There is a moment in every entrepreneurial story when the spreadsheet has to give way to a leap of faith. For Oliver Heer, that moment came twice.
The first was in 2014, when his father died at the age of 52. Heer was on a conventional trajectory — good university degree, international business background, a corporate career mapped out ahead of him. He had been working in Singapore, Hong Kong and Taiwan, and had discovered offshore racing almost by accident when he started sailing on a TP52 out of Asia. “I kind of realised,” he says, “that it could also be a way of earning a living.” When his father died, he made his decision.
“I said — excuse my language — f*** it. I want to try and become a professional sailor.”