The story of entrepreneurship is being rewritten. The internet has empowered individuals with unprecedented reach and influence, turning them into trusted voices and community leaders of like-minded audiences. At the same time, technology has erased the barriers to building at scale. Together, these shifts have unlocked a new class of founder: one who begins with trust, distribution, and a shared narrative, then layers on products and technology that best serve their community.
This evolution sits at the heart of our Slow Creator Fund — and is why I couldn’t be more excited to announce our investment in Steven Bartlett, one of the most prolific creator-entrepreneurs laying the blueprint for this very model. This funding will help Steven and team shape the future of media and build a constellation of technology and consumer ventures.
Steven is the creator and host of Diary Of A CEO (DOAC), the world’s second-largest interview podcast with more than 13 million subscribers. His curiosity, authenticity, and relentless pursuit of growth have made him one of the most influential voices in modern entrepreneurship and personal development. Through Diary of a CEO, his Behind the Diary channel, and constant speaking engagements and live events, he’s cultivated a deeply loyal community committed to building a happier, more expansive and successful life by applying lessons from the world’s most accomplished figures.
While Steven is larger and more scaled than our typical early-stage creator investment, we share the same belief that entrepreneurship is changing before our eyes. Individuals now have the tools, trust, and distribution to operate at a scale and speed that allows them to compete head on with institutions. He exemplifies what we believe the next generation of creator companies will look like: diversified media and company ventures rooted in authority, authenticity, and community with a specific and shared mission. With data-driven execution and a world-class team, Steven is building a category-defining franchise.
Our investment in Steven’s holding company, Steven.com, brings his creator and media assets, ventures, and technology together under one roof. This funding accelerates Steven’s development of world-class creator IP and creator commerce ecosystems, and helps scale his media and venture operations globally.
Below is an abridged investment memo outlining why we decided to back Steven and his team on this journey. We couldn’t be more grateful and excited to be along for the ride!
— Megan
Creator
Steven is both a proven operator and a first-rate creator. He spent six years building his first company to a multi-hundred-million-dollar valuation before creating one of the largest media platforms in the world, reaching tens of millions of subscribers. He has demonstrated an exceptional ability to leverage his media platform to inspire audiences, accelerate his ventures, and secure preferential deal terms for his investments. Beyond hosting The Diary of a CEO, Steven travels globally to meet guests while simultaneously scaling his media enterprise — launching spin-off shows, incubating companies, authoring books, and more. He has built a world-class team, including a dedicated “Failure Team” focused solely on rapid experimentation and new product testing — a unique structure that institutionalizes innovation inside a creator-led company.
Community
Steven’s content centers on business, entrepreneurship, and personal growth, featuring long-form conversations with founders, CEOs, and cultural thinkers to explore not just what they know but how they became who they are. Through these conversations, he has cultivated an intensely loyal, intellectually curious community united by a shared drive for self-improvement and progress. His flagship show, The Diary of a CEO, is now the world’s second-largest interview podcast, with more than 13 million YouTube subscribers and 70 million monthly views/downloads. The show surpassed one billion total streams across all platforms by late 2024 and, as of October 2025, exceeded one billion YouTube views alone. It remains the #1 podcast in the UK and Europe, adding roughly 600K new YouTube subscribers each month and achieving a 500% compound annual growth rate — making it one of the fastest-growing media properties globally.
Category / Market
Steven sits at the intersection of modern media, entrepreneurship, and personal growth. His platforms attract an audience of affluent and aspirational professionals, founders, and creators — a demographic highly attractive to sponsors and advertisers. Data from this high-signal audience also fuels Steven’s incubation efforts, enabling him to identify trends and launch new B2B and B2C ventures with built-in demand. For example, he recently launched FlightCast, a podcast hosting platform built for video that simplifies distribution and analytics across platforms (Steven uses this technology for his own video podcasts). Together, these initiatives position Steven as both a leading voice and an infrastructure builder in the fast-expanding creator economy.
Business Diligence
Steven’s business is comprised of three complementary pillars: a global media franchise monetized through sponsorships and partnerships, reaching tens of millions across multiple shows and platforms, an incubation arm that builds and launches new B2B and B2C businesses informed by insights from his audience and own entrepreneurship experience, and an investment fund with more than 40 portfolio companies including SpaceX, Whoop, and Lovable. These pillars create a powerful flywheel where audience insights from the media ecosystem inform business incubation and investment decisions – compounding both impact and system-wide enterprise value over time.