Entrepreneur
Entrepreneur · 2023
Robert Nikic Featured in Entrepreneur
Entrepreneur names Robert one of 2023's rising entrepreneurial stars.
1 suitcase
each
18-hour
days
2011
Launched
At a glance
- Outlet
- Entrepreneur
- Format
- Profile
- Published
- February 16, 2023
- Topic
- From hospitality jobs to a self-taught founder
- Robert's role
- Founder and CEO
- Key dates
- 2011 launch · 2018 relaunch
Last updated
What Entrepreneur reported about Robert Nikic
One suitcase each
Entrepreneur's 2023 profile names Robert one of the year's rising entrepreneurial stars. It begins with his family arriving in America with one suitcase per person.
The hospitality years
The article traces his first jobs in restaurants and hotels, and his rise to front desk manager at a resort. He often worked 10, 12 or 18 hours a day. He saved for a computer and taught himself to build websites.
From guest conversations to a platform
Conversations with resort guests led him to try online retail. Entrepreneur reports that this became a marketing platform in 2011, which he relaunched in 2018 as a full platform connecting sellers to U.S. brand-name products. No degree, no outside capital, just a long run of work and self-teaching.
Related: Disrupt on the 2011 launch · NBC First Coast on his early jobs
In Robert's words
We came to America with one suitcase each. I worked in restaurants and hotels, then at a resort front desk, often 18 hours a day. I saved for a computer and taught myself to build websites at night. My teenage startups had already failed, so I knew what not to do. Talking to guests at the resort is what got me into online retail. I launched the first platform in 2011 and relaunched it in 2018, without outside investors. It later made the Inc. 5000. In 2026 I stepped away to work on SDG 8 & 9, because credit shouldn't depend on who you know.
Robert Nikic
Key takeaways
01
No degree, no shortcuts
Entrepreneur describes a path built on work rather than credentials.
02
Self-taught technologist
He saved for a computer and learned to build websites himself.
03
Built from guest conversations
Talks with resort guests led to his first online venture.
Where this fits in his story
2011
First platform launched
2018
Relaunched as a full platform
This feature
2023
Inc. 5000 debut at #418
2024
Climbs to #35
2026
Steps away to work on SDG 8 & 9
Where it led
Then, he built his way in without credentials or capital. Now, under SDG 9.3, he works on fair access to credit based on real sales rather than collateral alone. Entrepreneur's account shows why: a self-taught founder with a working business but no assets often can't get a loan. He wants lenders to look at what a business sells, not only what its owner owns.
Then
Then, he built his way in without credentials or capital.
Now
Now, he works on SDG 9.3, fair access to credit based on real sales rather than collateral alone.
See Robert's SDG 8 & 9 workQuestions
When did Entrepreneur feature Robert Nikic?
February 16, 2023.
What did Entrepreneur report?
That he worked long hospitality shifts, taught himself to build websites, launched a platform in 2011 and relaunched it in 2018.
What does Robert Nikic do now?
He works on SDG 8 & 9, including fair access to credit under SDG 9.3.
Original article
Read the original article · Published in Entrepreneur, February 16, 2023
About Entrepreneur
Entrepreneur is an American magazine and website covering small business and entrepreneurship, founded in 1977. Wikipedia
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.