Next-level creativity
Professional tradecraft with an AI edge.
We’ve spent years on both sides of the agency equation. Here’s what we learned.
As creators, we learned that lean account management beats bureaucracy, billing soft hours isn’t cool and bloated meetings are soul crushing. We also learned to experiment, advocate bold ideas and push the edge when appropriate.
As clients, we learned to absolutely expect the same level of excellence we demand of ourselves, every day on every project. And we learned to gracefully and collegially ask for better when what we received was merely “good enough.”
Working with us, you won’t be coddled but you will be listened to, understood, respected and delightfully challenged. And you will be rewarded with work that we can all be proud of. After all, our name is FKBS because “good enough” isn’t good enough.
Paul von Zielbauer, head of editorial
FKBS founder Paul von Zielbauer knows a good story when he sees one — and how to find it when he doesn't.
A former New York Times staff writer whose work was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize, Paul has been creating resonant, sophisticated narratives for more than two decades. With a journalist’s approach to story building, he uncovers fresh narratives that influence the influencers in technology, venture capital, fintech, biotech and beyond.
Upon leaving the Times, Paul founded Roadmonkey, an adventure philanthropy company combining challenging expeditions with meaningful community development projects. When fatherhood made globetrotting less feasible, he produced news programs at NPR affiliate KCRW before moving to the Milken Institute, as director of global programming. He went on to work closely with tech companies to bring their unique stories to life through a variety of media—from deeply reported thought leadership pieces to viral X (aka Twitter) threads. Most recently, Paul has developed integrated multimedia content programs for C3.ai (where he also wrote the company’s first AI Code of Ethics), ServiceNow and venture capital firm Institutional Venture Partners.
Karsten Bondy, multimedia producer
FKBS multimedia producer Karsten Bondy has crafted Emmy and Webby award-winning stories for TV, podcasts, social media and beyond. He delights in finding unexpected ways to explore and explain technology. As a journalist, he used motion capture animation to demystify tech for MSNBC and TechTV. As a marketer, he made historical docs to pitch video games to moms for Costco. As a video guru, he turned homes into studios during Covid for engineers and execs at Cisco and for teachers and students in one of California’s most disadvantaged school districts.
Today, he focuses on AI, teaching artists how to boost creativity and AI models how to be creative without the bs.