Building obsession: Steven Bartlett and Hong Kong’s rising tech founders on people, purpose and the power behind innovation

The morning began with a fireside chat titled “From tech visionary to media trailblazer: Keep Up with Steven Bartlett in entrepreneurship”, moderated by Tatler Asia president Tamara Lamunière. Bartlett—who has founded and invested in more than 60 companies through his private office—explained that he spends more time building the “factory”, or the company’s culture, people and strategy, than the “car”, which is the product, borrowing an analogy from American billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk.

This philosophy is why he dedicates half of his time to recruitment: he believes this enables him to hire a world-class team that aligns with his company’s culture. “The game of value creation is about assembling super-intelligent, incredibly talented people and binding them in a culture that gets the best out of them and setting them a mission that’s worthwhile,” he said.

For start-ups to stand out in today’s crowded market, many founders are devoting time to authentic online storytelling and branding—whether for their company or themselves—to build credibility and trust. The most common mistake, Bartlett said, is inconsistency. Regular output—such as a LinkedIn post celebrating milestones or a video explaining product features—creates opportunities to gather feedback, improve and scale. That feedback, especially around whether content captures attention, can be gleaned by studying analytics over time. For example, “If you want to be a YouTuber, it’s actually really, really simple. I’m not smart in any way. What I’ve done is I’ve just done it a lot,” he said. “When I do something, I do it with obsession. And when I say obsession, I mean extreme obsession.”

However, Bartlett cautioned founders against over-reliance on tech. For instance, he said one of his most effective learning methods is to read about a subject, simplify it and write out those refined notes. He believes that replacing that process with AI outsources critical thinking and dulls the mind. “Your mind, your muscles, [you name it]: if you don’t use it, it atrophies because the body doesn’t want to commit resources to it. So the same will happen with your brain.”

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Following the fireside chat, Lamunière moderated a panel featuring Bartlett and two founders empowered by HKSTP: health tech entrepreneur Kenny Oktavius, co-founder of PointFit Technology, which is developing a skin-patch sensor that tracks biomarkers in sweat for real-time health insights; and Daniel Lo, founder of GoGoChart, a global Apple partner that recently launched Persona Flow AI, an AI-powered engine that supports businesses in expanding their reach on social media.

“What motivates me today is knowing that if an advanced non-invasive biomarker monitoring technology isn’t available, lives will be lost,” said Oktavius, whose goal is to make his innovations affordable and accessible, even in remote areas with limited medical resources. Lo, meanwhile, reflected on his own path of perseverance: “When one door closes, another opens. We canvassed businesses around Hong Kong and finally convinced our first customer.” That breakthrough marked GoGoChart’s turning point—today, the company has supported more than 2,000 clients globally. 

Bartlett, in contrast, revealed he doesn’t have a single driving force. “I set myself things to strive for that I find interesting and fulfilling, and that make me obsessed,” he said. “What makes people motivated, engaged and fulfilled over a long period of time is actually the striving itself. It’s actually just having a gap between where you are and where you want to be.”

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Bartlett’s advice for first-time founders like Oktavius was blunt: “Expect to have horrific days.” Sharing his own experiences—such as when his company lost all its clients to a cyber-attack—he urged them to focus on what they can control and to see setbacks not as personal failings, but as “the price of entry”. He reiterated the importance and priority of hiring the best people even when they are a CEO for the first time: “The majority of the game is won upstream with your ability to get truly exceptional people.”

The morning concluded with a networking session that brought together founders shaping the innovation scene in Hong Kong, a city at the centre of what Global Innovation Index calls the world’s leading innovation cluster, the Shenzhen–Hong Kong–Guangzhou corridor. They exchanged ideas and formed new partnerships to strengthen their ventures further, reinforcing the city’s status as an I&T Powerhouse.

Discover HKSTP’s network of innovators and stay ahead in the future of innovation and technology here. To date, it has nurtured a thriving ecosystem comprising more than 25,000 creative minds and 2,500 technology companies, and has powered the success of 13 unicorns. 

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