As the youngest Dragon on Dragons’ Den and the host of the Diary Of A CEO podcast, Steven Bartlett is used to making headlines.
However, it’s been a bad month for the 32-year-old, who has seen adverts for brands Huel and Zoe – which he appeared in – banned after the Advertising Standards Authority said they were misleading due to his failure to disclose that he is an investor/director in the brands.
Last week The New Statesman described him as a ‘door-to-door salesman flogging not a product, but a way of being – a used car dealer for the soul’.
Tuesday’s BusinessCloud investigation prompted a flurry of comments from readers about whether Bartlett is a business genius or a shameless bluffer.
It’s clear that he has his critics and his fans. We’ve included a selection of quotes below.
Amazing job
Investor Tony Bolland, founding partner of Most Excellent Ventures, said: “I think he’s done an amazing job with Diary Of A CEO and time will tell how good an investor he’s been – I suspect very good.
“The listed Social Chain AG has proved to be a massive failure, evaporating shareholder value to pretty much zero.”
2.5-year wait to see podcast
Pete Casson is the co-founder and chief technology officer of Manchester-based tech firm Collctiv. He said he’s been waiting two-and-a-half years to watch the hit podcast being recorded following a competition.
‘Hid in the toilet’
Elizabeth Clark, co-founder and CEO at Dream Agility, claimed: “It’s interesting what so many journalists have said privately about him are now coming out. I think there was a feeling he was a bit untouchable at one point, but it looks like that train has now departed.
“My experiences of him have not been positive. He held an entire conference up, hiding in the toilets, because he didn’t want to come on stage due to the crowd not being big enough for his liking.
“When he was eventually lured out the loo he abruptly finished his session prematurely and jumped off stage. I was left padding for him while the organisers got the next speaker ready.”
Absolutely cringe
Chris Ashton-Green, founder and CEO, Regit.cars, said: “I totally respect what he has achieved especially from a young age. But for someone who built himself up on authenticity (his favourite word) there is now nothing authentic about him at all.
“I took some of my younger staff to watch him at his ‘live ‘ life story in Manchester and it was absolutely cringe. Gospel singers singing at him under a ray of light like he was God. Two of my staff left actually!
“I unfollowed him from all his channels after that as I was sick to death of the same quotes and messages from him on a daily basis. He’s having his time and good luck to him, but his days are numbered as his audience gets older.
“I think we are seeing that now. As for his podcast, it started off great – but some of the guests and the messages they were pushing just became laughable.”
Deserves respect
Jo Sheerin, senior director at Alvarez & Marsal, said: “Love him or not, you have to respect what he has achieved – he has produced some amazing podcast episodes too.”
Damage is done
Pete Connor, director, Pure Fabs, said: “I started to doubt his word after trying Huel. The promises do not live up to the hype. Got to be one of the worst meal ‘alternatives’ / healthy products with flavour that I have ever tried.
“But that is subjective, so only my opinion, and there appear to be more positive reviews than negative – or is that because people don’t like or can’t be bothered to post about buying something and not liking it? However, the ‘free’ T Shirt is very good quality!
“But the damage, for me, is done: if I listen to his podcast, it’s not because of him, but because I’m interested in the person he is interviewing. I’d still listen to the interview, if someone else was doing the interviewing – unless it was Piers Morgan.”
‘If it’s a bluff, it’s a heck of a bluff’
Author and keynote speaker Dan Sodergren said: “I met him more than a decade ago and said he would become the Tony Robbins of his generation….. kinda called it.
“But I definitely called it wrong when they first started Social Chain as I believed it wasn’t even a marketing agency (as it was unlike anything like it at the time) and it was all bluff.
“They went on to be wildly successful and so have many of the founding few of the agency. If Steven is all bluff, it’s a heck of a bluff.”
He’s no Steve Jobs
Paul Smith OBE, founder of boutique consultancy Prepare to Land, said: “Anyone who says they ‘always wear black because it’s one less decision to make’ are a) deluding themselves in believing they hold a candle to Steve Jobs, and b) have missed the point of life. It’s like saying they only ever listen to the same album because God forbid they’re inspired to have any new or original thoughts.”
‘I’d have a pint with him’
Andrew Stanton, CEO of Proptech-PR, said: “To me he seems fine. He is just using the Dale Carnegie cookie cutter mould – position next to great people and ask what they are up to. It has been used countless times – and social media gives him a large voice.
“I do find that he is bland and there is little depth, but as an interviewer rather than interviewee that is the seat he is in. His value is that he tells stories, which is probably your point. Would I have a pint with him? Yes. Does he work hard? For sure.”
‘Poor man’s Simon Sinek’
Oliver Thornton, portfolio finance director, The FD & CFO Centre, said: “He does have this cult-like status amongst his followers but I’ve always felt the emperor has no clothes.
“Watching him trying to school the way savvier and way richer Dragons was just wincing. For me his sayings are manufactured trite – basically a poor man’s Simon Sinek. I may not be a fan.”
Why do we knock success?
Steven Cobley said: “We like to knock successful people in this country, don’t we? If we delved into the beginnings of many successful careers, I’m sure we’d find some bluffing. I was never under any doubt that he had an interest in Huel and others when watching his podcasts.
“Like many successful people he has his flaws but with Diary Of A CEO, Dragons’ Den and a Samsung TV channel, it’s difficult to knock what he’s doing now.”
Brilliant self-publicist
Craig Richardson, director, PHD Industrial Holdings, said: “It’s hard to knock what he has achieved – but at the same time hard not to knock him. He’s clearly a very, very good self-publicist. In life that gets you a long way.”
He isn’t a liar
Andrew Allsop said: “I’ve read three Steven Bartlett shakedown pieces in the last few days and none of them really have any substance.
“What I think: He bends the truth to his benefit but isn’t a liar. He wasn’t a director of the entity that sold for $600m, he dramatises his past (makes the average university experience sound like living in a trap house) and glosses over things that don’t fit his brand, e.g. being a consultant at Bebo whilst he was skint.
“What I know from people he worked with: He’s a decent person. I don’t think he does anything any other person who had a brand to nurture does and there’s nothing wrong with faking it until you make it. The Zoe/Huel thing isn’t a controversy in the slightest. There’s far worse going on in the business world.”
Not impressed
Celia Gaze, founder and CEO of The Wellbeing Farm in Lancashire, wasn’t impressed. “I went to his show in Manchester and met him – very limp handshake so first impressions were bad,” she claimed. “There was sadly nothing revolutionary about his show – regurgitated content which I’ve heard before elsewhere.
“If you’re new to business you’ll be impressed with Steven but anyone else you just think it’s taken from elsewhere. Even his podcast doesn’t have many CEO’s on it these days. I think there are other more inspirational people to follow being honest.”
‘Why did he think he’d get away with it?’ Bartlett slammed over banned Huel, Zoe ads
- Steven Bartlett was approached by BusinessCloud for a comment.
He recalled: “Back on May 31st 2022 I attended an Enterprise Nation webinar about how to turn ideas into action and Steven Bartlett was the guest speaker.
“Having listened to the Diary Of A CEO from its inception, I was looking forward to it. At the end of the webinar he held a competition where if you could guess the number he was thinking of between 1-500 then you would win a trip to go see the DOAC recorded live. You can see in the video I managed to guess the correct number of 333. I was super excited to have the chance to go see Steven and the team and see how the podcast was actually produced.”
Despite various email exchanges, he still hasn’t managed to claim his prize – although he wasn’t able to attend one session because the trains were cancelled. “If you’re reading this, Steven Bartlett, then it would be great to come and watch DOAC,” he said. “If not, no hard feelings and all the best.”