Today we’d like to introduce you to Sarah-Allen Preston.
Hi Sarah-Allen, so excited to have you on the platform. So, before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
My name is Sarah-Allen and I’m the founder of afloat. I’ve always been a celebrator of relationships. As a professional event planner, I knew how important it was to celebrate your tribe and have fun doing it, too. But what happens when life takes crazy turns and all of a sudden, the supportive side of relationships becomes paramount? afloat was created after two deeply personal experiences – my son’s open-heart surgery and divorce – left me wanting to create a more seamless way to celebrate AND support people in your life. I realized there was no easy way to send thoughtful gifts. I began to research and found immense connection and meaning in the community’s beloved local shops. These amazing stores were already expert gift curators, but for Gifters (especially post-Covid with delivery in our DNA) it was tedious to orchestrate this level of thoughtful gift-giving that involved driving around to stores to find the perfect item and then delivering the gift.
So, I created afloat.
afloat is an app — a local gifting marketplace created to celebrate the people and businesses you love; with the ease and convenience you crave. It’s a place where you can go to show someone you care, and it makes you feel good. At your fingertips, you can give gifts, support local businesses, and reinforce relationships. Better yet, afloat uses technology to make these things easy and enjoyable, and then everyone reaps the real-life reward of doing good and feeling good. For stores, we provide a platform that is focused purely on gift-giving – a huge part of their business- and removes many of the pain points those smaller merchants encounter as they wear so many hats to serve their customers.
afloat is a space to celebrate the most important and valuable part of life — relationships and connection — in a joyful and fun way. We’re on a mission to become the happiest space in the digital world by connecting to the relationships that exist in real life.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
It has been a journey – as all start-ups are! When I initially shared my idea, I received push-back from people who didn’t understand the gifting space, pain points, the gaps we are filling on both sides of the marketplace, and our ultimate vision. I’ve learned to stick close to and learn from our stores and users. Their love of afloat, as well as my original mission of empowering connection and relationships through gifting, has made the pushback a dim noise in the background of my mind. Also, as a non-technical founder, envisioning the resources and team needed was a challenge initially. Now we have so many talented women working at afloat, and our users relate to us as a women-powered company that empowers many other women-owned businesses — it’s a perfect example of an obstacle becoming an opportunity.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
afloat is a mobile app that connects users with local stores for curated gifting on-demand. We celebrate relationships, connections, local business… we celebrate everything! People who want to send a thoughtful gift download the app and shop a curated gifting selection from local stores. The gifts are wrapped (with a handwritten note – not a receipt that gets lost in a brown box!) and delivered the same the next day! It’s the easiest way to brighten someone’s day.
The crisis has affected us all in different ways. How has it affected you and any important lessons or epiphanies you can share with us?
We have learned how critical connection and community are. We are so proud to be facilitating an easier way to stay connected, be thoughtful, do something nice for someone, and feel good…all while supporting local business! Gifting is connection and COVID definitely brought connection top of mind. We also learned that delivery is doable for everything… and we’re proud to be the only company doing it for gifting, specifically!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://afloat.life
- Instagram: @theafloatapp
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/afloatlife/
Image Credits
Sabrina Leone Photography
