We’re all acquainted with the phenomenon: When the going will get powerful, your neighbors carry you a casserole. Be it a hospital keep, a funeral, or a pure catastrophe—everytime you’re hurting, your group bands collectively, with lasagnas and flowers in hand.
Sarah-Allen Preston is aware of this all too properly. In 2017, she and her household have been dwelling in a rental after their Kansas City residence flooded. Her new child son, nicknamed Boss, had a coronary heart defect and wanted surgical procedure. “It was a very confusing and traumatic post-birth experience,” she explains.
During this time, her family and friends started dropping off presents from native outlets; toys for her older two sons, hospital garments she might put on. Preston was blown away by all of the love and assist.
“It wasn’t the things that meant so much to me,” she says, “but it was the thoughtfulness of the gifts that were signifying, like, I have people here for me. People care. And it really gave me a lot of strength.”
Then in 2019, she and her husband separated. Preston was as soon as once more flooded with presents and assist from her group. She started to think about how she might return the favor.
“I was like, ‘okay, there’s got to be an easy way for me to send my gratitude back into the world and show people how much that meant to me,’” she says.
She wished a simple and handy approach to ship considerate presents again to individuals throughout her restricted time as a single, working mom, however couldn’t discover what she was searching for. So she determined to develop a brand new gifting app, known as afloat.
The service is now out there in Kansas City and Dallas.
“I personally am obsessed with Dallas,” says Preston, who attended SMU and began her first enterprise, Preston Paper, right here within the naughties. The afloat cell app connects customers with native companies and types for simple gifting. Think residence items, clothes, kids’s and life-style manufacturers like Support HerStory, Sur La Vague, Miracle Milkookies, Madre, and extra.
The affiliated firms curate an inventory of giftable gadgets for customers to scroll by way of on the app, with new merchandise on sale each week. Once you discover one thing you want, all you must do is click on “give this gift,” and fill out your recipient’s identify and deal with, plus a notice from you, your fee data, and whether or not you need same- or next-day supply. (Afloat is partnered with rideshare firm Alto for swift deliveries.)
“My favorite feedback that we’ve gotten was, ‘I just sent a gift and under a minute, this is dangerous,’” Preston jokes.
Keeping manufacturers on the app native was paramount, she says. It was simpler for fast shipments—“delivery is in our DNA now”—and Preston’s complete manta is about connection and communities supporting one another.
That celebration is on the core of the app and its identify. Preston’s good friend got here up with it in 2019 after a stroll. They had mulled over Preston’s want to create a “celebratory supportive space.” The subsequent day, the good friend provided up afloat.
“I truly felt like I’d been hit by lightning,” Preston says. “Afloat in itself is just a happy, uplifting word. Whether it’s you’re gifting for a happy occasion, or those uncomfortable moments, you—sympathy thinking of you a breakup, a kid having a heart surgery—there’s so many things that it applies to.”
As the app grows, Preston hopes to function extra pop-ups and partnerships with native bloggers and influencers (for Valentine’s Day, Food Life Love blogger Rachel Hutchinson curated a particular reward information). User options will develop, she teases, and he or she’s persevering with to construct out the tech aspect, however for now, Preston is content material to develop her group and keep afloat.
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Catherine Wendlandt
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Catherine Wendlandt is the net affiliate editor for D Magazine’s Living and Home and Garden blogs, the place she covers all…