Claire Devin, Jason Coggles, Jacqueline Docherty and Rafael Rosario pulled off a seemingly impossible list of visa applications and constantly evolving schedule of connecting flights, while Riaan Crous and Sven Christen in the data department pored over spreadsheets for the fund rankings and tables.

Bloomberg's commissioning editor Stephen Isaacs and Wiley's Werner Coetzee, Jennie Kitchin, Tessa Allen and Abirami Srikandan provided the constant support and guidance needed by this first-time author. The editing process was invaluably assisted by Jerome Booth, whose success in building the fund management company Ashmore with Mark Coombs and his own book Emerging Markets in an Upside Down World made him my chosen expert to review a decidedly inferior first draft. I was incredibly honored that between transforming Nigeria's economy and expanding his business around the world, Aliko Dangote found the time to absorb and provide feedback for this book. Matthew May at C21 built me the www.frontierfunds.org website as the most wonderful surprise. This will become a reference point for updates, perspectives and any clarifications or corrections.

Finally, there's the domestic support team. Life doesn't stand still even for a book to be written. To my wife Jules, who I heard only once or maybe twice muttering about “that confounded book” while rescuing me from police and tweeting my scrapes; to Stanley, Ruth, Josh, Sydney, Che, Melanie, Stuart, Andrea, Rob, Elliott and all the rest of my clan who put up with a physically or mentally absent husband, son, father, brother and friend through an emotional year, a hundred thousand words couldn't sum up my love and appreciation.

While a handful of names of the locals featured in this book were changed for their protection, most were adamant they needed to be on record to provide a true portrayal of their lives. From Gbenga to Mwalimu Mati fighting their corners against corruption, to Samuel Pelumi studying to combat poverty and disease, to Prem facing down threats to see another Rising Sun – these people provide reasons beyond money to invest at the frontier.