Steven Bartlett doesn’t follow the rules, he rewrites them. While most podcasters chase big-money deals with media giants, the 32-year-old founder of The Diary of a CEO walked away from a $100 million offer. Why? Because he believes no one can grow his empire better than he can.
On a typical Monday morning in London’s Shoreditch in March, Bartlett records an episode that will later rack up 3.6 million YouTube views. The debate, featuring economist Gary Stevenson and entrepreneur Daniel Priestly, is fiery, but the real magic happens behind the scenes. Every detail, from the dramatic thumbnail to the click-worthy title, is engineered for virality, according to Forbes.
“I’ve not met a single podcast network, company, media conglomerate in the world that can help you grow your podcast using the modern platforms in the way that we can,” Bartlett said. The numbers back him up: 1 billion streams, 50 million monthly listeners in December, and $20 million in revenue last year from sponsors like Shopify and LinkedIn.
Most creators would jump at a nine-figure deal. Not Bartlett. Last October, he flew to New York to meet with media titans to discuss potential partnerships but left unimpressed. Forbes estimates that “$100 million contracts were in play.” But he turned everything down.
“We looked at what they did in terms of testing, experimentation, innovation, and I felt like I was looking at the past,” said Bartlett. “When I see what happens here, I’m looking at the future.”
His confidence comes from years of obsession with data. When he started the podcast in 2017, he was a nobody in the social media world. So he A/B tested everything; keywords, thumbnails, even his facial expressions. His breakthrough came in 2023 with an episode featuring ex-Google exec Mo Gawdat. Apple named it the most-shared podcast of the year.
“That episode taught me that the most important thing in podcasting isn’t actually the amount of followers someone has or how famous they are. It’s ultimately about the value that it gives, because people will share it.”
Bartlett’s hunger stems from his past. Born in Botswana to a Nigerian mother and British father, he grew up as an outsider in the English countryside. He recounted being the “Black kid, the poor kid.” Entrepreneurship became his escape. He dropped out of university to launch Wallpark, a student forum, then built Social Chain into a $200 million company by age 26.
Now, following the above achievements including investments in SpaceX and a role on Dragon’s Den, he could easily coast. But the podcast, once a “little hobby”, has become his obsession.
“I asked myself: ‘Because now I have the money and I can do what I want with my life—what would I do?’” said Bartlett. “The answer was loud and clear in my brain—‘that little podcast thing you started.’”
For Bartlett, $100 million isn’t the prize, it’s the price of his freedom. And that’s a bet he’s willing to take.
