Analysis Of Steven Bartlett As A Picturesque Display Of A Modern-Day Entrepreneur

Social Chain is a revolutionary start-up based in Manchester, London, Berlin and New York City. They are known by many for the ability to create viral trends on social media within seconds of launching the campaign. Social Chain operates by marketing directly to the end consumer, without any marketing intermediary.

Steven Bartlett is a 26-year-old entrepreneur. Born on August 26, 1992 in Botswana. Bartlett’s life changed drastically at the age of 18. He was always driven to create something. At this age, he decided to drop out of Manchester University after the very first lecture. Dropping out of University is a topic much discussed in nowadays society. When looking at the big successful entrepreneurs (Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg), they all have one thing in common: they dropped out of University. This is an issue which Buenstorf et. al. (2017) also discuss in their paper. Their study focused on the Danish entrepreneurship sector and found no significant difference in the entrepreneurship levels between university dropouts and graduates. So no, to be a successful entrepreneur, one doesn’t have to drop out of university.

Perhaps when looking at Bartlett’s case though, it becomes apparent why a lot of the very successful entrepreneurs do in fact fall in to that category though. Bartlett had a vision, and he would let nothing stop him to achieve it. He had an idea and decided to commit all his resources to this idea. This is also in line with one of the findings of the Buenstorf et. al. (2017) article: often the reason for dropping out of university is the desire to become an entrepreneur. In that sense dropping out of university is in no way a reason for entrepreneurship, it is more a by-product of it in some cases. Bartlett’s mom decided to not speak with him for 18 months, as she was so cross he threw away the opportunity to receive tertiary education. This caused Steven Bartlett to be completely on his own. This meaning without the support of his family, but also without the necessary financial support. Bartlett basically only had one choice: to succeed. He was living in a very cheap accommodation a little outside Manchester and said his diet for 9 months during which he built Wallpark consisted solely of ready meal oats and water. He was using a Laptop which was literally held together by a piece of string, which if it moved out of position, he would have to spend something between 30 minutes and an hour fixing. So basically, he had absolutely nothing to rely on, but his belief and drive that he would achieve something great.

In this particular case, the entrepreneur Steven Bartlett was driven by both external and intrinsic motivation. Bartlett has said of himself: “I never have an exact plan of what is going to happen, I take the things I know at that exact moment in time, reduce them to their simplest form, and work with them from there”. This quote is in accordance with a theory of Sarasvathy (2012). An effectual entrepreneur is someone who starts with flexible goals and focuses on doing the doable while contingencies (surprises) become resources to be leveraged rather than distractions to be avoided, they see new positive possibilities in most contingencies. Given the same luck, some people learn to transform it into a learning experience that helps strengthen their relationships with others, while others simply quit. This principle as described by Sarasvathy (2012) is called “The Lemonade Principle”. Bartlett demonstrated the ability to turn lemons in to lemonade many times throughout his career, starting with his very first business: Wallpark.

Steven Bartlett’s first project was a platform called Wallpark. Wallpark acts as a digital noticeboard for students, companies, professors, and anyone else with a stake in the university network. Bartlett explained, that one night he realized he was only relying on a network of very little students to tell him which events where happening when, which places were hiring etc. Upon this realization he decided to create a platform for the student body to connect, widening his network of information from 10- 100, 000 people. A crucial part in today’s entrepreneurial ecosystems are universities. Although Bartlett himself would no longer be part of the campus ecosystem, he created a platform to further connect it. With the help of Wallpark, students would be more interconnected, be more aware of opportunities to meet like-minded people, and therefore consolidate the entrepreneurial ecosystem as a campus. It took Bartlett more or less 5 days to go from being a student in his first Business lecture, to becoming a full-time entrepreneur. Bartlett spotted and opportunity and decided to exploit it. What becomes apparent, is that Bartlett has a very special set of skills.

Next to a determined mindset and perseverance, he also possesses the skill to narrow needs and wants of customers and investors down to a very basic level and to continuously change and evolve, as his customers evolve. Mooradian et. al (2016) found in their research, that two very basic characteristics of entrepreneurs have influence on their success and drive for innovation. These two traits are “consistency of interest” and “perseverance of effort”. Perseverance of effort is a trait Bartlett certainly demonstrates, he described himself as a “workhorse”. Consistency of interest however, are not necessarily part of Bartlett’s character. As can be seen throughout his career, he always quickly adapted, and was not afraid to pull the plunge on ideas if he noticed they weren’t going to lead anywhere. Mooradian et. al (2016) found that perseverance of effort had a positive impact on innovation and performance, whilst consistency of interests only had a positive correlation with performance and a negative correlation with innovation. This seems to be very fitting with Bartlett’s character, as innovation is certainly part of his biggest strength.

Innovation can be observed in the way Bartlett approached investors for Wallpark. He thought about the best way of standing out and making sure his pitch was heard and not just marked as read on someone’s inbox. He decided to use an unusual approach to gain the attention of investors. He decided to send out handwritten letters, which included a personal touch (e. g. if he knew the investor was a Manchester United fan, he would include something related to that), and put them in to big golden envelopes. Thereby he made sure, that he would catch the investors initial attention and that the investor would also remember him content wise. Marketing Wallpark was a difficult birth. Bartlett used flyers, noticeboards, posed in universities as a student to promote his business, the result was underwhelming. Meanwhile a student named Dom McGregor had set up a page called “Student Problems”, in which he posted relatable content to do with the daily struggles of university life. The page very quickly gained a huge follower base. Bartlett became aware of this and contacted McGregor. They met up and cut a deal to use “Student Problems” to market Wallpark. The result of this campaign was a huge traffic boost for Wallpark, as “Student Problems” spoke directly to the target audience, by giving them a solution to the problems. The story of social chain exemplifies the skills and mindset a modern-day serial entrepreneur should display. Bartlett realized that using a marketing intermediary such as Wallpark was a misallocation of resources. Instead of getting people to use Wallpark and to then get them to use a particular service or product via ads on the website, the goods and services should be marketed directly to the consumers.

Bartlett recognized that something could be changed to make online-marketing even more effective. This lead him directly back to his initial campaign he rolled out for Wallpark in collaboration with student problems. He decided to create a social media marketing agency, which uses memes, hashtags, trends and direct relationships with users to market their client’s products. Bartlett was able to use his cognitive reasoning in combination with his social intelligence, which he possessed and developed throughout his career to spot and enact an opportunity, much in line with the theory of Vaghely, I. P. , & Julien (2010) about opportunity recognition and creation. Social chain uses a variety of popular social media accounts (e. g. Student problems, Sporf, Love travel) to market their clients good or service directly to the consumer. The pages they use are sources of entertainment, and the ads they produce alike. What makes this start-up so special, is not just the way they go about business, but also the workspace atmosphere they have created. Along with puppies running around, a bar that serves alcohol all day, a ball park, and creative lunchbreaks, social chain requires their employees to come up with very creative ways in delivering their resume, should they wish to work for them. Steve Bartlett mentioned in one of his vlogs, that one time someone even trained an owl to fly through his window and deliver a resume on a USB drive. In that sense, it can be applied to any entrepreneurial and corporate venture. When inspecting the case of Steve Bartlett and social chain, one can detect high levels of creativity in the initial stages of the business from Bartlett’s side (coming up with “Wallpark” as well as the idea of marketing directly to consumers through social media channels). However, not all entrepreneurs possess the same level of creativity when conducting their business.

Entrepreneurs are often seen as this never-ending source of creative ideas, which will eventually lead to business success. Amabile and Khaire (2008) call this phenomenon the “lone inventor myth”. One of the major skills of a successful entrepreneur, or any executive for that matter, is to recognize that many of times, productive creativity is bottom up emergent. Amabile and Khaire (2008) provide a five-level framework to foster intrinsic drive in an organization. Providing intellectual challenge, allow people to pursue their passions, be an appreciative audience, embrace the certainty of failure, and provide a setting for good work. All of these levels are demonstrated by the entrepreneur of this case, which is a skill that can set a business up for success. The Picture above shows an impression of the office spaces in Manchester. Seeing this, it comes as no surprise, that most social chain employees are still in their 20’s. Bartlett had described himself as a social media native. He said that most social media marketing agencies have employees who are taught and trained at social media, whilst his employees grew up with social media. The employees of social chain know exactly what their target audience reacts to, because they are part of it. Bartlett also mentioned that no one has ever actually left social chain, simply because they don’t want to. Bartlett’s leadership style, the environment he has created, the competencies he brings and teaches, along with the connection workers feel with the firm has fostered growth and performance. All of these factors stand for internal success when looking at social chain as a model of multidimensional growth.

Social chain is by all means an entrepreneurial venture, which may have set sails for other firms to follow. Marketing via intermediaries on social media is a misallocation of resources in most cases. Building a relationship with the customers, requires more than just providing value in terms of the goods and services, it requires understanding what the customer responds to, and to connect with them on a deeper level. And as mentioned previously, to maintain that relationship, firms have to be able and willing to change and grow, as the customer changes and grows. Social chain has opted to do so and is coming up with new ways to further improve their strategies day-by-day, making it a very good example of an entrepreneurial venture.

In conclusion, Bartlett seems to be a picturesque display of a modern-day entrepreneur. He possesses a wide range of skills such as perseverance, leadership, creativity and willingness to accept change, which is common for an entrepreneur rather than an exceptional display of a particular skill. More importantly, Bartlett has managed to evolve throughout his career, always questioning convention, and finding gaps to fill. The sheer willingness to change, adapt, be alert and enact on opportunities isn’t enough to actually spot new opportunities and exploit them to their full potential. The whole process is mediated by cognitive properties, which in Bartlett’s case facilitate the process of discovery, rather than mitigate it.