Steven Bartlett Announces a $400M Creator Venture with Authentic Brands Group

Steven Bartlett, digital entrepreneur and host of the hit podcast Diary of a CEO, is partnering with Authentic Brands Group (Authentic) to build OBSN, a creator-led business venture. 

Authentic Brands Group, founded and led by billionaire Jamie Salter, is a global brand development, licensing, and entertainment company. It manages intellectual property and brands associated with well-known figures including Muhammad Ali, Elvis Presley, and Marilyn Monroe.

OBSN aims to turn upcoming creator brands into broader companies spanning media, consumer products, licensing, intellectual property, and live experiences. Bartlett says the partners plan to deploy up to $400 million into creator business over the coming years. At its centre is Obsession, a creator-economy media platform that is already live with more than one million Instagram followers. 

Related post: How Steven Bartlett Went From College Dropout to Media Mogul

Bartlett’s Media Empire

Bartlett first gained traction as the co-founder and CEO of Social Chain, a social media marketing and e-commerce company. By building its own massive network of social media communities, Social Chain reached more than 400 million followers at its peak. It worked with major brands including Apple, Amazon, and Coca-Cola. 

After stepping down from Social Chain in 2020, Bartlett pivoted into creating The Diary of a CEO. He originally recorded the show as a DIY audio project from his spare bedroom using a $100 microphone. The show is now Europe’s number one podcast, with more than 19 million YouTube subscribers and over 1.5 billion views on the platform. The college dropout became the first Black Brit whose podcast surpassed one billion total streams across Apple, Spotify, and YouTube.

But his story doesn’t stop there. Bartlett also founded Flight Story, a media and investment company that includes a production studio and a $100 million fund for high-growth startups. Through his fund and personal investments, he has backed over 60 companies, including SpaceX, MrBeast, and Cadence. In 2021, he also co-founded thirdweb, a Web3 software platform backed by Coinbase and Shopify. 

Today, all those businesses are unified under Steven.com, his holding company, which positions itself as an operating system for the creator economy. His team of almost 200 people manages technology, products, media, and communities for the creative sector. In late 2025, the company raised an eight-figure round at a $425 million valuation, led by Slow Ventures and Apeiron Investment Group. 

Now he is scaling even further with Authentic Brands Group. “Our new joint venture OBSN (Obsession) brings together everything we know about building a creator business: audience growth, data, content, and commercialising digital media with what Authentic knows about retail, product, licensing, IP, and global distribution, so a creator has the optimal partner to help them scale their global business,” Bartlett said in a statement. 

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The Authentic Brands Group Strategy 

Before founding Authentic Brands Group, Salter spent nearly three decades in consumer brand management. He came to realize that a brand’s intellectual property (IP) is the most valuable thing one can own. While traditional retailers often went bankrupt due to the operational costs of manufacturing, the brand name still held emotional value among consumers. Knowing this, Salter zeroed in on licensing. 

Authentic does not make clothes, run warehouses, or manage retail inventory. Instead, it buys famous brands and licenses them out to global operating partners and manufacturers. “We’re an asset-light company,” Salter explains to Time. 

One of his first acquisitions was of Marilyn Monroe’s estate in 2011. Her image was largely being used for cheap souvenirs. Salter cut the estate’s roughly 300 licensing deals down to about 80 and repositioned her likeness toward luxury goods. He later struck a deal with Christian Dior to feature her in a campaign for its J’Adore fragrance. Slowly, he began to demonstrate how legacy brands and celebrity likeness could generate massive revenue. 

When a brand was on the brink of bankruptcy, Salter would swoop in and acquire it at a discount. He did this with Brooks Brothers, Forever 21, and Ted Baker. Authentic Brands Group became known for revitalizing failing brands and leveraging their audience to create innovative product lines. 

Currently, its portfolio includes celebrities like Kevin Hart, David Beckham, and Shaquille O’Neal. It also includes brands like Billabong, Juicy Couture, and Aéropostale. Authentic owns more than 50 brands and operates in 150 countries worldwide. Even more, its team of 600 employees manages IP that collectively generates over $38+ billion in annual retail sales. 

Authentic also builds content around the IP it owns. Through Authentic Studios, launched in 2023, it produced Netflix’s Emmy-nominated documentary: Beckham, and HBO’s series on Shaquille O’Neal. It also controls the rights to Netflix’s animated show: Agent Elvis, based on Elvis Presley’s likeness. A documentary on Allen Iverson and a scripted series on Muhammad Ali are in production. 

Authentic Brands Group is the world’s second-largest licensing company, and its next biggest expansion is into the creator economy. 

Related post: Steven Bartlett Lands 8-Figure Deal to Build the “Disney of the Creator Economy”

Backing the Creator Economy 

According to Schwarzwald Capital, the creator economy is projected to reach $528 billion by 2030. This potential didn’t emerge overnight. With social media, digital creators have built audiences of hundreds of millions. They have scaled production beyond bedrooms and now function as whole media organizations. Unlike legacy media outlets that have steadily been losing viewership, individual creators are building massive audiences based on trust and community. 

OBSN (obsession) wants to help creators monetize their following by scaling into consumer products, live events, and licensing IP. Instead of acquiring established brands, Authentic is taking a more hands-on role in developing creator-led businesses. 

“The best brands are built with vision, conviction, and obsession,” Salter wrote on Instagram.

With Bartlett’s expertise in marketing and building his own massively successful, creator-led venture and Authentic’s manufacturing, distribution, and management capabilities, they make an ideal pair. The future of media is in the hands of content creators, from YouTubers to podcasters; OBSN is here to help them scale. 

Main image: Steven Bartlett graphic created by UrbanGeekz.