Mindfulness & The Cool Million: The Lesser Known Tale of Two British Dot-Commers
The Million Dollar Homepage
In 2005, a young British student named Alex Tew faced the daunting challenge of funding his university education. After much deliberation, he conceived TheMillionDollarHomepage.com — a pixelated piece of internet real estate, offering ad space for sale on the site’s homepage.
The concept was simple: Tew’s site had one million pixels on it which were sold for $1 per pixel. The catch – advertisers could only buy pixels in blocks of 10x10 pixels, making the smallest purchasable unit $100, or 100 pixels.
The novelty of the idea caught fire with the media, and soon businesses and individuals ponied up their pennies to secure their spot on Tew’s digital billboard. Major publications – including Wall Street Journal, BBC, and The Telegraph, to name a few – began writing about The Million Dollar Homepage, and it only help to spread the message like wildfire for Tew. People were curious about what kind of advertisements would be displayed on the page, and whether or not Tew could actually reach his goal of selling 1M pixels. As the buzz around the website grew, demand for the remaining ad space increased, and Tew eventually hit his $1 million target.
Following its launch, the site inspired numerous imitators and spin-off projects, such as The Zero Dollar Homepage, The Million Pixel Gallery, and The Million Quarter Webpage, to name a few. Although there were thousands of follow-on sites that popped up, none achieved quite the same level of success and cultural impact as Tew's original creation.
The Million Dollar Homepage became a symbol of internet entrepreneurship and creativity, demonstrating how a simple idea could capture the public's imagination and generate substantial revenue.
Crossing Paths in Unexpected Places
In 2006, Tew was on a boat and met another budding entrepreneur from the UK, Michael Acton Smith. Prior to meeting, Acton Smith had seen a deluge of headlines surrounding Tew’s tenacity with The Million Dollar Homepage. Shortly after they met, Michael founded Moshi Monsters, a MMORPG (massively multiplayer online role-playing game) which grew quickly to 50M+ users over the course of a few years.
Through their shared interest in startups and business, Alex and Michael became close friends, then housemates. The entrepreneurs constantly exchanged ideas and influenced each other with their interests. One of Tew’s insatiable beliefs was in the power of meditation, which he began practicing at the age of 14. Tew taught Acton Smith about meditation, and they often sat on their sofa discussing philosophy, neuroscience and business ideas. Through their conversations, the two men believed that there was an opportunity to marry the power of technology with the benefits of mindfulness.
Securing Calm.com
Tew was starting to think about ideas for creating a tech-driven meditation company. He had an idea for a name, Calm, but didn’t have a clear idea for what the company would become.
In 2009, Tew first met the original owner of the domain Calm.com. The owner, in Tew’s words, was an “English dude” who also happened to be from the UK. Tew thought it would be worthwhile to meet up with the owner, so he hopped on a train to Leicestershire to get to know him. When they first started chatting, the owner said he wanted $1M for the domain. Tew was interested but didn’t have the cash available to make the purchase. For the next few years, the owner continued to shop the domain around, trying to get his asking price for it. Despite his best efforts, he couldn’t move the domain at that price. Tew kept in touch with the owner and, in 2012, the two of them settled on a price of $140,000 for the domain – a fraction of the original asking price, and significantly less than the digital asset is worth today.
Cultivating Calm in a Chaotic World
In 2012, Acton Smith was facing an increasingly stressful period in his life with his startup, Moshi Monsters, and he struggled to find a suitable relaxation tool. He recognized the growing demand for mindfulness practices in an increasingly fast-paced world, and eventually Acton Smith approached Tew with a novel idea – to create a meditation app together. Finally, Tew and Action Smith decided to go all in on Calm, having the domain name in hand.
Although they riffed on ideas for the company, they weren't sure of Calm’s concrete direction. The two worked remotely to find a future direction for the company and, eventually, Acton Smith and Tew found themselves on a trip together in Italy. They meditated in the Tuscan hills and chatted about where they might take Calm. From the experience, Calm was shaped into an idea to provide accessible meditation and relaxation resources to users worldwide through an app.
Shortly after launching, the app garnered praise and success from influencers and celebrities, and its growth was fueled by the increasing awareness for self-care and mental health. In 2017, Calm was named Apple's App of the Year. The company continues to evolve, with a mission to make the world a better place through its mindfulness and relaxation products. As of May 2024, the company is valued at $2.2B.
Convergence of Creativity and Commerce
While The Million Dollar Homepage and Calm may appear worlds apart, they share a common thread of exploring unchartered territory through startups and technology, and adapting to changes in the cultural landscape as new opportunities arise. The Million Dollar Homepage exemplified the power of monetizing digital real estate, and Calm tapped into the growing demand for mindfulness and self-care through digital products, like apps. Both Tew and Acton Smith recognized the significance of embracing emerging trends and technologies to stay ahead of the curve.
