Robert Nikic

My family fled the Balkan wars and started over in the United States with nothing. I was the first in the family to learn English. My first jobs were in hospitality, waiting tables and working at hotels and resorts, often on 18-hour shifts.

As a teenager I started several tech businesses. Each one failed, and each one taught me something about what founders actually need. I saved for a computer, taught myself to build websites and kept going.

In 2011 I started the company I would lead for the next fifteen years. We never took outside investors. We grew on our own revenue, kept our focus on sellers and customers, and made the Inc. 5000 twice, debuting at #418 in 2023 and climbing to #35 in 2024.

Running that company showed me where small businesses get stuck, and most of the time it isn't effort or ideas. It's the rules and the rails underneath them. In 2026 I stepped away from operating roles to work on United Nations SDG 8 & 9: faster payments for small sellers, fair access to credit and products, simpler business formation, cheaper cross-border selling, and second chances for people rebuilding their lives.

I write the Journal for the founders and small business owners I used to work beside. Every article is a practical lesson from building and running a company: cash flow, pricing, suppliers, customers, scams and the policy that shapes all of it. If one post saves someone a mistake I already made, it has done its job.