The Sarasota Social didn’t start in a boardroom. It started with two friends, an idea, and a belief that Sarasota’s local businesses deserved a better way to connect with the people visiting our community.

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Founders Joshua Dunsmore and Bradley Dunleavy came together at a time when neither was necessarily looking to start another business. In fact, life had thrown both of them a few curveballs. But sometimes the best ideas come along when you least expect them.

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We kept noticing the same problem.

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Sarasota has incredible locally owned restaurants, shops, attractions and experiences, but many visitors simply don’t know about them. At the same time, hotels, resorts and vacation rentals need a convenient way to help their guests answer the same questions every visitor asks:

 

Where should we eat?

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What should we do?

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Where should we go?

 

We believed there had to be a better way to connect the two.

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So we started small...

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Armed with an early version of our guide, a lot of determination and probably more optimism than money, we began walking into businesses throughout Gulf Gate, introducing ourselves, listening to local business owners and sharing our idea.

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There was no big advertising budget. No corporate backing. No team of salespeople.

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It was just the two of us.

 

Those first businesses took a chance on us, and something started to happen. We made our first sales. We improved the guide. We listened to what business owners wanted. And then we began approaching hotels, resorts and vacation-rental companies on Siesta Key.

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That's when the idea really started to take shape.

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What began as a simple local advertising concept evolved into The Sarasota Social Hospitality Amenities Guide — a professionally designed, carefully curated guide placed directly inside vacation accommodations, connecting visitors with local businesses at one of the most valuable moments possible: While they're actually here and deciding where to spend their time and money.

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We also realized early on that the guide had to provide value to everyone involved.

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For our hospitality partners, it needed to be a beautiful and useful guest amenity — not simply a book filled with advertisements.

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For our advertisers, it needed to put their businesses directly in front of visitors and provide a way to measure engagement.

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And for the guest, it needed to make experiencing Sarasota easier by helping them discover great places to eat, drink, shop, visit and explore.

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That philosophy continues to shape everything we do.

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We've redesigned and refined our guides, developed customized editions for hospitality partners, introduced trackable QR technology for advertisers, and continued building relationships with hotels, resorts, vacation-rental companies and locally owned businesses throughout the Sarasota area.

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But despite how much the idea has grown, the mission hasn't really changed from those first days walking through Gulf Gate: Support local businesses. Help our hospitality partners take better care of their guests. And help visitors discover what makes Sarasota such an incredible place to experience.

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We started The Sarasota Social with very little except an idea, a friendship and the determination to see whether we could make it work.

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Fortunately, some local businesses believed in that idea too.

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And we're just getting started.

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Joshua Dunsmore & Bradley Dunleavy

Founders, The Sarasota Social
Founders, The Sarasota Social