Nikonomics - The Economics of Small Business
Nikolas Hulewsky
Welcome to Nikonomics—the show for entrepreneurs and Wantrapreneurs, looking to make their first million.
I bring firsthand experience, having bought and sold over a dozen businesses, achieved multiple 7-figure exits, and generated over $100 million in revenue.
Each week, I blend humor with real insights from successful entrepreneurs, sharing growth strategies, deal insights, and unique business ideas you won’t find elsewhere.
Ready to turn your entrepreneurial dreams into reality? Hit play and let’s get to work.
Follow me on Twitter @CoFoundersNik or YouTube @NikonomicsPodcast.
I bring firsthand experience, having bought and sold over a dozen businesses, achieved multiple 7-figure exits, and generated over $100 million in revenue.
Each week, I blend humor with real insights from successful entrepreneurs, sharing growth strategies, deal insights, and unique business ideas you won’t find elsewhere.
Ready to turn your entrepreneurial dreams into reality? Hit play and let’s get to work.
Follow me on Twitter @CoFoundersNik or YouTube @NikonomicsPodcast.
Episodes
Mentioned books
Mar 26, 2026 • 49min
290 - Best of 2025! The Catfish That Launched a Business: The Story of Sam's List with Kimi Green
Kimi Green, founder and CEO of Sam's List who built a marketplace connecting people to accountants and CFOs, tells the quirky origin story of a random text that launched a startup. She recounts thinking she was being catfished, shifting a side project into full-time leadership, and why SEO, content, authentication, and trust-focused design became the company’s growth playbook.
Mar 24, 2026 • 43min
289 - Best of 2025! How a Former Lawyer Built an 8-Figure Sky Lantern Empire with Spencer Humiston
Spencer Humiston, a former lawyer who built Nightlights into an 8-figure experiential business, shares his journey from Alaska to massive sky lantern festivals. He discusses logistics and safety of flaming lanterns, why on-site parking makes or breaks events, dynamic ticket pricing that drives late sales, and rethinking music festivals with mixed experiences.
Mar 19, 2026 • 38min
288 - Best of 2025! The New Rules of Recruiting: Why You Need US "Killers" Over Overseas Talent with Connor Gross
Connor Gross, founder of Constant Hire and former Amazon FBA scaler running a $7M e-commerce business, built a recruiting agency that places elite US and onshore sales and marketing talent. He explains why top-tier US hires outperform cheap overseas labor. Short takes cover niching into roles like creative strategists, a $6k placement fee model, barbell staffing, and a future where hyper-niche distribution wins.
7 snips
Mar 17, 2026 • 42min
287 - Best of 2025! From Wall Street to SMB: Unmasking the PE Roll-Up Playbook and Surviving the "People Tax" with Steve Wiesner
Steve Wiesner, a two-decade investment banking and private equity veteran turned entrepreneur who now runs Watershed Associates. He explains how roll-ups and multiple arbitrage let big funds consolidate fragmented markets. He also exposes the harsh realities of integration, the costly "people tax," and what makes a market ripe for buy-and-build strategies.
Mar 12, 2026 • 56min
286 - Best of 2025! The Cheat Code to Building a $400k Local Newsletter Empire with Ryan Sneddon
Ryan Sneddon, founder of a profitable hyper-local daily newsletter in Annapolis who now licenses the model. He explains building massive local reach, the Facebook-ads “cheat code” that drove half the town to subscribe, selling ads by ROAS to local businesses, and the cash-flow mistakes that nearly sank his business. He also covers scaling via licensing and choosing the right small-city markets.
Mar 10, 2026 • 38min
285 - Best of 2025! How to Think Like AI with John Long
John Long, co-founder of think.ai who builds AI agents to automate business calls, texts, and emails. He discusses which models and tools power their agents. Short takes cover agent realism, live demos, use cases beyond sales, onboarding agents like employees, latency tuning, integrations, and why adoption will accelerate.
Mar 5, 2026 • 41min
284 - Best of 2025! He Saved His Firm $100 Million, They Gave Him a Gift Card: What He Did Next with Brian O'Connor
Brian O'Connor, entrepreneur and former Deloitte consultant who saved his firm $100M before leaving to build a fractional CMO and staffing agency. He tells the breaking point that pushed him to bet on himself. The conversation covers running massive PPP distributions, why SWOT falls short, the Choice Cascade framework, finding product-market fit, and using advisory services to transform retention and pricing.
Mar 3, 2026 • 36min
283 - Best of 2025! The 7-Figure Summer: Uncovering the Hidden Millions in Door-to-Door Pest Control with Casey McDaniel
Casey McDaniel, a door-to-door pest control entrepreneur who scaled to seven-figure recurring revenue in three years. He discusses the intense grind and huge paydays of top door-to-door sellers. He explains renting a master license to start fast, why recurring sprays yield massive gross margins, and the remote SOPs, photo checks and GPS tracking used to run operations from afar.
Feb 26, 2026 • 19min
282 - Best of 2025! How Fear and Regulation Impact AI in Finance with David Kaylor
David Kaylor, who builds digital banking tools at Alchemy Technology and uses AI to automate banking workflows. He discusses why banking fears and regulation slow AI adoption. He compares Gemini, Grok, Claude and ChatGPT for different jobs. He shows nondevelopers can build automations with Replit and Google Apps Script and shares practical Jira and Sheets automation ideas.
Feb 24, 2026 • 59min
281 - Best of 2025! 99% Margins, Zero Ads: Inside Table One's Unconventional Success with Tarek Arafat
Tarek Arafat, co-founder of Table One and bootstrapped builder who solved NYC reservation scalping. He recounts building a $200K ARR product with 99% margins and zero paid ads. Talks live-notify product mechanics, surging growth after a New Yorker feature, shutdown-and-relaunch lessons, and an unusual community-driven fundraising approach.
