Launching Alecci Media: Working in Startups to a Self-made Entrepreneur

Where passion meets content, creativity, & art is married with

data-driven decisions. 

Alecci Media was founded by Alexandria McCulloch, a PHX-based Content Strategist. She has a history of international experience working with the Global Fortune 500, startups, and high-growth companies from NYC, LA, Prague to Singapore. Alecci Media offers services across a wide range of marketing efforts: blogs, thought leadership, PR, video production, campaigns, social media marketing, rebranding, and other website services. 

Where did it all begin? 

Over the course of my career, I saw how difficult it was for brands to tell their stories in an effective way and reach the right audiences. That’s a no brainer now, and why I was hired in the first place, but it came somewhat easy to me through writing. I didn’t see myself as a subject matter expert at the time and where I fit in the marketing department. I simply loved packaging ideas and using storytelling to build stronger narratives. 

One of the biggest challenges I faced early on was convincing the C-Suite about why they should create social media accounts. This was right after Facebook launched Pages for business. I started my career during the advent of social media (even before native analytics or Facebook had monetized their platforms...not even ad spend was a thing), and I was trying to explain to these execs about how they could achieve positive ROI and engage audiences. It was an alien concept at the time. 

“What would we post? Can we even measure it? Facebook is just a place for college kids and bored moms, NOT for business”. That’s just some of the questions and comments I heard. 

Today, Facebook alone is worth $496B, and nearly every business in the world has a social media profile - and across multiple platforms. When businesses started to leverage social media for their marketing efforts, it became extremely competitive and the race for Page Likes began. 

The naysayers quickly turned to assemble teams which became more like content machines to get in front of the newsfeeds of their customers. That’s where I saw the importance of creating various formats to reach new audiences and build online communities. 

Content became king. At the end of the day, it’s all about increasing the bottom-line. Every like, share, comment, retweet on your status updates, photos, videos, etc. means another opportunity for website conversion. Building a loyal, engaged following improves your ability to drive sales. It took a few years before management could grasp that idea, and some still don’t. Fast forward...

With this new-found knowledge, I was entrusted with creating different content formats from SEO blogs, whitepapers, video and written client testimonials to interviewing the world’s leading brands about their social media tactics. I quickly saw every company, no matter maturity, size or industry, have one thing in common; a difficult time marketing their products.  

Where did you launch your career? 

I moved to Prague, Czech Republic at 17 years old for uni to study International and European Economic Studies. Prague exposed me to so many great things from studying and working within a multicultural environment to traveling the world. 

After graduating, I freelanced, and worked as a content manager for a few companies and came up against the challenges of the C-Suite undervaluing the importance of social media. So I decided to work for a social media analytics company haha. 

I started as a Copywriter for Socialbakers. That startup environment was an invaluable milestone. From copywriter to managing several other forms of creative content, that was gold. Working for a VC backed startup early on taught me how to analyze/report data, and understand what makes engaging content.

I crafted numerous blogs that featured the best brands on social media and debunked their strategies. Later I got to work with them at our conferences! Our global award-winning events enabled me to create content before, during, and after the event. Later I took on developing presentations - and conducting written/live video interviews with experts from industry titans such as NASA, National Geographic, Publicis, LEGO, Lamborghini, Nestlé, Canon, and MGM Resorts International, to name a few. 

Hustling, and working in a constantly changing industry empowered me to follow trends, try new things, iterate quickly, and build various forms of content from conception to publication. 

I've taken those skills, international experience, and a multicultural perspective with me to NYC. I got transferred to the ‘Big Apple’ to build a marketing engine for that company’s US branch. Later I moved on to become Head of Content for a leading FinTech startup to build their content machine from the ground up.

Why did you decide to launch your own boutique marketing agency? 

Haha, that’s a loaded question, buckle up. 

No matter whom I worked for, I always had this burning desire to start my own business. I thrived in environments where I had free reign, could test out new ideas and try new things. Unfortunately, not every workplace can afford to innovate and take risks, sometimes too many egos and politics muddy creativity. I needed to spread my wings and try my own thing. 

I come from a long line of entrepreneurs. I’m third-generation Italian, my family name is Alecci and I’ve decided to name my business after it because of what it represents to me. My great-grandfather, grandfather, uncles, mom, and other cousins have all had their own business. My great-grandfather left Italy by boat at 17 with nothing but the money in his pockets and the clothing on his back.

He got a job at a GE foundry where he did very dangerous work. My grandfather witnessed his father’s physical exhaustion and how he received little pay. He decided that he wanted to work with his mind for better wages rather than being a manual laborer, and started a few Italian restaurants. That’s why when growing up he always used to tell me, "work smarter, not harder".

“work smarter, not harder”

My mother was one of five siblings and was the only one, until recently, that got a college education. She worked as a regional manager in the staffing industry for 14 years and later started her own bakery when I was five-year-old. I grew up around the business and saw how she dealt with customers, suppliers and her employees. We laugh about it now, but I learned how to properly shake peoples’ hands at age 5 and write a resume at 10. She always encouraged me to do little businesses, like a lemonade stand out in front of her shop, create posters, little loyalty programs haha. I guess hustling and marketing come naturally. 

People say we learn from example; my mother was definitely my role model because I admired the way she could speak with so many different types of people. She treated everyone with the same respect, no matter if they were a janitor or a CEO of a company. I learned the value of a dollar, working hard until you got the job done, and a whole slew of other things that still serve me well today, both in the business world and in my personal life. 

So fast forward to Alecci Media which I founded this February, and also in the wake of the coronavirus. I wanted to take my skills to help other small businesses like the one my family owned, and other best practices from working with the Global Fortune 500 and high-growth startups. 

What type of services does Alecci Media provide? 

Alecci Media offers services across a wide range of marketing efforts: blogs, thought leadership, PR, video production, campaigns, social media marketing, rebranding, and other website services. Our motto is: 

Where passion meets content, creativity, and art is married with data-driven decisions. 

I’m proud to say that in less than 3 months, we acquired clients across the US and abroad. 

A special thanks...

I’m so grateful for every opportunity I’ve been given, and the people that have been instrumental in my life and career along the way. Thank you to my fam, to Jan Rezab from Socialbakers and Zach Peterson that hired me, to Phillip Ross that taught me the copywriting ropes, to my friends and mentors Christina Mann, Melissa Kidon, Julie Kearney, Sabeen Ahmed from Publicis, Veronica McGregor from JPL/NASA, Margareta Retsnik for challenging me to go after what I want, Klara Honzikova for entrusting me with creating content for over 20+ global events, to entrepreneur Fred Schebesta from Finder.com that taught me nothing is impossible, for my great friend Karolina Humby and those that have started their own businesses and encouraged me to do the same Farah Salman at Binarii Staffing, Gloria Chou at Gloria Chou PR, Nilu Amin, and Yannique Joseph at Shine Influence, to David Song from Rosie Labs that gave me the final spark to open Alecci Media. 

Where can people get in touch? 

Get in touch with me directly or on our LinkedIn page.