Background and career
Steven Cliff Bartlett (born 26 August 1992) is a British businessman, investor, and podcaster who is the host of The Diary of a CEO podcast since 2017. Bartlett began his business career by founding Social Chain. In 2021, he began appearing as an investor on the BBC One show Dragons' Den. He is the founder of FlightStory Studio, FlightStory Fund, Thirdweb, and Steven.com.
Steven Cliff Bartlett was born on 26 August 1992 in Gaborone, Botswana to an English father and a Nigerian mother. 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.
In 2013, Bartlett founded Wallpark, an online messaging board. In 2014, he and Dominic McGregor co-founded Social Chain, a social media marketing company based in Manchester. In 2019, Social Chain merged with Lumaland (an online retailer) to become Social Chain AG. In 2019, the Financial Times reported that Bartlett and Wanja Oberhof would jointly manage Social Chain AG. In 2020 Bartlett and McGregor left the company. Bartlett stepped down as CEO in 2020 because he did not agree on the direction of the company. In July 2023, Social Chain AG filed for insolvency proceedings under self-administration. The insolvency proceedings in self-administration were opened by the Charlottenburg Local Court on 1 October 2023, leading to the liquidation of its remaining assets, including the sale of its largest e-commerce subsidiary, DS Group, back to its existing shareholders in November 2023. 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, and was no longer affiliated with the company for at least 15 months. Later, Bartlett founded Thirdweb, a Web3 startup. In August 2022, the company raised $24 million in a Series A funding round at a valuation of $160 million. In 2023, Bartlett founded FlightStory. It comprises FlightStory Studio, a media production company and FlightStory Fund, an investment fund. The fund supports founders and high-growth start-ups in blockchain, biotech, health, commerce, technology, and space sectors. According to a report in The Times, Flight Fund had received criticism over a lack of transparency regarding its portfolio. In December 2025, Flight Story announced a seven-figure investment in Hot Smart Rich (HSR), a business founded by podcaster Maggie Sellers Reum. 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. In September 2025, Bartlett became a co-owner of US ketone drink company Ketone-IQ. In October 2025, Bartlett's company, Steven.com, which holds his creator media assets and creator-focused ventures, closed an eight-figure investment round, and was described in media reports as the largest fundraising round by a European creator holding company. Following the investment, Bartlett retained an ownership stake of more than 90% in the company.
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 considered ambiently listenable fluff. 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. Bartlett has received significant criticism for promoting pseudoscience and amplifying dangerous health-related claims to his podcast and video audience, including stating that a ketogenic diet can treat cancer, or that Covid was an "engineered weapon". The BBC World Service performed an investigation wherein 15 of Bartlett's health-focused podcasts were analyzed; the results of this investigation found that each episode included approximately 14 dangerous health claims contrary to scientific evidence. He has been criticised for having alternative medicine-related guests on his podcast whose assertions are not backed by, or contradict, scientific evidence, and having other guests who promote medical misinformation without the claims being consistently challenged by Bartlett.
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 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 expanding founder-led businesses in the United Kingdom, with a valuation of around £140 million. In 2024, Bartlett was criticised 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. The BBC later added a disclaimer in the episode, stating the "Ear Seeds" were not intended as a cure, and medical guidance should be followed.
In 2019, he featured in the Channel 4 series The Secret Teacher, going undercover at a school near Liverpool as a teacher. In 2020, he created the private equity company Catena Capital.
