Michael Acton Smith

Michael Acton Smith OBE (born 1974) is the current co-CEO and co-Founder of Calm, a leading company in the meditation space. He is also the founder of Firebox.com, and founder and chairman of children's entertainment company Mind Candy – the creators of global children's phenomenon Moshi Monsters. He has been described by The Daily Telegraph as "a rock star version of Willy Wonka" and by The Independent as "a polite version of Bob Geldof."

In 1998, while in his early twenties, Acton Smith co-founded online gadget and gift retailer Firebox.com with university friend, Tom Boardman. The pair started out with a rent-free attic and £800 from undergoing a medical experiment. Their breakthrough moment came in the form of the "Shot Glass Chess Set". Within five years they were listed by The Sunday Times 'Fast Track 100' as the 13th fastest growing, privately owned business in the UK.

Following his success with Firebox, Acton Smith secured $10M backing and launched Mind Candy in 2004. 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 gained positive press coverage with Perplex City being hailed as the future of gaming. The game was also nominated for a BAFTA award in 2006. After three years (and $9M spent) Perplex City was placed on indefinite hold.

With just $1M left in the bank in 2007, Acton Smith, having been inspired by the growing success of Facebook and kids brands including Tamagotchi, Mind Candy launched online world Moshi Monsters. The risk proved to be successful for a number of years and today, Moshi Monsters, has over 90 million users around the world and has expanded offline into best selling toys, the number one selling kids magazine in the UK, a best selling DS video game, top 5 music album which has gone gold in the UK, books, membership cards, trading cards and much more. In December 2013, Moshi Monsters teamed with Universal to release a full-length feature movie, as well.

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