Community Highlights: Meet Alexandra McInnis of Murder Hornet

Today we’d like to introduce you to Alexandra McInnis.

Hi Alexandra, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
I’m a born-and-raised Bostonian turned ATLien.

I started my career at Hill Holliday, a Boston-based advertising hot shop at the time, as a Digital Producer on some genuinely brutal, foundational pharma accounts.

I should say upfront: I was bad at that job, pathetically so. Not for lack of trying, it just never clicked, and I spent a solid stretch of my early career one bad week away from a PIP. When a spot opened up on the Account Management team, I jumped at it like my career depended on it, because at that point, it kind of did. Turns out that was the job. Suddenly I wasn’t just competent, I was good.

Then the pandemic hit, and like a lot of people staring down another Boston winter over Zoom, I decided I’d had enough. I moved to Atlanta chasing warmer weather, a lower cost of living, and, as it turned out, one of the most fertile, rising advertising markets in the country. I landed at a boutique agency first, then moved to Tombras, one of, if not the, top independent agency in the US. That chapter shaped how I think about the work, new business and client relationships.

Then came the offer that changed everything: joining forces with Noel Cottrell to help build Murder Hornet, as his first hire, co-founder, and Director of Accounts. Since then, it’s been less a career trajectory and more a rocket launch. We started with Zoom as our first client, landed the AOR assignment for TAZO, expanded into Lipton, and have since added Amazon Fire TV, Fenty Beauty, Nando’s PERi-PERi, and Gong cha to the roster. I am now the President and am so excited to see what we achieve next. We’re just getting started.

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Is entrepreneurship ever a smooth road? But, the bumps are half the fun.

The biggest test came about a year ago when we lost our largest client and had to take a hard look at the business: rethinking our model, our team makeup, all of it. That meant a lot of nights up past midnight with my partner Noel, trying to make decisions in service of what we jokingly call “the organism” – the business as this living thing that needs constant tending, not just a spreadsheet you optimize once and walk away from. We try and keep the organism alive.

If I’m being honest, the people side of building a company has been the hardest part, full stop. Finding people who can actually take you “there” , wherever there is, and being genuinely judicious about who earns a seat on a small, tight team is one of the most critical, and most underrated, skills in this job.

The other struggle is a lot more personal: balance. Making real time for myself and the people who matter most outside of work is something I still haven’t figured out. I’m not sure “figured out” is even the right goal, just something I keep working at.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
Murder Hornet is an independent creative agency based here in Atlanta, co-founded by Noel Cottrell and myself. And yes, before you ask, the name is intentional and a longer story – but it is rooted in our ethos, “Creative Violence” and Noel’s brilliant wife, Robyn.

We started with one client, Zoom, and in a short amount of time built a roster that now includes TAZO, Lipton, Amazon FireTV, Fenty Beauty, Nando’s PERi-PERi, and Gong cha, as I’ve mentioned before. It’s a genuinely fun mix: beverage, beauty, tech, entertainment – and that range is by design. We didn’t want to be the shop that only knows one category cold; we wanted to be the shop that brings the same rigor and creative instinct no matter what’s in front of us.

What sets us apart is scale, on purpose. We’ve stayed intentionally lean, which means clients get senior attention on their business, not a junior team learning on the job while the partners are off pitching the next account. Every person on our team is there because they earned it and they’re excited about it, not because we needed a warm body in a seat.

What I’m proudest of is that we’ve built something sustainable, not just fast. We’ve weathered real setbacks and came out the other side with a stronger, more resilient business. That’s the thing about a company built to move with speed, not haste: the real test isn’t the growth, it’s what happens when growth gets interrupted, and you’re still standing. What’s that latin phrase, “festina lente” – make haste slowly, that’s what we try and do.

If there’s one thing I would want readers to take away, it’s this: Murder Hornet isn’t trying to be the biggest agency in Atlanta – although we believe we can be. We’re trying to be the agency brands call when the work actually has to drive business results.

Can you talk to us a bit about happiness and what makes you happy?
People, overwhelmingly. I’ll talk to anyone about anything – new friends, old friends, people whose whole life looks nothing like mine, because I genuinely want to know what they think. Some of my favorite moments are the ones where someone says something that rearranges how I see a thing I thought I already understood. Time with the people I love most just…fills me up. I leave lighter than I showed up.

On the more everyday end of things: my morning coffee, my English bulldog Tubbs (who has never once cared about a client deadline, and I respect that about him), a long run with absolutely nowhere to be afterward, and a good thriller that keeps me up, reading all night.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.murderhornet.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/itsmurderonthegram/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/murder-hornet/