San Francisco, June 12th, 2019

Ueno’s Founder and CEO, Haraldur Thorleifsson, describes his company as a ‘relationship agency.’ It’s not a dating site, in case you are wondering. Ueno has four offices in key locations, three in the USA in San Francisco, New York, Los Angeles and one in Reykjavík, Iceland. The agency employs 65 people full time and also works with freelancers.

Haraldur explains “We help our clients build relationships with their customers. We do this by helping them build meaningful digital products and brands that people fall in love with.”

Ueno has an impressive record of industry awards and recognitions since the company was founded in 2014. Its website has a very informal and direct tone of voice, just like Haraldur (a.k.a. Halli). It includes funny animations and a very clear navegation and narrative, worth a visit!

We interviewed Haraldur to find out how, despite some physical challenges, his determination and worldy knowledge have helped to grow a remarkable agency – a sneak pick, one of the company’s key ingredient is collaboration.

Could you name three important things or experiences that have brought you to where you are today?

I have muscle dystrophy. It taught me that you can either play the hand that you are dealt or you can give up. I choose to not give up.

My mom died when I was 11 years old. It taught me that life is fickle and fleeting so we better use the time we have wisely but also that we can’t take any of this too seriously.

I traveled the world with my wife and daughter for a few years. It taught me that I am incredibly privileged and that I have a duty to help other people.

Where did the name Ueno come from?

I used to live in Tokyo and there is a wonderful area there called Ueno. One of my favorite parts of the city was Ueno park, it has all sorts of museums, science, history, there’s a zoo there but most importantly it’s a place where people gather to connect and have fun, dance, put on mini theaters, play music.

I also really liked that for most people (outside of Japan) it was a word that didn’t mean anything so we could make it into whatever we wanted.

Can you describe your agency in three words?

Really, very good.

How did you get started in the industry?

I made my first website when I was 21. I was studying finance and there was an IT class. One of the assignments was to create a very simple HTML website. I published a white page with a few words through an FTP thingy and the whole world could see it (in theory, in practice nobody saw it). I thought that was magic.

How do you know that you are leading, and leading well?

I know I am leading well, when the right things happen and I didn’t have to do anything.

What inspires you in your work?

I draw inspiration from the true impact of our work. We work on large scale projects that touch millions and sometimes billions of people. We need to make that count.

What is your approach to motivating and developing talent?

I foster talent within the agency by giving all employees as much ownership as possible. Pointing them in roughly the right direction and ask them to figure out how to get there.

What profession other than your own would you like to attempt?

I’ve always wanted to be an architect. Luckily we’ve started to work more and more with physical spaces so that dream is slowly manifesting itself.

What is the most interesting project you have worked on and why was it interesting?

The most interesting project is always the project I’m working on right now. And it’s under NDA.

Thanks Haraldur!

By Geny Caloisi.
genyc@topinteractiveagencies.com

Learn more about Ueno

Follow Haraldur Thorleifsson on social media:
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