The Houston nonprofit has empowered over 5,000 young people through their Young Billionaires Club, generating $2.5 million in economic impact across three regions.
At 19, Sebastian Sanders was a college student with no nonprofit experience and no mentor. Today, he leads a movement that has empowered over 5,000 young people across Texas, Oklahoma, and Ghana through entrepreneurship education. His organization, Sanders Hand, has generated $2.5 million in economic impact while transforming how young people think about business and wealth creation.
Sanders founded his nonprofit in 2017, but it wasn’t until 2021 that he launched the boldly named Young Billionaires Club. The business incubator for students aged 12 to 25 teaches entrepreneurship and financial literacy, recently earning recognition from the Texas Education Agency as one of only ten career technical student organizations in the state.
What does National Entrepreneur Month mean to you, and how does it connect to your work with young people?
This month is extremely special. To have a month dedicated to entrepreneurship truly means a lot, because an entrepreneur shapes the economy and communities. A true entrepreneur identifies a problem and becomes a solution. The work that we are doing is not just about building a business for profit. You are creating legacies and opportunities to become financially stable through generational wealth by starting a business young.
This month is about legacy, community impact, but most importantly, shining the light on these young people who are doing amazing things. Usually when you hear entrepreneurship, you automatically think about the elders who have been successful and became millionaires and billionaires. But ultimately, they all started off when they were extremely young. This month is about identifying exactly what that looks like for a young person trying to find their own path.
Sanders Hand has become more than just a nonprofit. What’s your elevator pitch?
I usually tell people Sanders Hand is an opportunity and platform for youth to become financially stable through our Young Billionaires Club. Our Young Billionaires Club is a business incubator for students aged 12 to 25 to learn entrepreneurship and financial literacy. Sanders Hand and Young Billionaires Club is that platform, and on the way to be the number one premier platform in the United States for youth entrepreneurship.
Young Billionaires Club is a bold name. Why that name, and how do you get kids excited about money and business?
Young Billionaires Club came about in 2021. The organization itself started in 2017, and for the first few years, we were freestyling, running off passion projects, building an identity. When I came up with the name, it was because I spent time in the field working with students, doing different speaking engagements. This was after COVID, when online businesses really took off. Everyone wanted to stay home and make a business.
Everywhere you go, kids always talk about how do you make money, because that was hitting their algorithm and feed. We noticed the need and identified a problem. The problem we were seeing with students was misinformation. They’re creative and innovative, but social media has misinformation when it comes to entrepreneurship, finances, and business.
The name really was a spinoff from Pharrell’s Billionaire Boys Club clothing line. It was something I grew up on, that I used to wear as a kid. I wanted to come up with a name attractive enough to have kids want to join, because we live in a time where if they don’t like it, if it doesn’t make sense, or if it doesn’t get their attention really fast, you’re going to lose them.
You recently announced a partnership with the National Association for Community College Entrepreneurship. How does this change what you can offer?
Everything we want to do is about building infrastructure and a solid platform. To build something sustainable and great, you have to invest into it. We figured out how do we invest into the future. Joining NACCE gives us an opportunity to learn from seasoned leaders at the community college level.
We see ourselves on a scale. Since we’re community focused and serve a specific demographic, it’s very similar to what a community college serves. Community colleges serve students who are untraditional, who may not necessarily go to a university. That’s essentially what we serve through a different lens.
Joining an association of over 100 colleges teaching entrepreneurship, we get to learn from others, network with others, and join programs that enhance our pitch to award more funding to our kids.
You’ve expanded operations to Ghana and launched over 100 youth businesses. How do you manage expansion without losing the personal touch?
Expansion is something you pray for and ask for, and then when you get it, you’re like, oh wait, this came alive. I think what has helped us recently is being intentional. If we’re going to expand somewhere, it has to make sense with the mission and people that we serve.
The NACCE partnership makes sense because it’s a community college association just for entrepreneurship. The same with the Texas Education Agency, being recognized by the government of education that oversees all districts in Texas allows us to follow our trajectory and success for students.
I approach partnerships very strategically. We only expand if it makes sense. My idea of expansion is if we have somebody in that area already doing great work, how can we merge and add value? That’s how Sanders Hands in Ghana came about. It wasn’t about us going to Ghana because we wanted to expand. Somebody reached out saying they had something going on but were missing certain elements. We had those missing ingredients and created a partnership.
Your book The Art of Giving challenges conventional charity. What’s wrong with conventional charity methods?
I think charity work is predicated off of something personal. You’re doing something because you personally feel passionate about it, or something you think the community needs. Charity has evolved from not just always servicing the less fortunate to where it services everybody.
When I first wrote the book, I was young, 19 in college, didn’t know anything about nonprofits. I noticed there’s not a guide for the new generation. The guides and books about nonprofits were dated back 15 years ago and were really thick books that were hard to read through.
I wanted to create a guide where I can share my story along the journey but also break it down and make it easier for the person who wants to get involved in nonprofit work. I wanted to define giving through the book, because sometimes your calling may not be to start a nonprofit. Maybe it’s for you to donate, join a board, or volunteer in an organization.
Every time we think about giving, the first thing we want to do is start a nonprofit. Nonprofit industry is not for everyone. You have to be intentional when you’re in the nonprofit industry, because you can hurt the product or service and the people you want to serve.
What upcoming events should people know about, and how can communities replicate what you’ve built?
Right now, we are getting ready for our Young Billionaires Club holiday market here in Houston, December 6th, from 3 to 5 p.m. at the Mission Control Café. We do these community markets at least once or twice a year. We pull some of our Young Billionaires Club students and put them in a controlled setting where they get to sell their products and services. We give them the opportunity to make their own money and keep 100% of their proceeds.
One major thing we’re working on going into 2026 is the first ever Young Billionaires Club stock market. We’re building a Sanders Hand designed stock market that mirrors what a real stock market looks like, but it will have nothing but Young Billionaires Club student businesses. In real live time, investors, community donors, partners, and students get to track these businesses just like an actual stock market and do simulations where they invest in student run businesses.
You can connect with us via social media at Sanders Hand on Instagram and Facebook. Our website is www.sandershand.org. There’s a tab that says Join YBC, where parents and students can submit applications. There’s a tab where you can submit inquiries to learn more and set up meetings about partnerships, donations, and all those great things.