Michael Acton Smith: ‘We want to show meditation is common sense’

Stress led the creator of Moshi Monsters to meditation and to create new app Calm, which he aims to make the biggest brand in mental fitness

How much are you involved in Mind Candy these days? The company went through some difficult times as kids' gaming moved from web to mobile - what did you learn from that?
I'm very proud of Moshi Monsters, it was an incredible brand that we built, but it was a challenging time when the kids moved on from Moshi into new apps. I realised that in kids' entertainment you can be everything one minute and nothing the next, so it was very challenging trying to spark it back to life. Mind Candy is now headed up by a brilliant chap called Ian Chambers, who is running the company. I'm still on the board, we're working on a few new things at the moment to bring Moshi Monsters back to the success it had in the past. My mindfulness business, Calm, is now my main focus, but I still care passionately about Moshi as well.

For a while you were poster boy and advocate for the London tech scene. Why did you swap Silicon Roundabout for Silicon Valley?
I've certainly had an interesting few years. After over a decade of running Mind Candy in London, I was ready for a new adventure. My business partner and I both felt San Francisco would be the best city to set this kind of business up - partially because of Silicon Valley, but also because of California being at the leading edge of health and wellness.