About Us
Empowering youth to create change
NGF empowers under-resourced youth by teaching creativity, innovation, and modern AI tools to help them build confidence, agency, and opportunity.
Our Mission
Next Generation Founders empowers under-resourced youth by teaching creativity, innovation, and modern AI tools to help them build confidence, agency, and opportunity. We inspire young people to believe they can create change and give them access to tools, community, mentors, and experiences that help them make a positive difference in their own lives and in their communities.
Our Purpose
NGF uses hands-on learning, creative problem solving, and supportive community spaces to help students develop hope, purpose, and resilience. By helping youth see their own potential and by giving them the resources to act on it, NGF strengthens communities and contributes to more connected, optimistic, and resilient futures.
Our Vision
A world where every young person has access to the tools, support, and belief they need to see their own potential and create positive change in their communities.
Our Pillars
Three forces that drive everything we do
Belief
Everything starts when a student realizes, "I can create change." We build confidence and agency through hands-on learning and connection to inspiring role models.
Creativity
Creativity and innovation are pathways to empowerment. We teach modern AI tools as gateways to self-expression, problem-solving, and building confidence.
Access
Opportunity begins with access to modern tools, supportive communities, and inspiring role models. We remove barriers so youth can build confidence and create positive change.
Leadership
Our Core Team
Builders and students who have run every workshop, secured every partnership, and taught every session themselves.
Why We Started NGF
Rishi Sadanandan
Co-Founder & CEO
"I started NGF because every young person deserves to believe they can create change. With the right support, tools, and community, students discover their own potential and learn they have what it takes to make a positive difference, wherever they begin."
Next Generation Founders was founded to empower youth who have been overlooked by traditional systems. Students from under-resourced, first-generation, or marginalized communities often lack access to modern tools, inspiring role models, and the belief that they can create change.
What began as a single workshop has grown into a program that has reached more than 200 students across over 20 colleges worldwide, delivered both on campus and virtually to students in multiple countries.
Belief × Access = Change
John Salvi
Co-Founder & COO
"Every student deserves to believe in their own potential, regardless of their starting point. At NGF, we’re building bridges between youth and opportunity, showing students that their ideas and voices matter and that they can create positive change in their communities."
Together, we recognized that the barriers young people face aren’t about talent or ambition, they’re about access and belief. When students see people who look like them creating change and when they experience their own ability to build something meaningful, they discover agency they didn’t know they had.
Our vision is to create a movement where students from every background can access the tools, community, and support that help them develop confidence, purpose, and resilience. By connecting youth with inspiring innovators and modern technology, we’re helping them see possibilities they might never have imagined.
Potential × Opportunity = Impact