Meet Steven out of the UK is co-owning the biggest social media agency in Europe worth 200 million and yet he is still a student at heart.
Pretty much being a student is how his business empire has even come to be in the first place. Steven Bartlett the millenial millionaire started his internet journey just few years ago but first, here his backstory.
Being a Manchester boy it has always been Steve’s long sought dream to become big in business. Well as the traditional formal education has not proved to promise that it still became a campus inspiration. It was exactly the student life and constant movement and communicating that inspired his very first project Wallpark. A startup meant for students to collaborate and all things in between.
“I moved to Manchester to enroll on a Business Management course at Manchester Metropolitan University, but that didn’t last long with the business vision I had on the side. I wanted to create a social media-assisted platform based on common interests and university life, designed to connect students in the same city. I envisioned it as a place where students from the same cities could connect, to share anything from advertising an event to selling old textbooks; a Gumtree for students. So with that in mind, I dropped out of university to focus my energy on Wallpark.
Fast forward a few good pieces of time and effort later and it was not until he met his current partner. Exactly meeting the co owner of their now burgeoning Social Chain Dominic McGregor was the turning point.
“Whilst working to grow Wallpark, one of the main things I learnt more about was the behavior of young people on social media, on Twitter in particular. During this time I stumbled upon a Twitter page aimed at students run by a student at Edinburgh University; his name was Dominic McGregor. Dom was posting extremely funny and relatable student content that in turn attracted thousands of followers. I saw the opportunity to use these platforms to connect a brand with its audience. If there was a way to weave a brand’s message seamlessly into the page, and engagement and following wouldn’t suffer, I wanted to create it. I got in touch with Dom and shared my vision, and soon enough he ended up ditching his studies too. Together we set up Social Chain.”
But still how does one simply go from creating a smaller project to being the biggest social media agency in Europe? After all, now they boast the likes of Apple and Microsoft among multiple other brands and artists as their respective clients. Having the right mindset according to Steven:
“If I were to write a letter to myself at the beginning of my business journey, the first thing I’d say is that you’re right to feel how you feel. You’re right to believe that there is another way that isn’t just following the conventional path society tries to make you go down. You are capable of achieving the things you want to achieve, no matter how much your parents or peers might try to convince you otherwise.”
After founding what is the most respected on approaching millenials and understanding them Steven has a few pieces of advice for newcomers:
“Believe in yourself. Self-confidence is the key to taking charge of your life and making the necessary changes to achieve greater success. Self-doubt is often one of the biggest things that holds people back from taking that next step in their career or starting their own business, so it’s so important that you think positively and work on gaining that confidence in order to keep moving forward. Do not undervalue yourself. Understand your worth, and demand more than you think you’re worth.”
