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Steven Bartlett (born 1992) is an entrepreneur, speaker, and investor. He is the CEO and co-founder of The Social Chain, a marketing agency and production house headquartered in Manchester, England.

Early life and career
Bartlett was born in Botswana and grew up in Plymouth, Devon, England. Bartlett attended Manchester Metropolitan University. In 2013, he dropped out of university at the age of 18 to start Wallpark, an online student community and platform of web noticeboards.

In 2014, Bartlett reached out to Dominic McGregor, founder of comedic social media account 'Student Problems', to discuss promoting Wallpark with his channel's followers. The success of the campaign led Bartlett and McGregor to co-found Social Chain and Media Chain, the two flagship companies of what would become The Social Chain AG.

The Social Chain AG
Bartlett founded Social Chain in 2014. By the end of its first year, he was employing over 300 people from offices in Manchester, London, New York City, and Berlin.

Social Chain continued to grow and by September 2019, Bartlett claimed it owned "over 400 digital communities reaching 1.8 billion millennials and Gen Zs monthly."

The agency has worked with the likes of Amazon, Apple Inc., BBC, Coca-Cola, FIFA, Fox, McDonald’s, Nokia, Puma, Spotify, and Superdry. In 2015, Social Chain won The Drum’s Social Media Agency of the Year Award. It also won the 2016 Prolific North Award for Best Large Digital Agency.

Initial Public Offering and merger
In October 2019, Social Chain revealed plans for an Initial Public Offering, to take place in mid-2020. At the same time, it was announced that the company was to merge with German retailer Lumaland AG. The merger with the already publicly traded business meant The Social Chain AG was listed on the Xetra electronic exchange and Düsseldorf stock exchange, with a value of €186 million. The new entity is headquartered in Berlin, with additional locations in Manchester, London, New York and Munich, employing about 500 employees.

Following the merger, Bartlett, along with the rest of the management, held 42% of the company. Georg Kofler, chairman of Lumaland, held approximately 47%.

Speaking of the merger, Bartlett said it would enable Social Chain to "own the end-to-end process of creating a brand and scaling a brand,” giving it “the infrastructure and logistics to store and deliver products”.

Awards
Bartlett has won several awards:


 * Lloyds TSB Young Entrepreneur of the Year 2013
 * Growing Business Awards - Young Entrepreneur of the Year 2014
 * Digital Entrepreneur Awards - Digital Entrepreneur of the Year 2016
 * Econsultancy Rising Star 2017
 * NatWest Great British Entrepreneur Awards - Young Entrepreneur of the Year 2017
 * Black British Business Awards - Entrepreneur Rising Star 2018
 * Econsultancy Most Influential Industry Figure 2018
 * The Drum Most Inspirational Independent Agency Leaders Award 2018

Speaking engagements and podcast
Bartlett is a frequent speaker and has spoken at events such as South by Southwest (SXSW) and Social Media Week. He also appeared as a guest on the BBC's DIY Generation. In 2016, Bartlett gave a TEDx Talk in London, titled 'Entrepreneurs should follow their instincts'.

Bartlett hosts a podcast, The Diary of a CEO. Guests have included Ella Mills, Ben Francis, Tom Bilyeu, and Sarah Bahbah.

Charitable causes
In March 2018, Bartlett started the Rewrite Foundation, an organization that helps young people with their goals of becoming entrepreneurs. Since 2016, Bartlett has been an ambassador for the Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital.

Social Chain Pledge
The Social Change Pledge is an initiative set up by Bartlett to achieve the seventeen global goals for a better world by 2030, which were adopted by all United Nations Member States in 2015. As of September 2019, the campaign had raised over $500,000, and was reportedly on track to hit $1 million within a few months.