London, July 10th 2024: Steven Bartlett (BBC Dragon’s Den, Diary of a CEO podcast host) today announces his investment in Chapter 2 to maximise and modernise the current outsourced recruitment model – reflecting the true hiring needs of today’s and tomorrow’s businesses. 

Chapter 2 is a disruptive recruitment tech and talent agency that builds and designs scalable talent solutions to deliver better results and cost savings for clients, faster. Combining the pace and flexibility of ​an agency with the cultural understanding ​of an in-house team, Chapter 2’s model is delivered via their 3 key pillars; People, Process and Technology – each tailored to every client’s specific needs. Having the likes of John Lewis and Bumble on their client roster, Chapter 2 has driven impressive growth to date (248% CAGR).
Passionate about expanding global brands and embedding the right talent where it matters, Leo Harrison founded Chapter 2 pre-covid, in 2020, to solve a problem that he had experienced increasingly in his former role as COO at OLIVER Agency – that of costly talent acquisition, and an industry not fit for purpose. Steven Bartlett’s recognition of this wider problem led to his decision to invest in Chapter 2, identifying the company as a pioneer within the space.

“The definition of the word ‘Company’ is “group of people”. Hiring a great group of people is the single, most important, fundamental objective of any company that has the potential to be great. I’ve spent years trying to build a talent solution that would allow my companies and I, to find, attract and recruit the world’s best talent. 

The issue I’ve found is; that typical recruitment companies are expensive, have misaligned incentives and don’t understand our company’s culture. Then I discovered Chapter 2, a company designed to fix all of this, led by Leo who is one of the best entrepreneurs I’ve ever met. 

I knew we had to join forces to power my company’s talent needs; Flight Group, but also to help high potential companies all over the world to meet their talent needs.”

Steven Bartlett

Based in the United Kingdom, United States, South Africa, India and Germany, with a global reach, Chapter 2 will join Steven Bartlett’s business ecosystem, with the aim of keeping its clients at the forefront of the changing digital media landscape. The teams will combine expertise to build a future-proof recruitment platform and accelerate the pace of growth for the best businesses worldwide.

“I genuinely believe that the recruitment and talent acquisition space is slow, expensive and ripe for disruption. Attracting and retaining the top 0.1% is harder than ever in a saturated market. As the Global COO of OLIVER Agency, our biggest challenge was retaining the culture and quality we had built while scaling our team, at pace, globally. I quickly realised this was due to the recruitment industry simply not being fit for purpose, and why I founded Chapter 2.

With Steven’s collaboration, Chapter 2 will amplify our reach for our business and our clients. Together we can ensure Chapter 2 provides our current and prospective clients with a first-class talent solution that delivers results.”

Leo Harrison, founder and CEO of Chapter 2

Hardest Geezer: Becoming the First Person to Run the Entire Length of Africa will be released on 24th October 2024 in hardback, audio and ebook. In partnership with Steven Bartlett, Ebury Publishing Director Charlotte Hardman acquired world rights directly from the author. 

Worthing-born Russ Cook became the first person to run the full length of Africa in an ultra-marathon that covered over 10,000 miles (the equivalent of 386 marathons), travelling through 16 countries from South Africa to Tunisia and taking 352 days. Along the way, Russ was the victim of an attempted kidnap, held at knifepoint in an armed robbery and refused passage through Algeria, but kept running every day. He made his way through sandstorms in the Sahara, over mountain ranges and through rainforests and during the course of the challenge, which he completed on 7th April 2024, he raised over £1 million for charity. 

The relationship between Steven and Russ began when just one week into his Africa challenge, Russ’ journey started gaining more traction across social media and his latest updates appeared on Steven’s feed. Steven started to explore the profile of the endurance athlete where he discovered Russ’ unbelievable past achievements including a record-breaking fastest car-pulling marathon, burying himself alive for 7 days and streaming it, as well as an endurance run through Asia.  Impressed, Steven immediately wanted to learn more and planned to reach out to him but soon discovered Russ had actually already messaged him asking for his support. Following a series of messages as Russ was tackling the first leg of his Africa run, a true bond was cemented between the two. Russ’ African expedition was thrown into jeopardy when a series of set-backs compromised his financial position and threatened the remainder of this record breaking challenge, Steven made introductions that provided Russ and his team with the much-needed sponsorship from brands including Perfect Ted and Huel to complete the mission. Upon his return, Steven invited Russ as a guest on Diary Of A CEO to share his story in a world first. This next venture together will enable  Russ’ incredible story from deep depression to record-breaking challenges to reach global audiences faster than ever through this new publishing venture.  

In Hardest Geezer Russ will share his life story, including his motivation to take on such extreme challenges. Woven through the anecdotes of his adventures he offers inspirational lessons on endurance, survival and motivation. 

Steven Bartlett comments: “The world watched in awe as Russ conquered Africa in an epic run earlier this year. But Russ isn’t one to stay still. Today, he’s launching his debut book, Hardest Geezer, published under my brand new venture, Flight Books. This book goes beyond the miles – it’s a deep dive into his untold stories, a testament to his epic grit, unwavering determination, and the immense heart he carries with him, even beyond the road. This book is a powerful testament to human potential, and I know readers will be as deeply connected to his story as I have been.” 

Russ Cook says: “So much happened to me on my journey through Africa that I’ve never spoken about before. I’m really thrilled that Ebury and Steven have given me the opportunity to tell my story and explain to everyone what running the length of Africa was really like. And I’m buzzing to be able to share my book with the hundreds of thousands of people who have supported me on the way.”Ebury Publishing Director Charlotte Hardman says: “I find Russ’s achievements astonishing, but perhaps more astonishing is his down-to-earth, anything-is-possible attitude. Everyone at Ebury was captivated by his challenge to run the length of Africa and cheered him on all the way, so we are absolutely delighted that we are lucky enough to publish his brilliantly inspiring and motivational memoir this autumn.”

For further information contact Patsy O’Neill PONeill@penguinrandomhouse.co.uk

Flight Group and Steven Bartlett Press Enquiries: rachel.hardy@ragency.com

• Ebury is  launching a publishing venture in partnership with Steven Bartlett.
• Steven Bartlett is an Entrepreneur, Speaker, Investor, Best Selling Author, Founder of Flight Group and the Host of Europe’s No.1 podcast ‘The Diary Of A CEO’. Ebury is the home of non-fiction at Penguin Random House UK, and winner of Publisher of the Year at the 2024 British Book Awards. 
• Ebury published Steven’s The Diary Of A CEO: 33 Rules of Business and Life in August 2023, becoming the UK’s fastest-selling personal development book since records began, and so far has spent 23 weeks on the Sunday Times Bestseller list. 
• The new imprint, Flight Books, is a collaboration between Ebury and Steven Bartlett’s Flight Group. The imprint will launch with the memoir of high-performance endurance athlete and a recent hit DOAC podcast guest Russ Cook, known as Hardest Geezer, who will tell the story of becoming the first person to run the length of Africa. This will be followed by the first book from Codie Sanchez, founder and CEO of Contrarian Thinking, a financial advice enterprise, who has an audience of 7 million subscribers. Codie’s book Main Street Millionaire: How to Make Extraordinary Wealth Buying Ordinary Businesses will publish on 5^th December 2024. 

Flight has also acquired the next two books from relationships expert, Married at First Sight and Celebs Go Dating presenter and author Paul C. Brunson, with the first, Keep Love, set to publish February 2025. Along with books from DrTara Swart and Global Head of Human Performance and Principal Scientist at WHOOP Kristen Holmes.

Steven Bartlett comments: “This new imprint, Flight Books, is dedicated to empowering extraordinary voices on a global scale. We want to leverage our experience in compelling storytelling to create a global platform for groundbreaking narratives and inspirational stories. Our authors and their impactful tales have the power to inspire, educate, and ultimately, shape a better tomorrow. With our ai-powered, data first, growth focused strategy together with cutting edge social media marketing, data-science and testing capability, we will enable great authors and their books to get the credit and reach they deserve.” 

Joel Rickett adds: “Steven is the ultimate connector and talent-spotter, and we’re loving the way he’s discovering potential authors to build the list. The opportunity is to approach the whole publishing journey in a fresh way, working with Steven and his Flight team to use data and insight to help shape the books, and then find untapped audiences for them. We can’t wait to see where this Flight story takes us all.”

Launch video asset: insert link for publications to post. 

More detail will be shared on the imprint in the coming months.

For all media enquiries please contact LNicol@penguinrandomhouse.co.uk

Flight Group and Steven Bartlett Press Enquiries: rachel.hardy@ragency.com

10th April 2024, LONDON: Steven Bartlett, entrepreneur and host of Apple’s #1 podcast of 2023 and the 2nd largest podcast on YouTube, ‘The Diary Of A CEO (DOAC)’, today announces the launch of Flight Studio a global podcast media and technology company. The new company is working across every component of the podcast development, creation, growth and monetisation process – and is aiming to redefine the industry.

Flight Studio’s podcast and media growth platform is the culmination of the last three years of Bartlett’s and the team’s rigorous approach to experimentation and innovation, resulting in the creation of one of the world’s largest and fastest growing podcast brands, The Diary Of A CEO. 

DOAC has had nearly 400M million views to date on YouTube, its audience on Spotify grew by 94% in 2023 and each episode has an audience of 2M+. DOAC is forecasted to hit 10M+ YouTube subscribers by December 2024, a predicted 100%+ CAGR. Flight Studio’s growth platform is focused on creating podcast brands that contribute to a happier, healthier, whole human experience. Providing a global audience for category-leading experts across a variety of content verticals.

At launch, the first podcasters joining Flight Studio include;

• Davina McCall, one of the UK’s most loved and trusted broadcasters and authors.
• Paul C Brunson, a global leader in relationship science, author and broadcaster. A DOAC guest on two occasions, Paul has amassed over 3M views and some of the highest engagement data to date.
• Dr Tara Swart, MD, neuroscientist, advisor and author whose DOAC episode has +11M views to date – the highest performing guest of all time.
• Africa Brooke, author, consultant, coach and international speaker whose DOAC episode had one of the biggest impacts across social metrics after its release.
• Kristen Holmes, Global Head of Human Performance and Principal Scientist at WHOOP.
• The Diary Of A CEO will sign exclusively to Flight Studio, DOAC now has over 5.5million YouTube subscribers and over 350 million views.

These new, video-first podcast brands will be scaled on the Flight Studio platform via proprietary data and experimentation methodology, across the end to end podcast process: from production to audience growth, to distribution and omni-channel optimisation. The company and platform has a unified approach on integrating leading-edge AI technology in every aspect of this process, including audio translation into multiple languages – as seen on DOAC from late 2023. 

Flight Studio will maximise the IP expansion for these new podcast brands; with a product, ecommerce, live events, publishing and rights team in place. The company has created an innovative commercial offering that will include multi-platform brand partnerships and equity opportunities via Flight Fund, the $100M Fund powered by Steven and some of the world’s most successful entrepreneurs. 

Alongside Steven Bartlett, Flight Studio will be led and co-founded by Georgie Holt, Acast’s former Regional Managing Director for the Americas, and former US Head of Sales and Brand Partnerships, Christiana Brenton. Georgie and Christiana will be combining their years of global podcast and media expertise with the existing DOAC team to accelerate the company’s ambitions. 

Flight Studio will have global production studios based in London, Manchester, New York, Boston and Los Angeles and will announce more details on these outstanding new show launches and more talent joining in the coming months. 

Steven Bartlett, Chairman and Founder of Flight Studio, says: “I truly believe that we have every core component ready to redefine the global podcasting industry with this new company. We have done this in our own tiny way already with the Diary of a CEO, but I’m haunted by the potential that we see to scale this globally, for the people and the voices who will change the world.” Georgie Holt, co-founder and CEO of Flight Studio: “Our ambition is to create the most valuable podcast brands and technology in the world at Flight Studio, we see that “value” as being measured by the opportunity to be able scale shows that make a positive impact in people’s lives on a global scale as fast as possible. To be able to do this with Steven, Christiana, our Flight Studio talent and the DOAC team is incredible. I believe we are about to collectively achieve something very special.“

Christiana Brenton, co-founder and Chief Commercial Officer of Flight Studio: “The launch of Flight Studio comes with the most compelling proposition to our partners in the entire podcast industry spanning video, social, live events, product and IP expansion. The DOAC team has become infamous for their relentless pursuit of scientific experimentation for 1% gains, a methodology we’re scaling across Flight Studio Commercials and one that enables us to deliver the most effective media partnerships in the world. I am beyond excited to be on this journey with Steven, Georgie, our new roster of phenomenal podcasters and the most talented team I’ve had the privilege to become a part of.”

The new book from the Dragons’ Den star comes out tomorrow (31st August) and includes highlights such as ‘You must sweat the small stuff’ and ‘You must be an inconsistent leader’. Regarding another point that he raises in the book, ‘You must lean in to bizarre behaviour’, Steven told Chris: “The world is changing at an ever-increasing rate.”

He explained: “What I’ve noticed over time, and when I looked at some of the stats from Ray Kurzweil – he’s one of the world’s leading futurists – is the rate of change in the world is only accelerating. He predicts that if you’re ten today, by the time you’re 60, you’ll experience a year’s change in 11 days. In the 21st Century we’ll experience 20,000 years of change. 

“So, if you’re a kid, or if you’re trying to give advice to your kid, what do you say to them? What book is going to stand the test of that accelerating change? What we need is a different attitude towards change, which is what I call ‘leaning in’. 

Steven, who is the host of Europe’s No.1 podcast, The Diary Of A CEO, continued: “In my life, across one decade now, there’s been two tectonic shifts. The first for me was social media, and I built a business in that industry because I leant in. When it sounded confusing and strange, and there was pessimism, I leant in and built a company there. 

“We don’t lean in because of dissonance, this psychological feeling of friction, when something new conflicts with what we know about the world or our identity. So what we tend to do to resolve that dissonance, that cognitive friction, is to lean out and dismiss the thing. So you hear AI coming, and because of the friction that will cause you, instead of just holding the dissonance, which is holding two conflicting ideas, the human brain has to dismiss the thing causing the friction.

“The issue with that is, when innovation comes, it always creates dissonance. And we’re seeing that now with AI. We saw it with the internet. I remember watching the videos of people trying to explain the internet, the pessimism and the dismissal of it. We saw it when the iPhone was created and the CEO of Microsoft laughed on air, and said, ‘a £500, £600 mobile phone? They have no chance’. 

He added: “He’s no longer at Microsoft.”

In 2020, Steven was included in the Forbes 30 Under 30 list. Speaking more about the idea of leaning in, he told Chris: “In the last two years, I’ve experienced a huge amount of dissonance when this thing called blockchain technology came out, people selling these monkey pictures on the internet for six figures. What I did, because of principles, not because of how I felt, was I leant in. And that led to a company called thirdweb, we raised $31 million. The company has 50 employees in San Francisco, it’s valued at hundreds of millions of dollars in our last investment raise. And because I lent into that dissonance, that feeling that something bizarre was happening, I was able to build companies. That’s what we should be telling our kids, it’s a mindset towards change we’ll need for the 21st and 22nd century, when change is going to be at lightning speed.”

During his chat with Chris, Steven also spoke about why he put a £13,000 blue slide in his office before he had even bought any desks, and about why Richard Branson doing “absurd things” was good for Virgin. Read more here.

What makes our business unique isn’t our brand, our business model or our product – although they’re all pretty cool! – it’s our mission. We exist to help healthcare and wellness professionals unleash their full potential so that they can better save and change lives.  

What’s handy about having such a clear purpose is that it makes making decisions easier, whether that’s deciding on what services we build through to which brands we partner with.  In those moments we just ask ourselves a simple question – will this help our members deliver a better service or grow their business?

If the answer is yes then we do it. If it’s no then we don’t.  Easy.

So when the opportunity for Steven Bartlett to join the team came up we asked ourselves the same question (spoiler alert, the answer was yes!). But to explain why, we need to go back to our first meeting with Steven.

Whilst it was a little bit unnerving that we met him in the room where he films his hugely successful ‘Diary of a CEO’ podcast, sitting around the table where he’s interviewed some of the most famous people in business and wellness; it was how he talked about what motivates him that ultimately sealed the deal.

He explained that his dual passions were entrepreneurship and wellness and that, as we help the UKs best wellness professionals grow thriving businesses, UNTIL was the perfect platform for him to leverage both. He’s also driven and inspired by our mission and keen to help us rebalance the industry by putting power and choice back into the hands of wellness professionals.

But I think he sums it up best when he says:

“I’m extremely proud to be joining UNTIL as Marketing Co-founder and being part of a business that will change the health and wellness landscape forever.  Supercharged by the pandemic, this industry is booming – the demand for training, treatment, and coaching has never been higher. Yet the health and wellness market is broken. UNTIL is the necessary disruptive solution to an industry built on unfairness and has the potential to move this industry forward in a progressive way that champions the practitioners themselves.”

And that’s the nub of this. Ultimately it isn’t about commercial value, although that matters as it gives us more clout to better support professionals, it’s about the value it brings to our members. We deeply believe that having Steven’s brain working on our business and access to his extensive network will allow us to build a more powerful growth platform for our members.

Whether that’s using his expertise to turbo charge our business growth tools, access to partnerships with leading brands or just being able to get priority access to his ‘Diary of a CEO’ live events, this partnership will allow us to offer our members things we couldn’t even have dreamed of previously.

So, in short, we think this is a powerful opportunity for UNTIL and our members.  But we also feel the weight of the responsibility on delivering on that promise.  

The work is only just starting.

BBC Studios has released first-look pictures of business moguls Gary Neville and Emma Grede as they join Dragons’ Den as the first ever Guest Dragons. They’ll be sitting alongside Den heavyweights Peter Jones, Deborah Meaden, Touker Suleyman, Sara Davies, and Steven Bartlett in series 21 of the BBC One primetime show.

Ready to invest in businesses of the future, the Dragons are pictured inside the Den, with the striking backdrop of the Manchester skyline at dusk.

Gary and Emma will feature in special Guest Dragon episodes in series 21 of the show, which is set to air on BBC One next year.

Gary says: “It’s a pleasure to join the Dragons as a guest for the new series and see some of the amazing pitches from budding entrepreneurs from different walks of life. It was a privilege to share my knowledge and guidance with the brave entrepreneurs who entered the Den, but you’ll have to wait and see whether I committed to any investments!”

Emma says: “Being back in the UK and joining this series as a Guest Dragon has been amazing and feels very full circle to me. Being able to share my own knowledge from the business I’ve built with the entrepreneurs is so important, there’s a lot of major talent in this upcoming series, and I hope it inspires the next generation to create opportunities for themselves.”

Samantha Davies, Executive Producer, BBC Studios, says: “In our 21st series it’s hugely exciting to bring a fresh, new dynamic to the Den in the form of Guest Dragons. Gary and Emma are both masters in their fields and it’ll be fantastic to see their different styles and perspectives in the business world. But our existing Dragons aren’t just going to sit back and let them snap up all the best deals, so viewers can expect all the usual competitiveness and sass in the Den.”

Sarah Clay, Commissioning Editor at the BBC says: “Viewers have a lot to look forward to in the 21st series with the first ever Guest Dragons, a new set of bold entrepreneurs and as always, the five formidable Dragons. It is great to see how highly popular with audiences the show remains, with each new season bringing inspiration and surprises.”

The current series of Dragons’ Den is available to watch on BBC iPlayer here.

Dragons’ Den is commissioned for BBC One and BBC iPlayer by Kalpna Patel-Knight, Head of Entertainment Commissioning, the Commissioning editor for BBC Entertainment is Sarah Clay. The programme is produced by BBC Studios Factual Entertainment base in Glasgow led by Creative Director Adeline Ramage Rooney. The Executive Producer is Samantha Davies and the Series Producer is Natalie Richardson.

Dragons’ Den will return for series 21 in 2024.

His course, The 16 Steps To Start And Scale A Multi-Million Pound Business, will provide insights into the mindset of successful entrepreneurs and explore the key stages to building a business. Steven will share essential strategies for securing investment, developing a personal brand, leading high-performing teams, and driving disruptive innovation.

“I AM INCREDIBLY EXCITED TO ANNOUNCE MY PARTNERSHIP WITH BBC MAESTRO, THROUGH WHICH I HAVE THE PRIVILEGE OF SHARING EVERYTHING I HAVE ACCUMULATED THROUGHOUT MY CAREER ABOUT LEADERSHIP. PEOPLE ARE THE MOST IMPORTANT PART OF YOUR BUSINESS; AFTER ALL, THE VERY DEFINITION OF THE WORD ‘COMPANY’ MEANS A GROUP OF INDIVIDUALS. THEREFORE, NURTURING THE PEOPLE WHO CONTRIBUTE TO WHAT YOUR BUSINESS IS TODAY HAS NEVER BEEN MORE CRUCIAL FOR SUCCESS!”

Steven Bartlett

Across his lessons, Steven will share the key principles of effective leadership, exploring the power of communication, vision, empathy, and mental resilience. Viewers will learn how to start and grow their business, whilst balancing the well-being of both themselves and their team. Practical exercises and examples shared throughout the course will demonstrate how to apply learnings to real-world scenarios.

“This course is designed not only to motivate but also to empower all of you to gain a deep understanding of what it takes to become a successful leader in today’s society. I firmly believe that by implementing these changes, you will be able to alter the trajectory of your business significantly. I can’t wait to witness the results!”