Anchour, a marketing, branding and social media company, moved from Windham to downtown Lewiston last month, bringing its 10 employees. Anchour was founded three years ago, and Director of Operations Josh Pritchard jokes that at 33, he feels like the office grandfather.

Staff wanted to be part of the Twin Cities’ upswing and 25 percent of their clients — groups like Young Professions of the Lewiston Auburn Area and Not Here, businesses like Fuel and DaVinci’s Eatery — are already here.

“I feel like we have an opportunity to really affect a culture and not with like a savior mentality but with collaboration and community involvement,” said Pritchard. “It’s not if but when Lewiston-Auburn is a focal point in Maine from the outside looking in.”

Managing Director Stephen Gilbert, 25, of New Gloucester founded the company with three partners in August 2013. They liked the name Anchor for its nautical, Maine-feel. Anchor.com was taken; Anchour.com was not. It’s an easy icebreaker, Pritchard said, to say they’re great at branding, terrible at spelling.

An early investor pointed them to the office space in Windham, which they outgrew when Anchour doubled in size over the past year. 

Gilbert and Pritchard run day-to-day operations. Pritchard, who has a background in small business development, moved to Oxford from Connecticut three years ago. He credited Gilbert with being a “born entrepreneur.”

“He was in his parents’ basement building websites for people at age 13 or 14,” Pritchard said. “He likes to say he doesn’t know what he’s doing — he knows exactly what he’s doing.”

The company works with businesses and nonprofits to identify markets, offer design and Web help, film and photography, and digital marketing.

Anchour was behind the redesign of DaVinci’s website, logo and menu last year.

“In our business, everything we do is a billboard for us,” Pritchard said.

Outside of Lewiston-Auburn, they have clients in New York, California, Norway and Australia. (Skyping comes in handy.)

The Lisbon Street space may end up being temporary, depending on growth. The office black bear, given to Anchour in trade from a client, will make that move with them, too.

“We have no idea what it’s going to look like in a year or two; we’re just trying to do great work, keep our heads down and make businesses a lot of money,” Gilbert said. “The biggest thing for location for us: Does it make the team better?”

He said he thinks being in the Twin Cities, the answer is yes.

kskelton@sunjournal.com