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The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett

E117: Calm App Founder: From $0 To $2 Billion By Making The World Meditate: Michael Acton Smith

The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett

FlightStory

Society & Culture, Business, Education

4.613.2K Ratings

🗓️ 31 January 2022

⏱️ 95 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Michael Acton-Smith is best known as the co-founder of Calm, the $2 billion meditation, sleep and wellness app, but he is so much more than that. Because Calm is just one of four companies Michael has built.

Michael has also built Moshi Monsters, the breakout success web-based children’s game, which after rapid growth suffered a loss in users and for a while Michael wasn’t sure whether the business could survive. Michael has experienced the highs, but also the challenges, of growing big businesses.

These are just two of four companies Michael has built. Michael is a natural entrepreneur who’s been founding businesses his entire adult life. To talk to him and share in his wisdom was a privilege I’m immensely grateful for.

  • Your early years
  • Starting my first business - Firebox
  • My second business - Perplex City
  • My third business - Moshi monsters
  • The start of Calm
  • Calm helping people sleep
  • Misconceptions around sleep
  • Tough times for you this year
  • What you are doing now to change?
  • Your relationships
  • The foundations of good communication
  • How accurate is the 'hippie' stigma that comes with mindfulness?
  • Do you feel the good you've done in the world?
  • Psychedelics curing mental health
  • Our last guest question

Micheal:

Watch the episodes on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/TheDiaryOfACEO/videos



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Transcript

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0:00.0

Solving the global mental health crisis, it's a first-order problem.

0:04.1

One in three of us will experience depression or anxiety.

0:07.6

And I realized that this could be one of the biggest opportunities and businesses in the world.

0:11.6

Michael Acton Smith, he's the billionaire founder of the mindful meditation and sleep app,

0:18.0

calm. Everyone thought we were crazy. The bridge between the seed money we raised and getting to a

0:23.3

series A took years and years. And then that was where the point was like we're taking off.

0:28.3

It's happening. Never have we been assailed with more noise and stimulation from social media

0:35.2

to billboards to TV. It's coming at us constantly. One of the most valuable skills in the 21st

0:41.1

century is to be able to decide where and how and when we put our attention. The human brain

0:47.6

is the most complex thing in the known universe and yet it doesn't come with an instruction manual.

0:53.0

Quick one, can you do me a favor if you're listening to this and hit the subscribe button,

0:58.5

the follow button, wherever you're listening to this podcast? Thank you so much.

1:01.9

Michael Acton Smith, he's the billionaire founder of the mindful meditation and sleep app, calm.

1:09.1

For the last ten years Michael has been one of the great UK entrepreneurial success stories.

1:14.9

But the really staggering thing about Michael's story is how many successes he had that turned

1:21.7

quickly into failures. And honestly, how he rose time and time and time again from those ashes

1:29.2

to rebuild an even more successful business. Most people would give up and you almost wouldn't

1:35.6

blame them when you hear what Michael's been through. His most recent success, calm app,

1:40.4

is worth billions and billions of dollars. And it helps people who are going through hard times or

1:46.0

any pain at all reach mindfulness. It teaches them the importance of slowing down, stopping,

1:51.7

and meditation. So one would think Michael had an easy life and he was the master of his mind.

1:58.4

But he goes through the same battles as everyone else and he describes this last year as the hardest

...

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