The startup's early investors were praised for their ______ patience, waiting nearly a decade for the company to become profitable while…

The passage describes investors waiting nearly a decade while others withdrew, a notably unusual and admirable degree of patience, which remarkable names directly: worthy of special notice. Fleeting would suggest brief, temporary patience, the opposite of a decade-long commitment. Reluctant would suggest unwillingness, contradicted by their sustained, voluntary support. Accidental would suggest unintentional patience, which doesn't fit a deliberate decade of continued investment.