Michael Acton Smith

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Michael Acton Smith
Web Summit 2018 - Centre Stage - Day 3, November 8 SD5 9043 (45732813192).jpg
Michael at the Web Summit 2018
Born1974 (age 4950)

Michael Acton Smith OBE (born 1974) is the co-CEO and co-founder of Calm, a meditation space company. [1] He is also the founder of Firebox.com, [2] and founder and chairman of children's entertainment company Mind Candy which the created the video game Moshi Monsters. [3] He has been described by The Daily Telegraph as "a rock star version of Willy Wonka" [4] and by The Independent as "a polite version of Bob Geldof." [5]

Career

In 1998, Acton Smith co-founded online gadget and gift retailer Firebox.com with Tom Boardman. [6]  In 2004, Firebox was listed on The Sunday Times' 'Fast Track 100' list of the fastest growing, privately owned business in the UK. [7]

In 2004, Acton Smith secured $10M backing and launched Mind Candy. [8] The company launched alternate reality game Perplex City, a global treasure hunt with £100,000 buried somewhere in the world that played out across various media including websites, text messages, magazines, live events, skywriting and multiple helicopters. The game was nominated for a BAFTA award in 2006. [9] After three years (and $9M spent) Perplex City was placed on indefinite hold. [5]

In 2007 Acton Smith launched online world Moshi Monsters. In 2013, it had over 90 million users around the world. [10] The online world shut down in 2019. [11] It has expanded offline [12] into selling a range of products including toys, a kids magazine in the UK, [13] a DS video game, [14] a top 5 music album which has gone gold in the UK, [15] books, membership cards, and trading cards. In December 2013, Moshi Monsters teamed with Universal to release a full-length feature movie. [16]

In late 2012 Acton Smith co-founded Calm.com, along with Alex Tew. [17] In 2013 the company announced a $450,000 funding round from a group of Angel investors. [18] By 2015, Calm had reached 2 million downloads worldwide and, after winning a British competition, launched the world's first "slow TV Ad". [19] That same year, Acton Smith released a book with Penguin called Calm: Calm the Mind, Change the World. [20] It was published in 12 countries. [21]

In July 2017, the release of Baa Baa Land , an eight-hour slow cinema film, was announced with Acton Smith as Executive Producer. [22]

Acton Smith is also the founder of Ping Pong Fight Club, [23] Silicon Drinkabout, [24] and the Berwickstock Festival. [25] He was awarded a BAFTA in 2013 for Moshi Monsters [26] and was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2014 New Year Honours for services to the creative industries. [27]

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References

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  2. "Moshi Monsters makes it third time lucky for dotcom entrepreneur Michael Acton Smith". telegraph.co.uk. 30 April 2011. Retrieved 30 April 2011.
  3. "Mind Candy appoints Ian Chambers as new CEO". Licensing.biz. Archived from the original on 12 August 2017. Retrieved 2 February 2016.
  4. "The man who gave birth to Moshi Monsters". Telegraph. 15 July 2011. Retrieved 24 February 2014.
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  7. "Directorzone". www.director-zone.com. Archived from the original on 15 December 2018. Retrieved 13 December 2018.
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  13. "ABC Figures Reveal Moshi Monsters Magazine is the Best Selling Children's Magazine in the UK". Bloomberg. Retrieved 24 February 2014.
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  15. Pakinkis, Tom. "Moshi Monsters album goes Gold – with no promotional airplay". Music Week. Retrieved 24 February 2014.
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  17. "Executives Need to Find Calm in a Stormy World". Forbes.com. Retrieved 30 April 2015.
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  20. Calm: Calm the Mind, Change the World
  21. Ashley Macey (6 February 2016). "This New Journal Will Teach You to Be More Mindful". Brit+Co.
  22. Hanrahan, Mark (19 July 2017). "Is this eight-hour sheep epic 'the dullest movie ever'?". Reuters . Retrieved 24 July 2017.
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  26. Leo Kelion (30 December 2013). "Moshi Monster Founder and ARM's Ex-Boss Honoured". BBC.
  27. "No. 60728". The London Gazette (Supplement). 31 December 2013. p. 14.