Steven Bartlett (businessman)

Steven Cliff Bartlett[7] was born on 26 August 1992[8] in Botswana to an English father and a Nigerian mother.[9] His mother left school aged seven and could not read or write; his father is a structural engineer.[10] He moved to Plymouth, England at the age of two, where he grew up, attending a secondary school, Plymstock School, and a sixth form.[11][12] He went to study at Manchester Metropolitan University, but dropped out after one lecture.[12][13]

In 2013, Bartlett founded Wallpark.[13]

In 2014, Bartlett co-founded Social Chain, a social media marketing company based in Manchester, UK, with Dominic McGregor.[3][14]

In 2017, he created a podcast series called The Diary of a CEO, which has gained popularity in the United Kingdom.[15] Bartlett's claims in his podcast have brought scrutiny, with James Marriott of The Telegraph describing him as "a businessman in the tradition of Donald Trump: better at building media hype than actual companies".[16]

In 2019, Social Chain and German online retailer Lumaland merged to become The Social Chain AG, listing on XETRA and the Düsseldorf Stock Exchange.[14] The listing valued the business at over $200 million.[17] Bartlett's website initially claimed that he took Social Chain public at age 27, before leaving the company after it reached a valuation of $600 million. These claims were subsequently retracted after The Times reported that Bartlett had left the business more than a year before the floatation, and was not named in its prospectus.[18] In February 2023, Social Chain was acquired by Brave Bison for an initial consideration of £7.7 million.[19]

In 2019, he featured in the Channel 4 series The Secret Teacher,[20] going undercover at a school near Liverpool as a teacher.[21]

In December 2020, he created a private equity company called Catena Capital,[22] then joined the board of directors of Huel, a £72 million food replacement company.[23] Bartlett, joins the nutrition company as a non-executive director.[2] In May 2021, it was confirmed that Bartlett, aged 28, would be the youngest-ever investor on the long-running BBC show Dragons' Den.[24]

In 2022, Chloe Bowen writing in Cosmopolitan reported that Bartlett's Diary of a CEO podcast was receiving "a mixed reaction from listeners" after Bartlett had critiqued Gen Z work ethic, with Bartlett saying that "I fear that when I'm hiring people that are in that generation I almost need to go to an extra length to check that they can cope with a high intensity culture where demands might come on a Saturday".[25]

In 2023 Steven Bartlett accompanied Prince William on Royal visits in Bournemouth after being announced as an advocate of his foundation homewards.[26]

In 2021, Bartlett released his debut book, Happy Sexy Millionaire,[33] which was a Sunday Times bestseller.[34]

In 2023, Bartlett released his second book, The Diary of a CEO: The 33 Laws of Business and Life,[35] where he recollects the knowledge gained through the podcast of the same name and condenses it into a published print version. In a review of his 2023 book, The Diary of a CEO: The 33 Laws of Business and Life, Private Eye described Bartlett as "the king of self-mythologisation", summarised the book as "a grisly minestrone of every other management book you’ve even read", and concluded that "His real business, clearly, is Brand Bartlett".[36]

In 2018, the digital marketing community Econsultancy named him "The most influential figure in the industry."[11] 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.[37] Bartlett is regularly booked for public speaking engagements.[17]

• Official website