Ueno Is Back
After a four year break, the innovation agency re-opens with a new focus.
I'm kind of surprised myself. I wasn't really planning on it. I started Ueno in my apartment in Reykjavík, Iceland in 2014. And seven years later I sold it to Twitter for a lot of money.
But it wasn't the money. That's maybe hard to believe but that wasn't the reason. Business was great, I didn't need money. I needed a new challenge.
Ueno had grown over those seven years to multiple offices and over 100 people. We were working the biggest brands in the world on some really exciting projects. But still, I felt like something was missing.
I had been on the outside for a long time, working for companies to make something and then we’d hand it off to them to nurture and grow it. I wanted to be on the inside of a big company and see things through, to see them grow.
I wanted a challenge and the biggest one I could find was Twitter. To help people make better connections, to find their communities, engage more earnestly.
Things didn't turn out like I expected. But in hindsight that's not really what matters. We did some great work and I learned more than I could have imagined. About corporate ups and downs, and about my own ups and downs. I saw things you wouldn’t believe.
And then suddenly I was free and I went and made some other things. I built a lot of wheelchair ramps, I built a restaurant and movie theater, a bank, a recording studio, a community for creative people. I started a podcast, released a visual album, acted in some movies.
I did everything I always wanted to do. And it was great. But after four years away from Ueno it kept picking at me.
This little itch. The feeling I get when someone comes with something that's just an idea and they want our help to see it become real. It feels like magic. Like alchemy. I missed that feeling.
And so, yes, Ueno is back.
Blammo!
