Steven Bartlett (businessman)

Last updated

Steven Bartlett
Craig Campbell & Steven Bartlett.png
Bartlett in 2021
Born
Steven Cliff Bartlett

(1992-08-26) 26 August 1992 (age 32)
Botswana
NationalityBotswana-British
Occupations
  • Investor
  • entrepreneur
Known forSocial Chain
Dragons' Den
The Diary of a CEO
Thirdweb
Awards Forbes 30 Under 30 (2020)
YouTube information
Channel
Location United Kingdom
Years active2019–present
GenrePodcasting
Subscribers8.39 million [1]
Total views601.2 million [1]
Contents are inEnglish
YouTube Gold Play Button 2.svg1,000,000 subscribers
Last updated: 04 December 2024
Website stevenbartlett.com OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg

Steven Cliff Bartlett (born 26 August 1992) is a British entrepreneur, investor and podcaster. He founded the social media marketing company Social Chain in 2014. In 2017 he started the The Diary of a CEO podcast, which is one of the world's most listened-to podcasts. Spotify Wrapped ranked it in the top 5 most popular podcasts globally in 2024. [2] In 2021, he began appearing as an investor on the BBC One show Dragons' Den. [3] [4] He is the founder of Flight Group which consists of Flight Studio, Flight Fund, Flight Story, Flight Books. He is also the founder of Thirdweb. [5] [6] [7]

Contents

Early life and education

Steven Cliff Bartlett [8] was born on 26 August 1992 [9] in Botswana to an English father and a Nigerian mother. [10] His mother left school at age seven and could not read or write; his father is a structural engineer. [11] Steven moved with his family to Plymouth, England, at the age of two. Here, he grew up, attending a secondary school, Plymstock School, from which he was expelled in sixth form. [12] [13] [14] He went to study at Manchester Metropolitan University, but dropped out after one lecture. [13] [15]

Career

In 2013 Bartlett founded Wallpark, an online messaging board. [15] In 2014 he co-founded Social Chain, a social media marketing company based in Manchester, England, United Kingdom, along with Dominic McGregor, [16] [17] but stepped down as CEO in 2020. [16]

In 2019, the Financial Times reported that Bartlett and Wanja Oberhof would jointly manage Social Chain AG, which was valued at €186M at the time that it merged with Lumaland. [18] In 2019 Social Chain and German online retailer Lumaland merged to become The Social Chain AG, listing on Xetra and the Düsseldorf Stock Exchange. [17] The listing valued the business at over $200 million. [19] 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. [20] 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". [20] [21] Bartlett's original company Social Chain Ltd. was later sold for £7.7m. [22]

The Diary of a CEO podcast

Bartlett has produced the The Diary of a CEO podcast since 2017 where he interviews guests, including Simon Cowell, Jada Pinkett Smith, Boris Johnson, Seth Rogen, Maisie Williams, Thierry Henry, and Richard Branson. [23] By the early 2020s, The Diary of a CEO was one of the world's most listened-to podcasts, [24] ranking #9 in the top most listened podcasts of 2023 on Spotify. [25] In 2023 according to a podcast chart, The Diary of a CEO had the second largest weekly audience in the United Kingdom. [26] Bartlett has been described as taking a largely apolitical stance on the podcast. [24] He has been criticised for having alternative medicine-related guests on his podcast whose assertions are not backed by, or contradict, scientific evidence, [22] [27] and having other guests that promote medical misinformation without any serious pushback by Bartlett. [27] A 2024 analysis of 15 health-related episodes by the BBC found an average of 14 misleading health statements per episode, including unsupported treatments for cancer and anti-vaccine conspiracy theories. The production company said that guests were offered "freedom of expression" and were "thoroughly researched". Bartlett defended his guest on one podcast by saying that he aimed to "present some of the other side" and that "the truth is usually somewhere in the middle". [27]

Dragons' Den

Bartlett joined the long-running investment reality television programme Dragons' Den in 2021 as one of the five titular "dragon" investors to which aspiring entrepreneurs pitch their ideas/products. [3] [4] In 2024, Bartlett was involved in controversy for investing in "Ear Seeds", an acupuncture product pitched on the programme which falsely claimed to be able to cure Myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome, a debilitating, chronic condition that is currently considered incurable. [27]

Projects

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. [28] 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. [5]

Flight Fund

In January 2023, Bartlett launched Flight Fund, a $100 million fund for tech investment. [29] 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. [6] According to a report in The Times, Flight Fund had received criticism over a lack of transparency regarding its portfolio. [30]

Advertising guidelines breaches by or featuring Bartlett

The BBC, which currently airs The Dragons' Den, reprimanded Bartlett in 2022 for breaching BBC guidelines on advertising after wearing jewellery on the programme of a brand which he promoted in posts on social media. 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." [31]

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) 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 advertised the meal replacement firm Huel on his The Diary of a CEO podcast without clearly disclosing its nature as an advertisement. 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." [32] [33]

In August 2024, advertisements featuring Bartlett by Zoe and Huel were banned by the advertising standards authority because they did not properly disclose their relationship with Bartlett. [34] [35]

Recognition and public image

In 2020 Bartlett was inducted into the Manchester Hall of Fame. In the same year, he was included in the Forbes 30 Under 30 list. [36] Bartlett's reputation among the general public has been described as polarising. [22]

Books

In 2021 Bartlett released his first book, Happy Sexy Millionaire, [37] which was a Sunday Times bestseller. [38] In 2023 Bartlett released his second book, The Diary of a CEO: The 33 Laws of Business and Life, [39] 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. [40] [41]

Other activities

In 2019 he featured in the Channel 4 series The Secret Teacher, [42] going undercover at a school near Liverpool as a teacher. [43]

He created the private equity company Catena Capital, [44] in December 2020 then joined the board of directors of Huel, a meal replacement company, as a non-executive director. [45] [6] In 2021 Bartlett joined the BBC One investment show Dragons' Den . [46]

In September 2023, Bartlett accompanied William, Prince of Wales on Royal visits in Bournemouth after being announced as an advocate of his foundation, Homewards. [47] During his early years Bartlett moonlighted as a rapper under the moniker "Lyricist". [22]

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  2. ↑ Adrian.Covert@groupsjr.com (4 December 2024). "Revealed: The Top Artists, Songs, Albums, Podcasts, and Audiobooks of 2024". Spotify. Retrieved 11 December 2024.
  3. 1 2 Mantock, Rachel (2021). "New investor Steven Bartlett says his digital background gives him 'an edge' on Dragons Den". inews.co.uk. Archived from the original on 8 June 2021. Retrieved 9 November 2021.
  4. 1 2 Lewis, Isobel (2021). "28-year-old Steven Bartlett joins Dragons' Den as show's youngest ever Dragon" . The Independent . Archived from the original on 25 May 2022. Retrieved 9 November 2021.
  5. 1 2 Burroughs, Callum (25 August 2022). "Mark Cuban backed Steven Bartlett's new Web3 startup in 2021. Now, Thirdweb just raised $24 million in a round led by Haun Ventures with this 11-slide pitch deck". Business Insider. Retrieved 19 March 2023.
  6. 1 2 3 Burroughs, Callum (19 January 2023). "Diary of a CEO host Steven Bartlett has raised a $100 million fund to back the next generation of Europe's unicorn founders". Business Insider. Retrieved 19 March 2023.
  7. ↑ "Dragons' Den star Steven Bartlett launches $100m start-up fund to back new companies". Sky News. Retrieved 23 November 2024.
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  9. ↑ Bartlett, Steven Cliff [@StevenBartlett] (26 August 2020). "28! Thank you for all of the birthday messages / DMs" (Tweet). Retrieved 15 September 2023– via Twitter.
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  15. 1 2 Barrie, Thomas (2021). "Steven Bartlett: 'If you want a successful business, you have to instil a culture of learning'". GQ . Archived from the original on 16 December 2021. Retrieved 9 November 2021.
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  21. ↑ "Expanding group completes upgrade to stock exchange's prime standard". Business Live. 12 November 2021. Retrieved 7 April 2024.
  22. 1 2 3 4 Beaty, Zoe (20 August 2024). "Downfall of a CEO? The real reason Steven Bartlett became the man we love to hate". The Independent. Retrieved 30 August 2024.
  23. ↑ Goldbart, Max; Kanter, Jake (22 November 2024). "'The Diary Of A CEO' Hits 1B Streams; Molly-Mae Lands Amazon Series; Jay Hunt Latest Chair Role – Global Briefs". Deadline. Retrieved 22 November 2024.
  24. 1 2 Martin, Clive (23 August 2024). "Steven Bartlett's empire of bluff". New Statesman. Retrieved 30 August 2024.
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  26. ↑ "Joe Rogan is UK's most popular podcast, new chart reveals". The Guardian. 23 September 2023. Retrieved 7 November 2023.
  27. 1 2 3 4 "Steven Bartlett sharing harmful health misinformation on Diary of CEO podcast". BBC News. Retrieved 13 December 2024.
  28. ↑ Lunden, Ingrid (25 August 2022). "Thirdweb raises $24M at a $160M valuation from Haun Ventures, Shopify and Coinbase for its web3 development kit". TechCrunch. Retrieved 19 March 2023.
  29. ↑ Prescott, Katie (19 January 2023). "Dragon Steven Bartlett launches £100m fund for entrepreneurs". The Times. Retrieved 19 March 2023.
  30. ↑ Hurley, James (3 May 2024). "Steven Bartlett's fund 'kept potential investors in the dark'". The Times. Retrieved 4 December 2024.
  31. ↑ Morris, Lauren (8 March 2022). "Dragons' Den star says BBC sponsorship rule breach was 'genuine oversight'". Radio Times. Retrieved 15 February 2023.
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  33. ↑ Stewart, Rebecca (10 August 2022). "Huel's Podcast Ad Ban Highlights Risks of Host-Read Promos" . Retrieved 4 December 2024.
  34. ↑ "Steven Bartlett Huel and Zoe adverts banned by ASA". BBC News. 14 August 2024. Retrieved 3 December 2024.
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  37. ↑ "Happy Sexy Millionaire: Unexpected Truths about Fulfill…". Goodreads. Retrieved 12 October 2023.
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  39. ↑ "The Diary of a CEO: The 33 Laws of Business and Life". Goodreads. Retrieved 12 October 2023.
  40. ↑ "The British Book Awards". The Bookseller. Retrieved 30 April 2024.
  41. ↑ "The UK's Nibbies: Books of the Year Shortlists". Publishing Perspectives. 8 March 2024. Retrieved 30 April 2024.
  42. ↑ The Secret Teacher (2 June 2018). "Secret Teacher: teaching children without play was soul-destroying". The Guardian.
  43. ↑ "The Secret Teacher: Episode 3: Social media marketing magnate Steven Bartlett goes undercover at a cash-strapped school in Liverpool". Channel 4. Archived from the original on 14 January 2022. Retrieved 14 January 2022.
  44. ↑ "Steven Bartlett net worth, girlfriend and everything else about him in 2022". Unifresher. Retrieved 7 May 2022.
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  46. ↑ Virk, Kameron (20 May 2021). "Dragons' Den: Why new Dragon Steven Bartlett won't be wearing a suit". BBC News . Archived from the original on 19 October 2021. Retrieved 17 October 2021.
  47. ↑ McTaggart, India (7 September 2023). "Watch: Prince William given surprise kiss by Gazza". The Telegraph. Retrieved 8 September 2023.
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