2017’s “The Finishers” documented the stories of 20 founders, all of whom were able to successfully scale their startup toward an exit. Written by Ezra Ferraz, CEO of Ambidextr, the book included an afterword by Sen. Bam Aquino.

Ferraz captured the stories of 11 exits in “The Finishers.”

Ferraz graduated from UC Berkeley and obtained a Master’s degree in Professional Writing. He is a content marketer and a business writer with a passion for technology, startups, and technology. He is also the managing partner of full-service content marketing studio, Ambidextr.

“All of these founders hail from different industries,” he said. “They have different functional expertise. Some are Filipino born and raised while others are balikbayan and some are immigrants. Yet, they all find common ground in the shared belief that you can build a world-class tech company right here in the Philippines,”

The Silicon Valley stereotype of founders who successfully build a tech company is that they retreat: They head off to the nearest beach and enjoy a kind of permanent semi-retirement. The founders in “The Finishers” mark a sharp contrast to the image, as the vast majority continue to remain active participants in the startup and tech ecosystem of the Philippines.

They are key investors, entrepreneurs, or in some cases, both. No matter their role, they continue to view innovation as a key driver for the nation’s growth. If you love the Philippines, in short, you must also do your part to support our growth as a tech hub.

Husband-and-wife team RJ and Arianne David of Sulit now have a venture builder, Innovation Love; Josephine “Jopin” Romero and Dominick Danao of PinoyMail.com have ventured into fin-tech with mobile-first payments platform, Magpie; and John Orrock of GlobalOne has now invested into more than twenty startups as part of his boutique venture capital firm, FutureNow Ventures.

Jay Fajardo of Airborne Access continues to support and invest in other startups through Launchgarage and serves as chief strategy officer of on-demand delivery app Jojo; Niel Dagondon of Anino Games has created an AI-driven school management system via Edusuite; and Shahab Shabibi of HeyKuya is pursuing the on-demand economy once more, this time through mobile app MyKuya.

These are only a few examples of how the founders profiled in “The Finishers” continue to innovate for the Philippines, but their original contribution to the book should not go overlooked.