The team behind Upriver.
We are a small agency, built to bring small businesses Systems, including AI and websites, plus Content that used to take a big-company budget and an agency on retainer. Joshua leads strategy and content, Anne Marie runs implementation and sets everything up safely, and Megan runs onboarding and the client relationship. The people you meet are the people who do the work.
The team
Strategy
Joshua Brown
Joshua is a photographer and filmmaker who has shot over 500 weddings at more than 50 venues across the Hudson Valley and Catskills, and has run his own small business for 25 years.
Before photography, he was an Apple Creative. A couple of years ago he started building AI tools and automations for his own business: content, lead response, SEO, automated workflows. It worked, other owners noticed, and Upriver grew out of it. He writes the strategy, sets the standards, and shoots the video.
Implementation
Anne Marie
Anne Marie runs operations and implementation. From a web-development background, she is the one who sets up the accounts and connections and makes sure everything is done safely and securely.
She turns the plan into a working system you own: your site in a repo with your name on it, your tools connected to Claude, and your analytics and ad accounts set up right.
Client Experience
Megan
Megan keeps the work moving. She handles onboarding, scheduling, document collection, and the day-to-day communication that makes a small operation run like a much bigger one.
She is usually your first point of contact, the bridge between you and the rest of the team, and the reason projects land on time.
And one more
Claude
We are not joking. Claude (made by Anthropic) is the AI that powers everything we build for clients. It drafts content, runs the audits, responds to inquiries, writes the code, and plans the work. We treat it like a team member because that is what it is, a tireless one that does not need a lunch break and never forgets your brand voice.
Read more about how Claude fits into the workA different kind of agency
Most agencies have project managers, account executives, junior strategists, and a rotating cast of contractors you never meet. The person you talk to in the sales meeting is rarely the person doing the work. By the time your money reaches the people executing, half of it has gone to overhead.
We are an agency, but not that kind. The people who pitch you are the people who do the work, and we have worked together on real projects for years. Nobody is learning on your dime.
You get senior-level work from a team that already knows how to work together. That is the whole pitch.
Start a conversation
The best way to see if this is a fit is to talk. Twenty minutes, free, no pitch deck.