When Jaime Urteaga started a freelance business in 2014 that evolved into his full-service digital agency, Digital Chair, he was an early-20-something who’d already been working for years. As a 14-year-old, he’d taught computer classes for a startup and offered freelance IT services in Rye. “I was like a child consultant — helping people with their printers, email, Internet, and viruses,” he recalls.
Urteaga started Digital Chair while working as an engineer for Moo Digital (now rebranded as Agency Labs), an agency in Brookfield, CT, that develops websites and apps. “The name ‘Digital Chair’ started partially as a joke,” Urteaga says. “I noticed many agency names had the word ‘digital’ in them. I looked around the room one day and started plugging in names into a domain search. ‘Digital screen,’ ‘digital keyboard,’ ‘digital table,’ ‘digital chair’… and then it was born.”
Urteaga left Moo Digital in 2014 to focus full-time on Digital Chair, bringing FinLit (a now-defunct financial-literacy startup) with him as a client and landing a new client, LawTrades (an on-demand marketplace for hiring lawyers). He eventually served as CTO of LawTrades for about one year before relaunching Digital Chair in 2016. He has grown the business to include two part-time employees, as well as a number of freelancers contributing design, development, video, and copywriting services.
His secret to building a successful business at such a young age? “His work ethic is unparalleled, and his attention to detail is what keeps his clients and partners coming back,” says client Vincent LaRocca of Innovative Network Solutions.
Urteaga says he thrives on the constant opportunities to learn more about tech. “I’m never satiated,” he explains.
