Michael Acton Smith Speaking at Adobe Summit

Mind Can­dy is ‘an enter­tain­ment com­pa­ny that cre­ates mag­i­cal brands with a dig­i­tal heart’ and are the cre­ators of Furi, Pop­pet, Luvli, Kat­suma, Diav­lo and Zom­mer (also known as Moshi Mon­sters).

The man behind these huge­ly pop­u­lar pet mon­sters -_ Moshi Mon­sters has over 80 mil­lion reg­is­tered users online _- is Michael Acton Smith, CEO and cre­ative director.

I caught up with Michael before he takes to the stage at Adobe Sum­mit in Lon­don, May 14–15, to find out how these pet mon­sters came to life, what moti­vates him and, of course, what he’ll be shar­ing at Summit.

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Can you tell us a bit more about how you came up with the idea of Moshi Mon­sters in a cof­fee shop?

The first game we cre­at­ed at Mind Can­dy was a very com­plex online and offline trea­sure hunt called Per­plex City. It was ground break­ing, but sad­ly it wasn’t a hit and with our mon­ey fast run­ning out we need­ed anoth­er idea

I had a favourite cof­fee shop in Bat­tersea that I would spend hours in doo­dling and day­dream­ing ideas. This is the loca­tion where Moshi was sparked to life. I had seen how kids loved the Inter­net and so want­ed to cre­ate a fun but safe vir­tu­al world for them to play with­in. I liked the idea of pop­u­lat­ing this world with lit­tle pet mon­sters for them to adopt and nurture

What’s the next step in build­ing ‘the largest enter­tain­ment brand in the world for the new dig­i­tal generation’?

We’re try­ing to build the great­est enter­tain­ment com­pa­ny, rather than the ‘largest enter­tain­ment brand’.

We want to con­tin­ue cre­at­ing mag­i­cal enter­tain­ment that kids of all ages love. Our brands have a dig­i­tal heart but can be enjoyed in many oth­er ways such as mag­a­zines, books, toys, music and movies. We have sev­er­al new excit­ing projects bub­bling away

Can you give us a lit­tle teas­er into what you will be explor­ing in your Sum­mit talk?

I’m going to tell the sto­ry of my entre­pre­neur­ial adven­tures and share the lessons learned along the way that will hope­ful­ly be use­ful for the audience.

I will also talk a lit­tle about the next big project we’ll be launch­ing at Mind Candy.

What new dig­i­tal approach­es will you be tak­ing on your cur­rent or future projects?

We don’t have a sin­gle dig­i­tal approach, but are very aware that kids are the ulti­mate ear­ly adopters and it’s impor­tant for us to stay on top of what tech­nolo­gies and apps they are excit­ed by.

Do you see any links between your pas­sion in music and your entre­pre­neur­ial drive?

I love the enter­tain­ment busi­ness and that has been a com­mon thread through all my projects: Fire­box, Ping Pong Fight Club, Mind Can­dy, and Berwick­stock, the music festival.

If you want to hear more from Michael, Mind Candy’s next big project, and of course, Mon­sters, reg­is­ter now for Adobe Sum­mit.

Fol­low Michael @acton and take part in the con­ver­sa­tion with ‪#Adobe­Sum­mit.

See you there!