GIVING A HAND UP TO THE ENTREPRENEURS OF THE FUTURE

Meet Daily Point of Light Award honoree Philip Meng. Read his story, and nominate an outstanding volunteer or family as a Daily Point of Light.

Philip Meng knows what it’s like to be an aspiring entrepreneur. That’s why he wants to make it easier for other young people to become one. A 19-year-old high school senior, Philip saw just how passionate his classmates were about taking action to make changes in their communities.

But without the support system they needed to take them to the next level, the students were often left without a pathway to success. Philip realized that if he could create the framework to give each student a hand up, they could potentially become the type of entrepreneur who changes the world.

Philip started Launchpad, a global incubator for high schoolers that guides students through a six-month curriculum to build their own startup or nonprofit. Alongside venture capitalists and nonprofit leaders, Philip built an advisory board pairing them with experienced mentors from the entrepreneurial world. They present their idea in a “Shark Tank”-style pitch day, with many founders receiving seed investment and mentorship from renowned leaders. In addition to Launchpad, Philip is also the founder of The Early Founder podcast, where he interviews CEOs and other professionals to share success stories to inspire teens to change their worlds.

Launchpad has grown to 35 chapters across eight countries and nine U.S. states, and has over 30 mentors and partnerships with venture capital firms, nonprofits and other organizations. Philip is also a rising entrepreneur himself: he co-developed EnDive, a benchmark that exposes significant bias in AI models like ChatGPT for underrepresented English dialects and offers a path for more equitable systems.

As Philip prepares to head off to college and navigate the world of entrepreneurship himself, he wisely understands that by lifting others through volunteerism, he’s also creating a better future for himself. His decision to be that rising tide that lifts all boats is a strong example of how helping others ultimately creates a greater world for us all.

What inspired you to get started with this initiative?

I started Launchpad with my co-founder, Sophia, in ninth grade, after we kept seeing peers around us who were genuinely so passionate about solving problems in their communities, but had no real support system to act on it. We felt like there was just so much energy going to waste.

We had tried on our own some online programs and summer camps, but they were either too short or too theoretical. Nothing was focused on building something real or lasting. So we decided to create the infrastructure that we wish had existed, which is a program that takes young people seriously, gives them mentorship and helps them build something tangible, focusing on real revenue and impact.

Tell us about your volunteer role with Launchpad.

I founded these organizations four years ago, and I currently operate as the CEO or the manager. Every week, we meet at my school and I run the Launchpad Club, which is going through the curriculum and supporting students in creating startups and nonprofits, and communicating with the various chapters that we have around the world. On a typical weekly basis, we’ll end up checking in with the different chapters to make sure they’re all on track.

What are your long-term plans or goals for the organization?

The core goal for these organizations has always been to increase access to entrepreneurship. Something that I’ve learned is that there are brilliant young people everywhere, not just at well-resourced schools, so I want Launchpad to reach as many of them as possible. As I graduate from high school and head to college next year, I’m hoping on scaling the organization to more schools and countries, but just as importantly, building like the leadership pipeline so the organization can thrive beyond my co-founder and me.

What’s been the most rewarding part of your work?

I think the moments that have stuck with me the most are when I can see a tangible impact coming from my work. For example, last year, there was a student who had started in our program who was very unsure of herself. She was full of ideas, but quite anxious to talk about and share them outwardly. Six months later, after she had completed Launchpad, she was standing on stage at pitch day confidently pitching her startup idea that she’d been working on for months to a panel of entrepreneurs and investors. I think it’s that character arc from experiencing doubt to ownership that’s something that I will never get tired of seeing.

What have you learned through your experiences as a volunteer?

I think one of the core things that I’ve learned is that building something meaningful or impactful really requires patience and a willingness to figure things out as you go. Nobody handed me a playbook for running or starting this organization as a high schooler, so I had to learn how to recruit, manage chapters across time zones, and ask successful people for their time, and make sure that it was worth it. One thing that I found is that people genuinely want to help you when they see that you’re passionate and giving your all, but that also means that you have to proactively step outside of what seems comfortable, reach out to people you admire, ask for help, and put yourselves in rooms you might not feel ready for. The opportunities are certainly there, but you have to go after them.

Why is it important for others to get involved with causes they care about?

It is so important to get involved with these causes because no one is going to solve the problems that you see better than you. When you care about something, you bring an energy and a persistence and determination that’s very hard to replicate. Getting involved doesn’t have to mean starting an organization. It can start with volunteering at a nearby service center, having a conversation or starting a project. But I think the key point is actually going out there and getting something done and executing your ideas, and not just standing idly by and watching.

Any advice for people who want to start volunteering?

You should start before you feel ready. I started Launchpad four years ago with no guarantee that it would work. A lot of excitement and a lot of ideas, but no real idea of what it could become. The thing that had made it real was just starting it. I started by running it at my own school, learning what had worked, and then growing it from there to other schools. The key piece of advice is, don’t wait for perfection. Don’t wait for other people’s permission. Just find the problems or the gap that you see in the world, start small and let the work speak for itself.

What do you want people to learn from your story?

The key point would just be that young people are incredibly capable when they’re given even just a small amount of support and encouragement. I don’t think that the barrier for young people is actually talent or passion. It’s actually access. I also believe deeply that entrepreneurship is one of the most powerful ways young people can create genuine, real impact. I hope that in the future, I can make a small dent in making that path accessible to as many students as possible.

Do you want to make a difference in your community like Philip? Find local volunteer opportunities.