We’re the first and only company built entirely around the idea that Story isn’t a marketing problem — it’s a business one.

We work with B2B companies that are serious about where they’re going. Leaders who know their technology, product, or vision is exceptional — but have felt the friction that comes when the story around it isn’t keeping pace.

That friction is expensive. We fix it.

Across industrial technology, enterprise platforms, cloud infrastructure, healthcare innovation, and operationalize global market categories — from the Industrial Internet and DNS-layer security to

Autonomous Pharmacy, Cyber Exposure Management, and Virtualized Infrastructure.

Early-stage innovators and Fortune 100 leaders partner with us to do one thing: translate strategy into Story, and Story into the systems, content, and experiences that make it real — so belief holds as they grow.

We exist to shape a better future through the transformative power of story.

That’s not a tagline. It’s the job.

What People Say About Us.

Colm Nee

Enlighted, CTO

”This is a very differentiated story, and I personally can't wait to start telling it!“

(Heard at a First Person Workshop)

CEO of a large security company

These people really know their sh*t.

Esther Krofah

Milken Institute, Executive Director

”What started as a flat spreadsheet evolved into a multifaceted interactive visualization.“

Brian Clevenger

Blackberry, VP Corporate Marketing

“It goes without saying that rebranding a company is a big deal. Especially a company as iconic as BlackBerry. When it came to this Herculean task, I turned to my trusted agency partner—FirstPerson.”

Brad Surak

Hitachi Vantara, Chief Product & Strategy Officer

“Our Cisco Anatomy of An Attack video was the #1 converting asset in the Demand Journey for Cisco Security in 2016 & #1 most viewed asset on all of Cisco.com in 2016.”

Harsh Singh

VMWare, Global Head of VMWare Cloud Product Marketing

It's phenomenal. I always knew what I wanted but making it real wasn’t easy.

Brandon Ortiz

Salseforce, Director of Digital, Social & Content Marketing

“Thank you so much for all of your amazing work on this. Everything was fantastic!!”

Karen Sweet

Director of Brand

“The EVN was truly the centerpiece of the show! We truly appreciate everyone’s partnership on this. Looking forward to kicking off SF!”

Pat Gelsinger

VMWare, CEO

“My feet hurt, throat is sore and eyes are red – it’s been a tremendous week.

Really incredible. We took it up a level and our business and customers will benefit from that significantly.“

What Makes Us Different

Traditional consultancies define strategy. Traditional agencies create content. There’s a gap between the two that most organizations feel but can’t name.

We make things. When companies are navigating transformation — a leadership change, an acquisition, a new market, a new line of business — we don't just define the strategy and Story. We build the connected artifacts that make it real: keynotes and speeches, design systems, visual identities, enterprise websites, demos, campaigns, and shippable products.

Not as disconnected deliverables — as expressions of one coherent narrative.

Strategy and execution aren't separate work streams here. They never were.

Narrative Systems

We design the narrative architecture that aligns leadership, clarifies category POV, and guides how your organization communicates, decides, and leads.

Design Systems

We build cohesive visual and experiential systems that express your narrative consistently — across brand, product, and every customer touchpoint.

Tech Systems

We architect scalable digital systems that operationalize your story — enabling teams to build, launch, and evolve with speed and coherence.

How We Work

Our ethos is grounded in how we think — and how we behave.

Human-Centered Design. We start with the people we design for. There are always two audiences: you — the leadership team shaping the future — and the market. The best ideas come from real conversations, real context, and real perspective.

Design Thinking. We share early. We test often. We iterate in the open. There is no black box creative at First Person. We  co-create with you — refining ideas until they’re clear, strong, and ready to move

Artificial Intelligence. Integrated thoughtfully, never as a gimmick. AI accelerates insight and expands creative possibility without replacing human judgment.

These capabilities are always on. They shape how we research, align, build, and activate narrative systems.

The Mechanics

Our work moves through four interconnected modes.

Research

We immerse in your business, audiences, and market to uncover truth, tension, and opportunity.

Workshops

We align leaders and teams around shared understanding — making perspective visible, actionable, and owned.

Synthesis

We translate complexity into clarity — distilling insight into narrative systems that guide decisions and behavior.

Activation

We bring the narrative to life across strategy, brand, product, and go-to-market — so it works in the real world.

The result is a process built for change — rigorous enough to trust, adaptive enough to last.

Learn more

Our Purpose

To shape a better future through the transformative power of Story.

How we behave

Empathy as Method. We seek to understand the unique perspectives and experiences of others before arriving at conclusions. It shapes everything we make.

Relentless Understanding. We seek clarity through inquiry, immersion, experimentation, and synthesis. We test before we conclude. We prototype before we commit.

Bravery. We navigate uncertainty, challenge legacy thinking, and move forward when the path isn’t obvious.

Why “First Person”

First Person is about perspective — and perspective changes markets...

Employees. Customers. Partners. Investors. Analysts.

We begin by seeing the world through those perspectives. Empathy is not a value statement. It is a working method.

In a market where technology equalizes quickly, belief becomes the durable advantage. Customers buy belief. Investors fund belief.

Employees commit to belief.

The right story doesn't describe your company. It defines your category.

We believe the most valuable thing you can give a company isn’t a new product or campaign — it’s a new reality. Because the right story doesn't just tell the world who you are — it changes the world you're in.

Our Origin Story

Nobody was doing this work.

Not at this level. The giant consultancies had the strategy. The big agencies had the creative. But nobody combined the strategic rigor of a Deloitte, the creative intelligence of a BBDO, and the design sensibility of an IDEO. That gap became the company.

Deep tech wasn’t cool yet. The companies shaping the future were invisible to everyone outside Silicon Valley. We found them anyway. We understood them. We loved them.

First Person was founded in 2013 by Drew Fiero, Marcello Grande, and Brandon Grande. Drew had built Elastic Creative from the DNA of SFPG — one of the earliest firms working at the intersection of visual effects, emerging technology, and interactivity. Marcello and Brandon arrived from Los Angeles in 2003, landed in the ashes of the dot-com crash, and built WESTERNIZED from the ground up. Together, they rode every major technology wave that followed — doing deep tech work long before it was the cool thing to do.

What they kept running into was the same problem. Agencies executed without understanding. Consultancies strategized without creating. The people who knew the technology were rarely the ones shaping the narrative.

First Person was built to fix that. And after years of watching the same fractures appear in enterprise after enterprise — confusion, misalignment, lost velocity — the mission sharpened into something more specific.

The problem was rarely ever the technology. It was always the Story.

That insight became the company. It still is.