Feature
From legal and financial logistics to staffing and client relationships, founders share what they learned in the early days of building their indie shops.
by Emma Thumann September 02 2026
After serving as VML’s chief creative officer, Noel Cottrell started his own independent shop, Murder Hornet. The agency launched in the summer of 2022, which is what Cottrell now refers to as a “false start.”
The agency had early momentum. One of Murder Hornet’s first projects focused on the New Georgia Project, a nonprofit organization that aimed to increase voter registration and turnout for underrepresented communities within Georgia. Another project was rebranding SnapNurse, a healthcare staffing platform, to SnapCare.
