Steven Bartlett is unusual for a number of reasons, namely because he is going to become one of the esteemed Dragons on Dragons’ Den – and he’s just 28.
He’ll be the youngest ever on the show.
But Steven doesn’t hail from a family business empire nor did he go to a top business school like the London School of Economics – rather, he’s a university dropout and attended just a single lecture at Manchester Metropolitan University before bailing on his course.
He founded his business in his bedroom, in the run-down area of Moss Side, and before long he was a multimillionaire.
His social media marketing agency The Social Chain is now worth an estimated £300million and his personal fortune is said to be in the range of about £50million.
Steven said he was living off stolen frozen pizza when he was 18 and working in call centres to bring in extra cash while he got his business off the ground with two pals.
He left The Social Chain in December to pursue other projects including setting up a private equity investment company Catena Capital.
And to add to his hugely impressive resume, he has also penned a Sunday Times bestseller book called Happy Sexy Millionaire: Unexpected Truths about Fulfilment, Love and Success.
Steven was born in Botswana but moved to Manchester with his family, then to Plymouth when he was 12.
His parents did not have much money during his childhood, in fact, they were “bankrupt for 20 years,” he said – but it only served to make him more ambitious.
Speaking on the High Performance podcast last year, Steven said: “When you’re the only black kid in a school of 1500 white kids in the countryside and you’re living in a middle-class area but your house has grass six-foot-high at the back and there’s fridges in the garden and you’re arriving at school in a beat-up horrible car that has the door hanging off of it – the sense of inadequacy that creates.”
An almost inevitable byproduct of being so alarmingly successful at a young age is your personal life suffering somewhat – and with Steven, it’s been no different.
He’s fairly reticent about naming names but he’s the first to admit that his love life has always taken a back seat to business and has not had a relationship last longer than one year.
Steven has admitted his romantic failings have been due to him being “selfish” by not being available from “7 am to 9 pm”.
He also said on his highly successful YouTube channel that he regretted his most recent breakup, with a girl with who he was in a “fantastic relationship” with, because of his “lack of mental focus” and preoccupation with his business interests.
The girl was distraught and Steven admitted: “I honestly do not realise that there’s anyone else outside of my business and rooms I sit in that exists in terms of my personal and private life.
“So if my family or girlfriend text me, or message me during the day, the chances of me engaging in that meaningfully in that period is virtually impossible.”
As recently as February, Steven said he was dating someone but did not reveal their identity.
He said he has been working hard to mend his work-life balance though and now advocates to his fans not to “sacrifice their friends, family and girlfriend”.
So watch this space.
Steven was announced as the new Dragon earlier this month and is set to replace Tej Lalvani.
He will join Deborah Meaden, Peter Jones, Touker Sulleyman and Sara Davis on the BBC show.
Dragons’ Den airs on Thursdays at 8pm on BBC One.
Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
