I dropped out of college to sell Pokémon cards full time. My business made $7.8 million in sales last year alone.

Andres Fernandez dropped out of his college in Florida to start his own business, which sells Pokemon cards.

Andres Fernandez Andres Fernandez dropped out of his business degree program in college to found his own company.

The company, MintlyCollects, made $7.8 million in sales in 2025 and became a family business.

Fernandez said that he believes you can't "just go with the flow" and find a direction in life.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Andres Fernandez, founder and CEO of MintlyCollects, which specializes in selling Pokémon cards on the live selling platform, Whatnot.

The company's two Whatnot accounts have around 500k followers altogether.

The essay has been edited for length and clarity.

I was born and raised in Miami, and I've always been an out-of-the-box kid.

When I signed up for college, I didn't really know what I wanted to do.

I was going to college because my mom was making me go, and I was studying business, which I find to be cliché.

After just one semester, I dropped out to be a full-time Pokémon card seller .

Rather than getting a business degree to work a corporate job, I ended up building a real business that's mine.

How I found my direction I was super into video games, YouTube, Twitch, and content creation growing up.

I had played Pokémon video games since I was 10, but I wasn't a collector.