Digital Social Hour
Digital Social Hour · 2025
Robert Nikic on Digital Social Hour with Sean Kelly
DSH #1188 · Be the Shark: E-Commerce Success Simplified
Robert Nikic on Digital Social Hour with Sean Kelly, DSH #1188: simplifying the path to selling online, entrepreneurship and cause-driven business.
#1188
Episode
41 min
Runtime
At a glance
- Show
- Digital Social Hour
- Host
- Sean Kelly
- Episode
- #1188 · Be the Shark: E-Commerce Success Simplified
- Published
- February 18, 2025
- Length
- 41 minutes
- Robert's role
- Founder and CEO
Last updated
What Robert Nikic discussed on Digital Social Hour
The episode
DSH #1188, titled "Be the Shark: E-Commerce Success Simplified," was released February 18, 2025, and runs 41 minutes. Host Sean Kelly keeps the conversation moving across three themes.
Simplifying online selling
The first is how to make the path to selling online simpler. Robert talks about removing steps between having an idea and making a first sale, the same problem his platform was built around.
Entrepreneurship and causes
The other two themes are entrepreneurship in general and cause-driven business: the idea that a company can grow while doing something useful beyond its own bottom line. Recorded about a year before he stepped away to work on SDG 8 & 9, the episode shows that shift starting to take shape.
Related: The Gazette on selling across borders · Life & Style on connecting sellers
In Robert's words
Sean's title, "Be the Shark," was his, but the idea of simplifying things is mine. When my family came here as refugees from the Balkans, we started over with nothing. I failed at startups as a teenager and worked 18-hour shifts, and I remember how confusing every step felt. We built the company without outside investors and reached the Inc. 5000 at #418 and later #35, mostly by making things simpler for sellers. On that episode I also talked about cause-driven business. A year later, in 2026, I stepped away to work on SDG 8 & 9 full time.
Robert Nikic
Key takeaways
01
Simpler path to selling
Robert talks about removing steps between an idea and a first sale.
02
Entrepreneurship in practice
The conversation covers what it takes to build and keep going.
03
Business with a cause
He discusses companies that grow while doing something useful.
Where this fits in his story
2011
First platform launched
2018
Relaunched as a full platform
2023
Inc. 5000 debut at #418
2024
Climbs to #35
2026
Steps away to work on SDG 8 & 9
Where it led
The cause-driven thread in this episode points straight to what Robert does now. Under SDG 9.c he focuses on making it cheap and simple for small businesses to sell across borders with digital tools. The same instinct, take the steps out, now applies to whole markets instead of a single platform.
Then
On DSH #1188, "Be the Shark: E-Commerce Success Simplified" (February 18, 2025, 41 minutes), Robert and Sean Kelly talk about simplifying the path to selling online, entrepreneurship and cause-driven business..
Now
SDG 9.c: making it cheap and simple for small businesses to sell across borders with digital tools.
See Robert's SDG 8 & 9 workWatch
Questions
When was Robert Nikic on Digital Social Hour?
Episode #1188, released February 18, 2025.
How long is the episode?
41 minutes.
What was it about?
Simplifying the path to selling online, entrepreneurship and cause-driven business.
Original article
Read the original article · Published in Sean Kelly, February 18, 2025
About Digital Social Hour
Digital Social Hour is an interview podcast hosted by Sean Kelly.
About Robert
Robert Nikic is an entrepreneur, TEDx speaker and Advisory Council Chair at Reseated Councils (United Nations SDG 8 & 9). He came to the United States as a refugee, and from 2011 to 2026 he built and led an e-commerce company that was twice named to the Inc. 5000. Today he works to make it easier for anyone, anywhere, to start a business and grow it.