Steven Bartlett is about to take a seat as an investor on the American Shark Tank. The host of the Diary of a CEO podcast announced that he will join the eighteenth series of the show on ABC as a guest investor. “This was a dream of mine and my mum’s… let me explain,” he wrote alongside the announcement.
The guest investor line-up
This year’s series adds Jimmy Donaldson, better known as MrBeast, alongside Bartlett, together with Jeffrey Housenbold, chief executive of his holding company Beast Industries. The line-up also includes actress and producer Mindy Kaling, former NFL player J.J. Watt, and sisters Erin and Sara Foster, founders of the brand Favorite Daughter.
The permanent panel comprises Barbara Corcoran, Robert Herjavec, Lori Greiner, Daymond John, Daniel Lubetzky and Kevin O’Leary, while Kendra Scott and Rashaun Williams this year moved up to become permanent members. The eighteenth series will run in the autumn on ABC’s Wednesday schedule, and the day after, streaming service Hulu will offer it. Bartlett is set to appear in the opening episode.
From Dragons’ Den to Shark Tank
Bartlett is thirty-three years old and has sat on the British version of the show, Dragons’ Den, since 2022. The move to American television follows the growing share of his time spent in the United States around his company Steven.com. After last year’s investment running into tens of millions, that company reached a valuation of about $425 million, or roughly £320 million. Under it fall his older brands, including FlightStory and Diary of a CEO itself.
Creators on both sides of the table
A programme that for years defined the image of the founder as a hero is now placing creators among those who distribute capital. Bartlett and Donaldson both built their audiences on their own channels, outside the corporate hierarchy.
The very people whose businesses talent agencies are trying to acquire now decide which founder gets the money. This year the agency CAA set up a company backed by a quarter of a billion dollars that is meant to buy creators’ businesses outright. Shark Tank takes the same logic a step further and puts the audience’s trust in creators directly into the investor’s chair.
For a brand weighing creator partnerships in Europe, this is a signal about where credibility is building up. Bartlett built his career on a podcast and a personal brand, and it was precisely that which seated him beside investors who had built their fortunes over decades.
A format that turned founders’ pitches into a television genre now places creators with their own audiences at its centre.
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