First of Kind Everett Katigbak: Indie Streak
Mar 18, 2026
Everett Katigbak, creative director and storyteller behind work at Facebook, Stripe, Pinterest, and Anthropic, and filmmaker of cultural documentaries. He talks about a non-linear career guided by a “golden thread.” He explores humanizing tech, the power of analog practices in digital storytelling, choosing place over job, and launching an independent creative practice.
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Humanize Infrastructure Through Intimate Stories
- Making technology “human” means highlighting the intimate, everyday ways products change people's lives rather than only focusing on scale or infrastructure.
- Everett and Peter made videos showing someone in the Philippines using Facebook to talk to family, shifting perception from metrics to intimacy.
Chance Meetings Launched Major Projects
- Everett met collaborators by chance at Facebook and turned hallway encounters into creative projects with Peter Jordan and Ben Barry.
- Their early videos and analog experiments flipped focus from scale to product intimacy and resonated widely.
Pick Your City Before Your Job
- Do choose where you want to live before choosing a job because place shapes your creativity and career trajectory.
- Everett followed mentor Joshua Trees' advice: pick a city (San Francisco) for cultural fit and transit, not the job offer.