The European Business Review
The European Business Review · 2025
Robert Nikic Featured in The European Business Review
The European Business Review on Robert Nikic's mission to remove the barriers that stop new business owners, using automation and AI to cut human error.
#35
Inc. 5000
TEDx
Speaker
At a glance
- Outlet
- The European Business Review
- Format
- Profile
- Published
- January 9, 2025
- Topic
- Removing barriers to ownership with automation
- Robert's role
- Founder and CEO
- Inc. 5000
- #35 (as reported)
Last updated
What The European Business Review reported about Robert Nikic
The shift
The European Business Review profiles Robert as the leader behind a company the article reports reached #35 on the Inc. 5000. Its focus is a shift: from a platform for sellers to an automated, hands-off ownership model.
Designing out failure
The article explains that the model was built to remove the operational burdens that sink most new ventures. Robert puts the goal plainly: "We wanted to eliminate the barriers that stop people from succeeding and create a system where success is built into the process."
Why automation
He also argues that "technology removes human error, which has historically been the downfall of many ventures." The profile closes by noting his Forbes Councils and Fast Company Executive Board memberships and his TEDx appearance.
Related: NBC WFLA on why businesses fail · The Guardian on designing against failure
"We wanted to eliminate the barriers that stop people from succeeding and create a system where success is built into the process."
"Technology removes human error, which has historically been the downfall of many ventures."
In Robert's words
"We wanted to eliminate the barriers that stop people from succeeding." That line was the whole point. My family came from the Balkans as refugees and started over with nothing, and my teenage startups failed for reasons that had nothing to do with effort. I worked 18-hour shifts and still made avoidable mistakes. Automation was my answer to that: take the error-prone steps away from the person who can least afford them. We built the company without outside investors and reached #35 on the Inc. 5000. Since 2026 I've worked on SDG 8 & 9, where many of the barriers are rules.
Robert Nikic
Key takeaways
01
Hands-off ownership
The model automated much of the daily work of running a business.
02
Success built into the process
Barriers were designed out rather than left to the owner.
03
Fewer human errors
Robert argued technology removes the mistakes that sink new ventures.
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
This feature
2026
Steps away to work on SDG 8 & 9
Where it led
Then, he engineered barriers out of business ownership. Now, under SDG 8.3, he works on the barriers that software can't remove: registration steps, paperwork, fees and delays. The European Business Review captured his technology answer; his current work is the policy answer.
Then
Then, he engineered barriers out of business ownership.
Now
Now, he works on SDG 8.3, cutting the paperwork, fees and delays of starting a business.
See Robert's SDG 8 & 9 workQuestions
When did The European Business Review feature Robert Nikic?
January 9, 2025.
What did it report?
His move to an automated ownership model designed to remove the burdens that sink new ventures.
What does Robert Nikic do now?
He works on SDG 8 & 9, including SDG 8.3 on simpler business registration.
Original article
Read the original article · Published in The European Business Review, January 9, 2025
About The European Business Review
The European Business Review is a business and management publication.
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.