Meet Sarah Allen-Preston, the founder of Afloat—a gift delivery app that lets you shop from local businesses and have gifts delivered to a loved one on the same day. The app handles the entire gift-giving process, including wrapping and adding a handwritten note for an extra personal touch. Genius idea, right? The service is now available in nine cities—Atlanta, Dallas, Edmond, Fort Worth, Kansas City, Nashville, Oklahoma City, Plano, and Wichita—and counting.
Since we love the concept, we reached out to Sarah to get the inside scoop on everything Afloat, including what inspired her to start the company and her top gift picks in various categories. Scroll on to read!
"In life, there are silver confetti moments. I was an event planner, so I am a literal celebrator of all the good things in life; I love it so much – new babies, engagements, weddings, new jobs, houses, and graduations. And then, there are silver lining moments. Those are the hard moments. The ones no one wants to go through. The “ungiftable” moments—loss, hard days, sickness, struggle. But, when we look back and we’re on the other side, there's a silver lining to what we went through. Maybe it's something you learned. Maybe it's a turn your life took because of the experience. For me, my first silver lining moment was my son's open heart surgery. The silver lining was the connection that kept me afloat. My next life-changing one was my divorce. The silver lining was my motivation to build Afloat.
During both of these times, the importance of community and connection—often a simple gift on my doorstep—was imprinted on me. I became obsessed with building a company that made it meaningful and convenient to celebrate and support relationships of all kinds. Afloat is proud to connect relationships between people through gifting, support female-founded businesses and brands, and champion the mission of celebrating everything."
