Suffering for short moments of great fun

After finishing sixth in the 2026 ORC World Championship, Per Roman’s GP42 Garm42 was on the winning team for the 2026 Sardinia Cup. A tech investor since the 1990s, he shares the parallels with his professional sailing operation:

Why did sailing become your sport of choice, and what are the parallels between offshore racing and venture investing?

I was lucky enough to grow up with sailing. My father was a devoted sailor, and living on a sailboat between the ages of five and seven, I was able to explore Europe with my parents. Then my father went into offshore racing in the 52-foot circuit, mainly as a navigator; I think that seeing him with all these legendary sailors meant that it was always going to be my passion from the outset.

Racing in any sense, and venture investing have huge parallels. First you have to establish a really top-level team. Every part of the team is critical to its success, and that’s very similar to when you’re building a great company.

On the GARM42 we are eleven, while on the GARM J70s we are four; in that dynamic with relatively few in a team, everyone has to be their best, and you’re never stronger than your weakest link.

It is also important to have great partners supporting you. For example, at GARM we have the privilege of being supported by Multiverse Computing, Bullhound, Bigdata.com, and ConnexAI. Knowing that you have the backing of partners that you can rely on is key for your confidence, and this is the same in the venture world.

What are your views on decision-making under pressure, risk management, and leadership in extreme environments?

The ability to make the right decisions under pressure comes with experience. The more experience you have of the environment you’re operating in, whether that be stock market crises or bad weather, the calmer you can be when facing pressure.

If you under-factor risk, you aren’t winning in racing or investing. You have to know when to throttle down and play it safe, but also when to go full-throttle. And while this is a key responsibility of the skipper, it is also their responsibility to listen very carefully to the team.

For example, when we won the Sardinia Cup, we decided to go full throttle. The heavy weather was good for us when fighting two faster boats, so we knew the conditions were right to take that risk. It’s the same in investing, when you have conviction, you have to go after it.

In my experience, the key with leadership is to make sure that you surround yourself with really competent people, sometimes even more competent than yourself as the leader. Then, when you encounter high pressure situations, you get high value responses and trusted analysis from people that don’t deliberate too long or make mistakes. – Read on