Steven Bartlett (businessman)

Steven Cliff Bartlett (born 26 August 1992) is an English entrepreneur, investor and podcaster. In 2014, he founded Social Chain, and in 2017, started The Diary of a CEO podcast, which Spotify Wrapped ranked second in its list of most popular podcasts globally in 2025. In 2021, he began appearing as an investor on the BBC One show Dragons' Den. He is the founder of several other ventures, including Flight Story, which consists of FlightStory Studio and FlightStory Fund; Thirdweb; and Steven.com.

Early life

Steven Cliff Bartlett was born on 26 August 1992 in Gaborone, 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. Steven moved with his family to Plymouth, England, at age two. There, 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.

Business career and investment

Wallpark and Social Chain AG

In 2013, Bartlett founded Wallpark, an online messaging board.

In 2014, he co-founded Social Chain, a social media marketing company based in Manchester, along with Dominic McGregor. 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 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.

In November 2021, Social Chain AG moved to the Frankfurt Stock Exchange's prime standard reaching a valuation of $600 million. As of June 30, 2022, Social Chain AG (the holding company) consisted of 64 companies according to its half-year financial report. Bartlett stepped down as CEO in 2020 because he did not agree on the direction of the company. 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 stated 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". Bartlett's original company Social Chain Ltd. (one company within Social Chain AG) was later sold for £7.7m.

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 Story

Flight Story is a media and investment company founded by Bartlett. It comprises Flight Story Studio, a media production company, and Flight Story Fund, a $100 million investment fund. The fund supports founders and high-growth start-ups 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. According to a report in The Times, Flight Fund had received criticism over a lack of transparency regarding its portfolio.

In December 2025, FlightStory announced a seven-figure investment in Hot Smart Rich (HSR), a business founded by podcaster Maggie Sellers Reum.

Stan Store

In May 2025, Bartlett became a co-owner of US technology company Stan Store, a platform designed to help creator entrepreneurs launch and manage online businesses. As of that date, Stan Store reported $30 million in annual recurring revenue and $300 million in gross merchandise value.

Ketone-IQ

In September 2025, Bartlett became a co-owner of US ketone drink company Ketone-IQ. As of that date, Ketone-IQ is distributed nationwide in Target, Sprouts, and other retailers.

Flightcast

In October 2025, Bartlett, together with Roxcodes, a former engineer, announced the launch of Flightcast, a platform for video podcasters to grow their audiences.

Groq

In 2024, Bartlett made a "seven-figure" investment in Groq, an American AI chip startup specializing in Large Language Model (LLM) inference technology. Bartlett stated he was introduced to the company by talent manager Scooter Braun and invested after vetting the technology with AI advisors. On December 24, 2025, it was announced that Groq had entered into a major acquisition deal with Nvidia for $20 billion.

Steven.com

In October 2025, Bartlett closed an eight-figure investment at a $425 million valuation, in his company Steven.com – the creator holding company that owns his creator media assets and creator ventures. The investment round was led by Slow Ventures and Apeiron Investment Group and is believed to be Europe’s largest creator holding company fundraising round. Following the investment round, Bartlett retains majority ownership of more than 90%.

The Diary of a CEO podcast

Bartlett has produced The Diary of a CEO podcast since 2017, in which he interviews guests. By the early 2020s, The Diary of a CEO was one of the world's most listened-to podcasts. In 2023, according to a podcast chart, The Diary of a CEO had the second largest weekly audience in the United Kingdom.

Bartlett has been described as taking a largely apolitical stance on the podcast.

Dragons' Den

Bartlett joined the long-running investment reality television program, Dragons' Den, in 2021. He was one of the five titular "dragon" investors to which aspiring entrepreneurs pitch their ideas/products and at the time the youngest to appear on the show. On the show, Bartlett has invested in companies such as plant-based dog-food brand Omni, matcha energy-drink maker PerfectTed and allergy-response start-up Kitt Medical. In 2024, Bartlett was involved in controversy for investing in "Ear Seeds", an acupuncture product pitched on the program which falsely claimed to be able to cure myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome, a debilitating, chronic condition that is currently considered incurable.

PerfectTed

In March 2023, matcha brand PerfectTed appeared on the BBC programme Dragons' Den and accepted an offer from Steven Bartlett for £25,000 in exchange for 5% equity. Following the broadcast, Bartlett invested an additional £1 million. By 2025, the company was reported as one of the fastest-growing founder-led businesses in the United Kingdom, with a valuation of around £140 million.

Advertising guidelines breaches

The BBC, which currently airs Dragons' Den, reprimanded Bartlett in 2022 for breaching BBC guidelines on advertising after wearing jewellery on the program of a brand he promoted in posts on social media. In a statement, they told the Radio Times: "We have clear guidelines around talents' 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 (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."

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.