Steven Bartlett (businessman)

Steven Cliff Bartlett (born 26 August 1992) is a British entrepreneur and podcaster. He is the founder of Thirdweb, Flight Story and Flight Fund. He was the co-founder and co-CEO of Social Chain, but stepped down as CEO in 2020. In 2021, he began appearing as an investor on the BBC One show Dragons' Den. He also runs The Diary of a CEO podcast. In 2023, according to Spotify Wrapped, it was ranked in the top 10 most popular podcasts globally.

Early life and education
Steven Cliff Bartlett was born on 26 August 1992 in Botswana to an English father and a Nigerian mother. His mother left school at age seven and could not read or write; his father is a structural engineer. He moved to Plymouth, England, at the age of two, where he grew up, attending a secondary school, Plymstock School, from which he was expelled in sixth form. He went to study at Manchester Metropolitan University, but dropped out after one lecture.

Career
In 2013, Bartlett founded Wallpark, an online messaging board. In 2014, Bartlett co-founded Social Chain, a social media marketing company based in Manchester, England, United Kingdom, along with Dominic McGregor. In 2017, he created a podcast series called The Diary of a CEO, which has featured guests including Liam Payne and Tom Blomfield. As of 2021, it was Europe's most downloaded business podcast and has featured British entrepreneurs Ben Francis, Lee Chambers and Grace Beverley, as well as other public figures including former Health Secretary Matt Hancock and Canadian psychologist Jordan Peterson. In 2023, according to a podcast chart, The Diary of a CEO has the second largest weekly audience in the United Kingdom.

In 2019, the Financial Times reported that Steven and Wanja Oberhof would jointly manage Social Chain AG, which was valued at €186M at the time that it merged with Lumaland. In 2019, Social Chain and German online retailer Lumaland merged to become The Social Chain AG, listing on Xetra and the Düsseldorf Stock Exchange. The listing valued the business at over $200 million. In November 2021, Social Chain AG moved to the Frankfurt Stock Exchange's prime standard reaching a valuation of $600 million. Bartlett's website initially said that he founded a $600 million company. However, The Times reported that Bartlett had left the business at the time of the second listing. Bartlett noted to The Times that he retained a “significant” shareholding in Social Chain AG at the time of the second listing and that he was under contract to work for the company “on a range of strategic matters” at the time of the $600m valuation, including the up-listing to the Prime Standard of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange, for which he received a “further package of virtual shares/options”.

In 2019, he featured in the Channel 4 series The Secret Teacher, going undercover at a school near Liverpool as a teacher.

In December 2020, he created the private equity company Catena Capital, then joined the board of directors of Huel, a £72 million food replacement company, as a non-executive director. In 2021, Bartlett joined the BBC One investment show Dragons' Den.

In September 2023, Bartlett accompanied Prince William on Royal visits in Bournemouth after being announced as an advocate of his foundation, Homewards.

Kimaï will be working with Steven and his team to amplify their digital presence, in exchange for a 3 per cent equity stake. The deal is the biggest investment made by The Diary Of A CEO podcast host since he first joined the programme in 2021.

In May 2024, Steven Bartlett's The Diary of a CEO podcast launched a dedicated 24/7 channel exclusively on Samsung TV Plus. The Diary of a CEO is the first vodcast (video podcast) and YouTube channel of its kind to partner with Samsung, the company revealed.

Thirdweb
Thirdweb, a Web3 startup founded by Bartlett, raised $5m in seed investment, and an additional $24 million in 2022, nine months after going live. The Series A funding round valued the startup at $160 million. The funding was led by Katie Haun's $1.5 billion crypto fund, with participation from investors including Coinbase Ventures, Shopify, and Polygon. The company aims to simplify the process of building decentralized applications on the blockchain.

Flight Fund
In January 2023, Bartlett launched Flight Fund, a $100 million fund for tech investment. The fund claims to support diverse founders and high-growth startups in blockchain, biotech, health, commerce, technology, and space sectors. The fund had a stated goal to invest in around 20 companies, offering small stakes at discounted valuations in exchange for support from previous founders who are limited partners in the fund.

Breaching guidelines on advertising
The BBC, which currently airs The Dragons' Den, reprimanded Bartlett in 2022 for breaching BBC guidelines on advertising. In a statement, they told The Radio Times: "We have clear guidelines around talent's commercial activity while working with us. Steven has been reminded of the guidelines." In a statement, Bartlett addressed the issue, adding: "This was a genuine oversight on my part. The posts have now been taken down."

The Advertising Standards Authority took action against Bartlett in August 2022 for breaching the CAP Code (Edition 12) rules 2.1, 2.3 and 2.4, in which he covertly advertised meal replacement firm Huel. The ASA ruled that the advertisement must not appear again in its current form and subsequently advised Bartlett and Huel to "ensure that they made clear the commercial intent of advertising content in podcasts in future, for example by including a clear and prominent identifier such as 'advertisement' and making sure the break from editorial content to the ad was clearly and audibly identified."

Books
In 2021, Bartlett released his first book, Happy Sexy Millionaire, which was a Sunday Times bestseller. In 2023, Bartlett released his second book, The Diary of a CEO: The 33 Laws of Business and Life, where he recollects topics from the podcast of the same name and condenses it into a published print version. The Diary of a CEO: The 33 Laws of Business and Life was shortlisted at The British Book Awards for Book of the Year after it became the fastest-selling personal development book since records began.

Recognition
In 2018, Econsultancy named him "The most influential figure in the industry." In 2020, he was inducted into the Manchester Hall of Fame. In the same year, he was included in the Forbes 30 Under 30 list. Bartlett is regularly booked for public speaking engagements.