NBC
NBC
Robert Nikic Featured on NBC
First Coast Living · First Coast News, Jacksonville
Robert Nikic on NBC's First Coast Living in Jacksonville, sharing how he built a multi-million-dollar company before 30 after arriving as a refugee.
At a glance
- Network
- NBC
- Station
- First Coast News (WTLV 12)
- Show
- First Coast Living
- Market
- Jacksonville, Florida
- Format
- TV segment
- Robert's role
- Founder and CEO
Last updated
What NBC's First Coast Living covered about Robert Nikic
Segment summary
First Coast Living is the daytime show on First Coast News, the NBC station in Jacksonville. The segment asked one question: how did Robert build a multi-million-dollar company before he turned 30? His answer started long before the business.
Starting from nothing
Robert explained that he arrived in the United States as a refugee with nothing. His first jobs were in hospitality, the kind of work where you learn to serve people and solve their problems quickly. He described working his way up from those jobs, one role at a time, until he could found and lead his own company.
The point of the story
The segment framed his path as proof that background does not decide outcome. There was no family money and no shortcut. What carried him was work, the willingness to start again after failing, and lessons picked up in jobs most founders never mention. For a Jacksonville morning audience, many of whom work in service jobs themselves, that was the takeaway.
Related: Entrepreneur on his hospitality years · Fatherly on his refugee beginnings
In Robert's words
My family came here as refugees from the Balkans and started over with nothing. I didn't have a degree or connections. I had hospitality jobs and 18-hour shifts, and I learned more about business at a front desk than anywhere else. My first startups as a teenager failed. When I finally built a company, we did it without outside investors, and it ended up on the Inc. 5000. People ask what the secret was, and honestly it was staying in the game long enough. Since 2026 I've worked on SDG 8 & 9, especially second chances, because a lot of people never get the one I got.
Robert Nikic
Key takeaways
01
Before 30
The segment centered on building a multi-million-dollar company before age 30.
02
Hospitality as training
Robert credited service jobs for teaching him how to solve customer problems.
03
Background is not destiny
His path showed that starting with nothing did not cap where he could go.
Where this fits in his story
2011
First platform launched
2018
Relaunched as a full platform
2023
Inc. 5000 debut at #418
This feature
2024
Climbs to #35
2026
Steps away to work on SDG 8 & 9
Where it led
This appearance is the clearest telling of the second-chance part of Robert's story. He was given a new start in a new country and made the most of it. That is why SDG 8.5, decent work and second chances for people rebuilding their lives, is central to his current work. He argues that refugees, career changers and people coming back from failure need practical routes into work and ownership, not just encouragement.
Then
On First Coast Living, Robert shares how he built a multi-million-dollar company before turning 30, starting as a refugee with nothing and working his way up from hospitality jobs to founder and CEO..
Now
SDG 8.5: second chances and decent work for people rebuilding their lives.
See Robert's SDG 8 & 9 workQuestions
Was Robert Nikic on NBC?
Yes. He appeared on First Coast Living on First Coast News, the NBC station in Jacksonville, Florida.
What did he talk about on First Coast Living?
How he built a multi-million-dollar company before 30 after arriving as a refugee with nothing and working in hospitality.
What is Robert Nikic working on now?
United Nations SDG 8 & 9, including second chances and decent work under SDG 8.5.
Original article
Read the original article · Published in First Coast News (WTLV 12 Jacksonville)
About NBC
WTLV, branded First Coast News, is the NBC-affiliated television station in Jacksonville, Florida. 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.