Steven Bartlett’s media and investment company FlightStory has confirmed a seven-figure investment in Hot Smart Rich (HSR), the rapidly expanding female ambition brand founded by Maggie Sellers Reum.
The California-based business, which launched less than a year ago, has grown a substantial online audience by blending candid discussions on money and business with an informal, conversational tone. According to HSR, the platform has already generated more than 1.8 million downloads and attracted roughly 500,000 individual audience members.
The new funding aims to transform HSR into a transatlantic operation, combining content, culture, capital and community. FlightStory said the partnership is expected to help the brand increase both revenue and staffing levels by 10 times, with investment set to support production, marketing, product development, eCommerce and its membership model.
Speaking about her approach, Sellers Reum said: “As you can tell by the name, we just aren’t afraid to go there.” She added that her intention was to create content that felt relatable and familiar. “I started creating content that felt like you were out to dinner with friends – a place to be vulnerable, learn, laugh, cry and most importantly have fun.”
FlightStory said it will begin scaling the company immediately, following the same strategy that helped grow The Diary Of A CEO into one of the world’s most prominent creator-led media brands. Instead of simply expanding the podcast’s audience, the firm plans to build what it describes as a competitive moat by developing HSR into a broader lifestyle and business brand.
The Diary Of A CEO now reaches around 35 million followers, including 14 million YouTube subscribers, and records more than 60 million monthly listens and views. The show surpassed one billion streams in 2024, providing what FlightStory considers a proven model for global scale.
Bartlett said: “Maggie is a trailblazer who has built an incredible platform and taken a completely fresh approach to the culture of business, entrepreneurship and wealth generation unlike anything I’ve seen before.” He continued: “Maggie is not just filling a white space with HSR, she’s disrupting an entire industry.”
