Collect-A-Con

From a $375K charity Pokémon box to the world's biggest Pokémon show

Camillo bought a $375,000 Pokémon box for a charity party in Vegas and lost money on the event. Someone he met there pitched a convention, so he invested about $600,000 and helped grow it to 20 shows and 700,000 attendees. Collect-A-Con later sold to Ari Emanuel for what Camillo called an insane amount of money.

“I invested, I want to say $600,000. into the company. I took a minority but massive stake in the company, and I helped build this conference starting with one show in a small hotel convention room in Frisco, Texas. And 4 years later, we were throwing 20 shows, 700,000 attendees, the biggest Pokémon trade show in the world. Massive success.”

Own your pipe and drape: frugal convention ops via an 18-wheeler

Renting pipe and drape is the biggest expense of running a convention, so the Pokémon show team bought their own and trucked it between cities. The founder drove the truck himself, and the owners set up shows and sold tickets in person.

“Like, we were so frugal. that we had our own rig. Because, you know, the most expensive part of throwing a convention is buying— renting pipe and drape at all the conventions. So we bought our own pipe and drape, put it in an 18-wheeler, and the founder-operator of this business, Matthew, would drive the truck himself from city to city. It was crazy.”

Steal thisFind your biggest recurring rental cost and buy the asset outright if you will use it at every event.