Steven Bartlett is best known for his podcast The Diary of a CEO, and for being the youngest member on the Dragon’s Den panel.
Although Bartlett doesn’t come near the richest person in the world, his accumulated wealth is impressive – especially since he reached millionaire status in his mid-twenties.
While there is no exact figure on his current net worth, previous reports from Forbes claim his net worth was around £71 million when he was 26 (he’s now 32). With the entrepreneur’s investments and his podcast flying on charts worldwide, we expect this figure to have grown significantly.
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Find out how Bartlett uses his business acumen and personality as his recipe for success.
Who is Steven Bartlett?
Steven Bartlett is a jack of many trades – but much of his success is down to his personal branding. It’s very fitting for someone who started out in the marketing world. As a result, the entrepreneur made the Forbes 30 Under 30 list in 2020 and has impressed as a speaker on Ted Talks and at the United Nations.
Bartlett was born in Botswana in 1992 and moved to Plymouth, England, at the age of two. In 2010, he went to Manchester Metropolitan University but dropped out in the first year, as he decided to work on his business idea. His first venture, launched in 2013, was an online messaging board for students called Wallpark. It allowed them to share events and sell textbooks on the site.
A year later, Bartlett co-founded the marketing agency Social Chain with Dominic McGregor, at the age of 22. The agency pulled in global brands, from Apple and KFC to McDonalds. By the age of 23, Bartlett reached millionaire status. In 2019, Social Chain was publicly listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange, after merging with German online retailer Lumaland AG. That company, ‘The Social Chain AG’ listed with a market valuation of more than $200 million, according to Forbes. In 2020, Bartlett, aged 27, stepped down as co-CEO of Social Chain AG.
Fast forward to 2023, and media group Brave Bison acquired The Social Chain AG in a £7.7 million deal, although it’s not certain if Bartlett made anything from this buyout. Bartlett has said the decision to move away from Social Chain was to make room for other ventures – one of which being his successful podcast, The Diary of a CEO.
How Steven Bartlett started The Diary of a CEO
In the midst of heading up Social Chain, Bartlett aired the first episode of The Diary of a CEO. He says on his site that it was just a “one-off experiment”, but now, the podcast is renowned for having inspirational guests on the show, talking about their careers, self-improvement journeys and relationships. Bartlett’s guests this year have included Boris Johnson, Gary Neville, Simon Cowell and Michael Bublé. As of 8 January, DOAC has 8.96 million subscribers.
The Diary of a CEO continues to hit the number-one spot on Spotify’s UK podcast charts. In November 2024, it reached one billion listens and streams across Apple, Spotify and YouTube. It was the first UK-produced show to hit the milestone. Back in 2021, Bartlett said that he makes $1.2 million from his podcast.
Bartlett leveraged the brand and released a book in 2023, called The Diary of a CEO: The 33 Laws of Business and Life. The book went on to become a No. 1 Sunday Times bestseller. According to the BBC, the entrepreneur also partnered with the Prison Service so that his book could be given to inmates, to educate and inspire them. Prior to this, in 2021, the entrepreneur released his first book called Happy Sexy Millionaire, which was also a Sunday Times bestseller.
The podcast has had its fair share of controversy, however. A recent investigation by the BBC World Service found that Bartlett’s podcast was amplifying health misinformation, which could put cancer patients at risk. The analysis of 15 health-related podcast episodes discovered that each contained around 14 harmful claims that were not scientifically approved, such as guests promoting a keto diet as a form of cancer treatment.
A spokesperson for Flight Studio, Bartlett’s production company, told MoneyWeek: “The Diary Of A CEO (DOAC), is an open-minded, long-form conversation with world leaders, global experts, CEOs, athletes, authors, actors, and other individuals identified for their distinguished and eminent career and/or consequential life experience.
“Each guest episode is thoroughly researched prior to commission. DOAC offers guests freedom of expression and believes that progress, growth and learning comes from hearing a range of voices, not just those Steven and the DOAC team necessarily agree with.
“The BBC claims to have reviewed 15 specific episodes of nearly 400 published to date. For any reporting of DOAC to focus on less than 4% of episodes with an extremely limited proportion of guests - some of whom have featured on the BBC - to create a broader, and in our opinion, partial narrative is disappointing, misleading and frankly, disingenuous.”
What does Steven Bartlett invest in?
After stepping down from Social Chain, Bartlett moved into the world of investments in 2021.
He co-founded and launched a software platform called Thirdweb with Furqan Rydhan, which aids entrepreneurs in building and managing web3 apps. The platform is backed by Coinbase and Shopify. According to Private Equity Wire, Thirdweb was valued at $160 million in 2022, and within nine months, 55,000 users took advantage of the platform’s tools. As a result, Thirdweb was generating revenue of more than $1.5 million each week. But the fund has come under criticism by one crowdfunding forum, The Times reported, stating that it hasn’t been transparent with investors.
In the same year, Bartlett launched and co-founded a marketing investment company called Flight Group. It backs and invests in innovative companies. Within Flight Group sit three separate entities – Flight Fund (that invests in biotech, blockchain, technology, health and wellbeing, commerce and space), Flight Story (a marketing company) and Flight Studio, which was created to follow on from the success of Bartlett’s The Diary of a CEO, and will create more podcasts.
Steven Bartlett on Dragons’ Den
Bartlett became the youngest-ever “dragon” to join the BBC’s Dragons’ Den panel in 2021. He was just 28 when he sat alongside Peter Jones, Sara Davies and Deborah Meaden. According to the BBC, Bartlett has pledged nearly £2 million to invest ‘in the Den’.
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