John Amendola is not lacking energy.
Spend five minutes with him and that becomes obvious.
He talks fast. He thinks fast. He builds fast. He has the type of entrepreneurial motor that makes you understand how Mintink went from an idea born during the pandemic into one of the most ambitious hobby businesses in Canada.
But the most interesting part of John’s story is not just the growth.
It is what the growth required from him.
Mintink started with operator energy.
John saw the hobby shifting in real time during the pandemic. He understood the demand for cards, nostalgia, content, and community. He turned his boardroom into a card store. He went live. He sold everything on the table. He trademarked Breaks After Dark. He leaned into streaming before most people understood where live commerce was going.
That is the operator stage.
See the opportunity.
Move fast.
Figure it out.
Outwork the uncertainty.
Create momentum.
That stage matters. Without it, there is no business.
But Mintink did not stay there.
The business grew. The needs changed. The complexity increased. The company went from a small team to dozens of employees. New stores entered the picture. New service lines developed. Livestreaming, ecommerce, brick and mortar retail, grading, consignment, buying, events, and community all had to live under one brand.
At that point, operator energy was no longer enough.
John had to become something different.
He had to become a leader.
That transition is where the real lesson lives.
Because a lot of founders can start something through force of will. They can personally carry the business in the early days. They can be the face, the salesperson, the problem solver, the customer service department, the marketer, the buyer, and the person who makes sure the boxes get out the door.
But that version of the founder has a ceiling.
If every decision runs through you, the business slows down.
If every problem comes back to you, the team never fully grows.
If every customer relationship depends on you, the brand is too fragile.
If every important function requires your personal energy, the business is not really scaling.
It is just stretching the founder thinner.
John seems to understand that now.
During our conversation, he talked about bringing in a recruiter. He talked about hiring senior leadership. He talked about having a senior retail director, a director of finance, a fulfillment manager, and an operations role. He talked about going from the whole company reporting to him to having a smaller number of direct reports.
That is not a small change.
That is the founder choosing to build a company instead of just remain the center of the company.
And that choice comes with tradeoffs.
John loves being in the store. He loves being with customers. He loves being on stream. He loves the energy of the floor.
But as Mintink has grown, his highest-value work has changed.
His job now is not to touch every part of the business.
His job is to clear the road.
Negotiate the next lease.
Handle the next security contract.
Make sure the team has what it needs.
Build the structure that allows the business to keep moving without depending entirely on him.
That is the operator-to-leader shift.
The operator wants to be everywhere.
The leader accepts that being everywhere may actually hold the business back.
That is hard for passionate founders.
Especially in the hobby.
This industry is built on personal connection. Customers want to know the people behind the business. The best operators are often deeply involved in the community. They build trust through proximity. They show up. They answer questions. They shake hands. They remember names.
That is part of the magic.
But growth eventually asks a different question.
Can you build something that still feels personal when you are no longer personally involved in every interaction?
That is the real test.
John is trying to do that with Mintink.
He is trying to build a business where the experience is bigger than one person. Where the community feels connected to the brand, not just the founder. Where staff are trained to educate, build relationships, and create lifetime value with customers. Where the stores are not just places to transact, but places to gather.
That matters because John does not describe Mintink like a card shop.
He describes it like an experience.
A place to loiter.
A place to learn.
A place for kids, parents, collectors, gamers, sports fans, Pokémon collectors, high-end buyers, and casual customers to feel like they belong.
That vision requires more than hustle.
It requires standards.
It requires training.
It requires leadership.
It requires emotional control.
It requires knowing when to move fast and when to slow down.
One of the strongest things John said in our conversation was that slowly is the fastest way to get anywhere.
That line stands out because it comes from someone who clearly likes to move.
But that is exactly why it matters.
Ambitious founders often think speed is the advantage.
And sometimes it is.
But speed without maturity creates damage.
Speed without systems creates chaos.
Speed without delegation creates bottlenecks.
Speed without self-awareness creates unnecessary conflict.
John acknowledged that he has had to change. He talked about learning to think more before he speaks. He talked about checking his ego. He talked about therapy being a game changer. He talked about understanding where he fits as the company gets bigger.
That is the part founders in the hobby need to pay attention to.
The business changed because John changed.
The old version of him may have been able to start Mintink.
But by his own admission, the old version of him would not have gotten Mintink to where it is going.
That is growth.
Not just more locations.
Not just more employees.
Not just more revenue.
Not just more customers.
Real growth is when the founder becomes capable of leading the thing they once had to personally carry.
That is the lesson from John Amendola.
The energy got Mintink moving.
The vision gave it direction.
The community gave it meaning.
But leadership is what gives it the chance to scale.
And that is the uncomfortable truth for every founder trying to build in this space.
At some point, the business will ask more of you than effort.
It will ask for discipline.
It will ask for patience.
It will ask for humility.
It will ask for systems.
It will ask for better communication.
It will ask you to trust other people.
It will ask you to stop being the hero of every moment so the company can become stronger without you in every room.
That is not easy.
But it is necessary.
Because the next stage of growth is rarely just about finding more opportunity.
More often, it is about becoming the person who can handle the opportunity already in front of you.
Check out the full blog here: https://stackingslabs.substack.com/p/hobby-jobs-15-the-business-cant-outgrow?r=hjr6d&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&triedRedirect=true
