How old would you say the average business owner is? 40 years old? Maybe 50? How about 14.
Sophomore Leo Liu is the owner of a nonprofit youth basketball organization that he built from the ground up. His team, Super Meteors, operates out of more than 14 states and eight major cities. Leo’s goal is to give kids from diverse backgrounds a chance to play on a team and build strong bonds that they wouldn’t have had the chance to form. Leo’s team distinguishes themselves from competitors by prioritizing top-notch coaching and ensuring they constantly deliver excellence. Despite his age, he has been determined to expand the company to a national level to help children all over the country.
Leo himself didn’t have a great basketball experience in middle school, specifically because of poor coaching. So, he decided to start Super Meteors as a mere sixth-grader. “I was playing basketball at my old school in Boston,” he began. “One of the coaches actually reached out to me and asked me what I want to do in the future, so I just thought about it and I was like, ‘Hey, why not just start now?’” By starting the company, Leo was able to make sure kids had a better basketball experience than he did, with coaches that left a lasting impact.
Leo told me all about the process of starting the company. “I reached out to one of the figureheads coaching in Boston, Massachusetts, and he agreed to coach for us for a moderately low price,” Leo explained. In March of 2022, Super Meteors became an official Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) team, operating out of Cambridge, Mass. But Leo was just getting warmed up. “Once that season ended, we wanted to take it to the entire state rather than just Cambridge,” Leo said. “So we reached out to a couple of coaches. We kind of had three teams going on in Massachusetts and the idea of just going national really just started before the summer. Now we currently have 20 branches across 15 states in the United States.”
I found Leo’s ambition inspirational, considering the fact that most adults don’t take this kind of initiative. The thing that stood out to me during our conversation was his formality and quickness to clarify with me. He made sure I truly understood each and every detail of his business through the use of statistics and detailed descriptions. “Well, there are more than 500 Amateur Athletic Union-certified clubs in the United States,” he said. “I think that number’s closer to 1,000 to be honest, because sometimes there are clubs that self-claim to be AAU, but they’re not. So sometimes it’s hard for parents to make a selection about what club they should send their kids to. So we really have to stand out in front of our competitors.”
There still remains a huge unanswered question: where does a 14-year-old kid get the money for a basketball corporation? “I started out with 200 bucks,” Leo explained. “I spent about 60 bucks on purchasing a membership and club certification. I remember our first club called W36WWE, which really reinstated the importance of our contribution to the community. The Amateur Athletic Union also granted us insurance for our practices for 37 bucks. What do I use for the other 100 bucks? First of all, I booked a gym for an hour to host a tryout.” Leo also mentioned that he does make a profit from Super Meteors, though all the money ends up being invested back into the company.
One key takeaway that I gained from our conversation was money management. It seemed that one quality that makes a good business owner is being frugal with finances but also smart with them. “Sometimes you want things, but those things aren’t necessary,” Leo said. “Only buy the necessities first and see if you have enough funds to actually make it to the next level.”
Leo was especially eager to share a story about his second season with Super Meteors. He began by explaining how some of the coaches sometimes had to drive the players from Boston to Taunton High School, which was a two-hour commitment. He mentioned a realization he had while helping transport players alongside his mom. “One thing that we noticed is that the kids’ parents cannot make the weekends just because most of them are working every single day, especially those who are on financial aid,” he explained. Leo and his company are very flexible when it comes to player support. He was clear from the start that Super Meteors offers financial support, but playing isn’t completely free. “Not everyone is as fortunate as we are,” he said, “but we should do whatever we can to help them.”
Leo has also expressed some of his ideas in his self-published book, “A World Split in Two: Generational Division.” During my interview with him, he regularly gave words of guidance that I usually would not expect from a 15-year-old. I asked him about advice he would give to someone who wanted to start their own business. “Just get started,” Leo said. “I mean, you know, just do it. There’s nothing much you can do just by thinking.”
Leo’s exceptional leadership is noticed by the KO community as well. Along with sophomore Jackson Poulin, Leo co-leads TEDxKO, a club at Kingswood Oxford that promotes the sharing of new ideas in the form of public speaking. “I’d say Leo has good leadership qualities, and in the few aspects he may lack, I think I complement,” Jackson said. “We work well together.” Jackson then began to tell me about the future of TEDxKO, and the goals that he and Leo are attempting to reach. “We are trying to have speakers come to KO and just essentially talk about ideas worth talking about,” Jackson began. Jackson also mentioned their goal of working with the public speaking center to provide public speaking assistance to students who want it. Jackson also noted that it was Leo who came up with the idea for the club and pushed for its creation, further showing his exceptional initiative. I later asked Jackson how he would describe Leo in one word. “Driven,” he responded. “He’s doing a lot in the community right now.”
As I was about to wrap up my interview with Leo, a piercing noise struck our ears. My skull felt like it was rattling from the deafening sound that was the fire alarm. It destroyed the train of thought I had with Leo, and I found myself to be a bit lost, forgetting what else I wanted to bring up. I was ready to leave and forget about it, but I still felt like something was missing – like I still needed one more piece to the puzzle, and I wasn’t sure what it was. Then it occurred to me. I had one final question for Leo: why the name Super Meteors? “Meteors are fast, you know, straightforward,” he said. “We want to make sure that our brand is a straightforward, notable brand where everyone can be a meteor. Everyone can shine like a star.”
