29-year-old who quit the NFL to sell Pokémon cards: How my side hustle became a company bringing in $8.3 million in 9 months

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29-year-old who quit the NFL to sell Pokémon cards: How my side hustle became a company bringing in $8.3 million in 9 months (via CNBCMakeIt)

Yet after six-plus seasons as a prolific NFL linebacker, Martinez retired in November 2022 to focus on his side hustle, a company called Blake's Breaks. There, he buys and resells Pokémon cards — a habit the lifelong Charizard fan picked up in 2020, when he noticed cards selling for thousands of dollars on resale platforms like Whatnot and Mercari.

Today, about 60 people work for Blake's Breaks. Most of them are streamers — people who open and auction items on live streams — hawking everything from Pokémon cards to vintage purses. Martinez says he wants to teach them to sell, so they can create their own lucrative streaming businesses. Martinez: When I was [reselling cards] on my own, I learned a lot about business — how to scale, how to hire, how to fire — from a friend of mine who owns three restaurants in New York. Selling food and selling Pokémon cards is obviously different, but they both depend on culture.

I tell my team all the time, "I don't care if you make me $1 million or $1. You have to abide by our concept of culture."With football, you have a record of your performance. You've got your high school before you get recruited for college, your college tapes before you get drafted. said your goal is to teach employees enough for them to leave Blake's Breaks and launch their own lucrative businesses — even ones that compete with you.Growing up in football, I never really got ownership. I had coaches say, "Hey, go tackle that guy. Go hit that guy. Make me look good." I resonated more with the coaches who made me feel like I was part of something.

 

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