Miami Man Drops Out Of Business College To Sell Pokémon Cards, Clocks ₹74.4 Crore Sales

(MENAFN- Live Mint) The stories of college dropouts often make for exciting success stories in the business world. Take, for example, Bill Gates, who left Harvard to co-found Microsoft, or Steve Jobs, who dropped out of Reed College before co-founding Apple. In the same vein, the story of a man from Miami has surfaced who once quit his business college to sell Pokémon cards full-time and generated $7.8 million or ₹74.4 crore, in sales last year.

From college dropout to entrepreneur

Andres Fernandez is the founder and CEO of MintlyCollects, which offers Pokémon cards on the live selling platform, Whatnot. The company operates via two accounts with around 500k followers combined.

According to a report by Business Insider, Fernandez enrolled in a business college after being persuaded by his mother. "I was studying business, which I find to be cliché," the report quoted him as saying.

Just after one semester, Fernandez left college to pursue his career as a Pokémon card seller. "For the first two to three years, I did everything myself. I streamed six days a week, packed orders, shipped them, and repeated the process Monday through Saturday. My uncle eventually sat me down and said, "You're onto something. Quit your job. Stop school, and run with it." So I did," he added.

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Fernandez shared that he learned everything about running a business with time. For the first two and a half years, he decided not to take a salary for himself.

He said he eventually realised that he could not do everything all by himself. A self-described“control freak”, he took a major risk by investing $150,000 in his first large sealed-product purchase, which prompted him to seek help. He turned to friends and family, offering them a commission on the profits.

"Now, my girlfriend works for me. Her best friend and her best friend's boyfriend work for me. My brother works for me. My girlfriend's cousin works for me. My childhood best friend also works for me. Today, I have 10 streamers. We can stream more than 20 hours a day on one account and 15 hours a day on another, with both accounts running simultaneously. In 2024, we did $3.7 million in sales. In 2025, we did $7.8 million, and we're on track to do more than $10 million to $11 million this year," he said about the business.

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The young founder shared how he found his calling one fine day. After an early interest in Pokémon, his love for the cards evolved into a business opportunity.

As someone who played Pokémon video games since he was 10, Fernandez said that he became interested in collecting cards after buying a pack for his younger cousin's birthday. It was when his cousin pulled a $100 card from a $5 pack that Fernandez was hooked.

At the time, he was working at a croqueta bar for $10 an hour. Soon he began creating Pokémon content after realising he was spending too much on cards. Eventually his account grew to around 30,000 followers, and he started selling cards on Instagram Live before joining Whatnot in late 2020.

He was 20 at the time and decided to stick with it.

"People aren't going to like to hear this, but being comfortable doesn't equal success nine out of 10 times. People think, "Oh, I'll go to college, and it'll all work out." No. You should be doing internships. You should be working. You should be gaining real experience."

"Even if my business somehow failed today, I know going to figure something else out," he concluded.

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