Michael Migliero

Big Time Studios · Full-time

Dec 2021 - Present · 4 yrs

As CMO at Big Time Studios, I’ve led marketing, brand, and go-to-market strategy for one of the most successful and widely adopted Web3 games to date.

I directed the company’s landmark NFT launch, including the December 2021 SPACE sale that generated over $25 million in 24 hours. Cumulatively, Big Time has sold more than $70 million worth of SPACE NFTs, establishing one of the largest in-game asset economies in Web3. 

In October 2023, I oversaw the launch of the $BIGTIME token and rollout of our in-game economy a first-of-its-kind model with no team or investor allocations. To date, players have collected over $440 million in digital assets, with rewards flowing directly to the community through gameplay.

Key milestones and honors include:

• GAM3S.GG Awards Winner – Game of the Year (2022)
• GAM3S.GG Awards Finalist – Best RPG (2022)
• Most Anticipated Game – Various Web3 and crypto gaming communities (2022–2023)

Through narrative-driven campaigns, player-centric economy design, and a hybrid Web2/Web3 growth model, I’ve helped scale Big Time from early development into a category leader in blockchain gaming.

Open Loot · Full-time

Dec 2021 - Present · 4 yrs

Self-Directed

2016 - Present · 9 yrs

I began investing in cryptocurrency in 2016 as an early Ethereum adopter, drawn to its potential to redefine digital ownership and decentralized infrastructure. I was also a seed investor in Hedera Hashgraph, recognizing its novel approach to distributed consensus and enterprise adoption. Over time, I’ve built and managed a diversified portfolio across tokens, protocols, and early-stage Web3 projects. My focus is on identifying asymmetric opportunities and backing founders with the ability to execute. I combine on-chain analysis with a deep understanding of market psychology, token design, and liquidity dynamics.

MZ

May 2015 - Sep 2018 · 3 yrs 5 mos

At Machine Zone, I helped lead one of the largest and most sophisticated user acquisition operations in the world. Following MZ’s acquisition of Fractional Media, our team and technology became the foundation of MZ’s in-house demand-side platform (DSP), powering performance marketing for global top-grossing titles including Game of War, Mobile Strike, and Final Fantasy XV: A New Empire.

We managed tens of millions of dollars in monthly ad spend across hundreds of traffic sources, optimizing for efficiency and scale. MZ became recognized industry-wide as the largest mobile media buyer globally, setting new standards in both data-driven targeting and creative innovation.

Our team pioneered playable ads as a major format in mobile performance marketing, combining creative storytelling with interactive gameplay previews that dramatically improved conversion rates and retention. These campaigns helped define the future of mobile advertising and remain a benchmark for creative engagement in the industry today.

My time at MZ was defined by scale, precision, and innovation, transforming data, creative, and technology into one of the most effective growth engines in the history of mobile gaming.

Fractional Media · Full-time

Dec 2012 - Sep 2018 · 5 yrs 10 mos

At Fractional Media, I helped build one of the most advanced mobile demand-side platforms (DSPs) of its era, focused on large-scale user acquisition for mobile games and apps. Our platform specialized in data-driven campaign optimization, helping advertisers efficiently reach high-value users across global traffic sources at unprecedented scale.

Under my leadership, Fractional Media grew from a startup concept into a platform managing over $100 million in annual advertising spend. Our success and unique technology led to our acquisition by Machine Zone (MZ) in May 2015, where our DSP became a core engine of MZ’s internal UA infrastructure.

At Machine Zone, our technology and team played a pivotal role in powering record-breaking campaigns for Game of War, Mobile Strike, and other top-grossing titles. MZ quickly became recognized as the largest mobile media buyer in the world, managing tens of millions in ad spend per month and setting the benchmark for performance marketing in the mobile gaming industry.

Fractional Media’s acquisition was more than a milestone; it was proof that precision, optimization, and scale can transform a small ad tech startup into the backbone of one of the most powerful user acquisition operations in the world.

Affiliate Marketing · Self-employed

Jul 2008 - May 2013 · 4 yrs 11 mos

Between 2008 and 2012, I immersed myself in the wild early days of performance advertising and mobile growth.

I began in Boston buying display traffic for mobile phone advertisers on MySpace and Facebook apps through platforms like Yahoo RMX. It was my first exposure to the art and science of performance media buying. By 2009, I was exploring mobile WAP traffic (pre-smartphone) on feature phones via AdMob, Quattro Wireless, and Millennial Media, while also experimenting with viral content-locking platforms such as CPA Lead that were booming at the time.

In 2010, I moved to Santa Monica to focus on content locking and early Android development. I built several apps and even launched a Chrome extension that modified Facebook’s interface, reaching over 3 million daily active users. My time in Los Angeles was formative, full of experimentation, discovery, and lessons in scale.

By 2011, I had relocated to Seattle, where my first Android app grew to over 1 million daily users before an abrupt shutdown taught me hard lessons about volatility and resilience. Later that year, I joined a large video-streaming company in Munich, helping monetize their ad inventory through advanced pre-Google acquisition ad-tech systems. At the time, our network handled a significant share of global video impressions, about 5 percent of YouTube’s scale.

My final chapter from this era was in performance marketing for dating platforms on Facebook, working closely with Nanigans and other automation tools. That experience taught me how to optimize for post-registration purchase rates and lifetime value, but also revealed a deeper truth. I soon learned that my skills and industry relationships, while valuable, were not enough to build a true moat. To create something lasting, I needed to own the platform itself, a realization that led to the founding of Fractional Media.