Steven Bartlett

Steven Bartlett's Bebo trick: make people Google the app, not click a link

Bartlett bought up large parody Twitter accounts and refused to run trackable link ads. Instead he seeded a brand (Bebo) as a casual mention across many accounts so people would see it repeatedly, wonder what it was, and go search it themselves.

“He's like, No, that's not how people talk on the internet. I was like, okay, so tell me, what do you mean? He's like, you got to think, what you want to do is we have so many accounts that we want somebody, when they scroll on Twitter, they see Bebo mentioned like 7 times and that nobody's explaining it. Nobody's selling it to them. They just realize, why is everyone saying this thing Bebo? What is that? And then they go Google it or they go search for it”

Steal thisSeed a brand as an unexplained casual mention across many accounts so people search it themselves instead of clicking an ad.

The Social Chain founder who invented a fake soccer star to prove he runs the internet

Shaan tells the story of his former intern Steve, who built Social Chain into a public company. On stage at marketing conferences, Steve would announce a made-up teenage soccer signing, have his network of meme accounts post about him, and 30 minutes later show the fake player trending #1 on Twitter and picked up by real news outlets, proving his accounts 'run the internet.'

“This guy put a picture on the screen, and it was like this soccer player, and he's like, This guy's name is whatever, like Manny Abyou. Manny Abyou just got picked up by Liverpool. He's the youngest guy ever to get picked up by Liverpool. His contract's €77 million.”

Steve Bartlett bought theme accounts for $1K and built a fortune

Sam tells how Steve Bartlett, a former 20-year-old shit employee, built tens of millions by buying non-personality Instagram/Twitter theme accounts (like 'I Love Food' with 6-7M followers) from teenagers for ~$1,000, aggregating them, and selling reach to brands like Spotify.

“And he was figuring— he figured out pretty early, wow, the people who run these accounts with a million, million followers, it's an 18-year-old kid, and I can offer them $1,000 and I can get the account. And he's just, you know, doing affiliate links for protein powder. But if I aggregate all these, I can go sell this to Spotify as a great way to reach the masses, and I can control these.”

Steal thisAggregate cheap theme accounts with zero personality risk and sell the combined reach to brands.

If your payback period is one month, there's no risk

Sam argues Bartlett's account-buying scheme carried little risk because he made his money back within a month. Once you've recouped your cost, even if the asset vanishes you still come out ahead, so payback period defines the risk, not the platform.

“He was making his— if you're making your money back in one month, then there's no risk. It can go away and you still like, you still end up ahead. So it's all about what is the payback period on the thing?”

Steal thisJudge risky bets by payback period: if you recoup in a month, the downside is capped.