Michael Acton Smith

Last updated

Michael Acton Smith
Web Summit 2018 - Centre Stage - Day 3, November 8 SD5 9043 (45732813192).jpg
Acton Smith in 2018
Born (1974-09-03) 3 September 1974 (age 50)
Alma mater Birmingham University
Occupation(s)Co-founder and co-CEO of Calm
Known forFounding Moshi Monsters

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

Contents

Education

Acton Smith attended Sir William Borlase's Grammar School in Marlow, Buckinghamshire. In 1996, he graduated from Birmingham University with a degree in geography. [1]

Career

Acton Smith joined the human resources department at Goldman Sachs after graduating in 1996. [1] In 1998, he 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. [1]

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]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peter Thiel</span> American entrepreneur and venture capitalist (born 1967)

Peter Andreas Thiel is an American entrepreneur, venture capitalist, and political activist. A co-founder of PayPal, Palantir Technologies, and Founders Fund, he was the first outside investor in Facebook. As of July 2024, Thiel had an estimated net worth of US$11.2 billion and was ranked 212th on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Evan Williams (Internet entrepreneur)</span> American technology entrepreneur

Evan Clark "Ev" Williams is an American billionaire technology entrepreneur. He is a co-founder of Twitter, and was its CEO from 2008 to 2010, and a member of its board from 2007 to 2019. He founded Blogger and Medium. In 2014, he co-founded the venture capital firm Obvious Ventures. As of February 2022, his net worth is estimated at US$2.1 billion.

Perplex City was an alternate reality game (ARG) created by Mind Candy, a London-based developer in 2005. Adrian Hon was the producer, designer and director of the game's first and only completed season, in which players searched for "The Receda Cube", an artifact of spiritual significance to the inhabitants of a fictional metropolis known as "Perplex City" which had great scientific value. In the game, "The Cube" had been stolen and buried somewhere on Earth.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jason Calacanis</span> American businessman

Jason McCabe Calacanis is an American Internet entrepreneur, angel investor, author and podcaster.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Caterina Fake</span> American entrepreneur and businesswoman (born 1969)

Caterina Fake is an American entrepreneur and businesswoman. She co-founded the websites Flickr in 2004 and Hunch in 2007. Fake has been a trustee for nonprofit organizations and was the chairwoman of Etsy. For her role in creating Flickr, Fake was listed in Time magazine's Time 100, and she has been recognized within Silicon Valley for her work as an angel investor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Reid Hoffman</span> American internet entrepreneur (born 1967)

Reid Garrett Hoffman is an American internet entrepreneur, venture capitalist, podcaster, and author. Hoffman is the co-founder and executive chairman of LinkedIn, a business-oriented social network used primarily for professional networking. He is also chairman of venture capital firm Village Global and a co-founder of Inflection AI.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ben Way</span>

Ben Way is a serial entrepreneur and best selling author best known for his appearance on Secret Millionaire, The Startup Kids and as a cast member on Start-Ups: Silicon Valley, he started his first company at the age of 15. He went on to raise £25 million in his teens making him one of the first dot com millionaires.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Moxie Marlinspike</span> American entrepreneur

Matthew Rosenfeld, better known by the pseudonym Moxie Marlinspike, is an American entrepreneur, cryptographer, and computer security researcher. Marlinspike is the creator of Signal, co-founder of the Signal Technology Foundation, and served as the first CEO of Signal Messenger LLC. He is also a co-author of the Signal Protocol encryption used by Signal, WhatsApp, Google Messages, Facebook Messenger, and Skype.

<i>Moshi Monsters</i> 2008 childrens video game

Moshi Monsters was a British children's web browser massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) aimed at children aged 6–12, with over 80 million registered users in 150 territories worldwide. Users could choose from one of six virtual pet monsters they could create, name and nurture. Once their pet had been customized, players could navigate their way around Monstro City, take daily puzzle challenges to earn 'Rox', play games, personalize their room and communicate with other users in a safe environment.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mark Suster</span>

Mark Suster is an American businessman and investor. He is a managing partner at Upfront Ventures, the largest venture capital firm in Los Angeles. Aside from his business career, Suster is also a prominent blogger in the American high-technology startup scene and venture capital world.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Drew Houston</span> Co-founder of Dropbox

Andrew W. Houston is an American Internet entrepreneur best known as the co-founder and CEO of Dropbox, an online backup and storage service. According to Forbes, his net worth is about $2.2 billion. Houston held 24.4% of voting power in Dropbox before the company filed for IPO in February 2018.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kyary Pamyu Pamyu</span> Japanese singer and model

Kiriko Takemura, known professionally as Kyary Pamyu Pamyu, is a Japanese tarento, singer, and model. Her public image is associated with Japan's kawaii and decora culture, centered in the Harajuku neighborhood of Tokyo. Kyary's music is produced by musician Yasutaka Nakata of electronic music duo Capsule.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">9gag</span> Social media website

9gag is an online platform and social media website based in Hong Kong, which allows its users to upload and share user-generated content or other content from external social media websites. Since the platform for collections of Internet memes was launched on April 11, 2008, it has grown in popularity across social media such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jamal Edwards</span> British entrepreneur and director (1990–2022)

Jamal Brendan Edwards was an English music entrepreneur, DJ and founder of the online R&B/Hip-Hop platform SB.TV.

<i>Moshi Monsters: The Movie</i> Film by Lee Seok-hoon

Moshi Monsters: The Movie is a 2013 British animated adventure film directed by Wip Vernooij and co-directed by Morgan Francis, based on the massive multiplayer online game Moshi Monsters. The film features the voices of Emma Tate, Tom Clarke Hill, Phillipa Alexander, and Keith Wickham. The film was released to UK and Irish cinemas on 20 December 2013 and grossed $2.9 million. The film’s plot follows Monsters Katsuma and Poppet, who star in a documentary about their home and are tasked with retrieving a giant golden egg named the Great Moshling Egg from Dr. Strangeglove and his glumpified sidekick Fishlips.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Founder Institute</span>

The Founder Institute is an American business incubator, entrepreneur training and startup launch program that was founded in Palo Alto, California in 2009. Although based in Silicon Valley, The Founder Institute maintains chapters in over 180 cities and more than 65 nations. It offers a four-month part-time program for new and early-stage entrepreneurs that helps them develop their business ideas and form a company. Among the key requirements for graduation is the creation of a fully operational company by the end of the four-month program. As of 2018, over 3,500 companies had been created from the program, which raised over $800M funding in total.

World Wide What? is a 2015 British film written, directed and filmed by Adam Townsend and Andy Trace of Cavalier, and produced by Poppy Gaye of Founders Forum. The film shows a parallel universe in which Tim Berners-Lee failed to invent the World Wide Web and the subsequent impact that would have on the lives of high-profile tech entrepreneurs. The film is narrated by Stephen Fry, and includes cameos from Jimmy Wales, Arianna Huffington, Sean Parker, Tim Berners-Lee, Reid Hoffman, Michael Bloomberg, Michael Acton Smith, Martha Lane Fox, Baroness Lane-Fox of Soho, Brent Hoberman, and Steve Case.

Thomas Teichman is a venture capitalist who is co-founder of The Garage Soho, London and chairman of SPARK Ventures. He was an investor in lastminute.com, Made.com, Mergermarket, notonthehighstreet.com, MAID, ARC and Argonaut Games, Kobalt Music, System C Healthcare and Moshi Monsters.

<i>World of Warriors</i> 2014 video game

World of Warriors is an action role-playing video game developed and published by Mind Candy. It was released for iOS and Android in November 2014. A PlayStation 4 port published by Sony Interactive Entertainment was released on 21 March 2018. The game also spawned two mobile app spinoffs, World of Warriors: Quest and World of Warriors: Duel, both released in 2015. On 10 September 2018, World of Warriors was removed from the iOS and Android appstores, and on 5 October 2018, all online services for the app were discontinued. However, the PlayStation 4 version and the mobile app spinoffs continue to be playable.

Adrian Hon is an English writer and game designer specializing in alternate reality games and transmedia storytelling. He is the CEO and founder of Six to Start, creator of the fitness game Zombies, Run!, and a non-fiction and sci-fi author.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 "The man who aims to hide a monster under every bed – Business Analysis & Features – Business". The Independent. 17 July 2011. Archived from the original on 9 July 2022. Retrieved 24 February 2014.
  2. ↑ "That One Time I Was Tucked In By A Startup". Techcrunch. December 2016. Retrieved 1 December 2016.
  3. ↑ "Moshi Monsters makes it third time lucky for dotcom entrepreneur Michael Acton Smith". telegraph.co.uk. 30 April 2011. Retrieved 30 April 2011.
  4. ↑ "Mind Candy appoints Ian Chambers as new CEO". Licensing.biz. Archived from the original on 12 August 2017. Retrieved 2 February 2016.
  5. ↑ "The man who gave birth to Moshi Monsters". Telegraph. 15 July 2011. Retrieved 24 February 2014.
  6. ↑ Cellan-Jones, Rory (31 December 2011). "The Moshi Monsters mogul". BBC News. Retrieved 13 December 2018.
  7. ↑ "Directorzone". www.director-zone.com. Archived from the original on 15 December 2018. Retrieved 13 December 2018.
  8. ↑ Hannah Prevett (19 August 2012). "A monster success". Elitebusinessmagazine.co.uk. Retrieved 24 February 2014.
  9. ↑ "Mind Candy: Michael Acton Smith – Startups.co.uk: Starting a business advice and business ideas". Startups.co.uk. Retrieved 24 February 2014.
  10. ↑ Mike Butcher (2 May 2013). "As Moshi Monsters Hits 5 years, Can it pull of Three new games?". TechCrunch. Retrieved 16 April 2014.
  11. ↑ "'Moshi Monsters' is shutting down because it runs on Flash". engadget.com. 14 November 2019. Retrieved 8 December 2019.
  12. ↑ Jemima Kiss (April 2011). "Moshi Monsters plans move into online children's TV | Media". The Guardian. Retrieved 24 February 2014.
  13. ↑ "ABC Figures Reveal Moshi Monsters Magazine is the Best Selling Children's Magazine in the UK". Bloomberg. Retrieved 24 February 2014.
  14. ↑ Tyler, Lewis (30 April 2012). "Moshi Monsters video game breaks chart record | Latest news from the toy industry | ToyNews". Toynews-online.biz. Archived from the original on 4 July 2012. Retrieved 24 February 2014.
  15. ↑ Pakinkis, Tom. "Moshi Monsters album goes Gold – with no promotional airplay". Music Week. Retrieved 24 February 2014.
  16. ↑ James Batchelor (20 August 2013). "Moshia Monsters The Movie Hits Cinemas This Christmas". MCV UK.
  17. ↑ "Executives Need to Find Calm in a Stormy World". Forbes.com. Retrieved 30 April 2015.
  18. ↑ Sarah Perez (26 February 2013). "Relaxation Calm.com Launches iPhone App that Helps you Chill, Grabs $415K in Angel Funding". TechCrunch. Retrieved 16 April 2014.
  19. ↑ "calm.com relaxation app unveils world-first two-minute 'slow TV' ad". thedrum.com. Retrieved 22 September 2015.
  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.
  23. ↑ Kevin Maher (13 February 2014). "Inside London's Silicon Roundabout". Esquire. Retrieved 16 April 2014.
  24. ↑ Josh Halliday (17 July 2011). "Mind Candy – the monster that lurks on Silicon Roundabout". The Guardian.
  25. ↑ Judy Bevan (16 July 2011). "The Man Who Aims To Hide A Monster Under Every Bed". independent.
  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.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.