E15 From yachting to software developer and those a-ha moments
In our fifteenth episode of Pearls' Tales from the Superyacht Laundry, we chatted with Ciara Farrow, ex-Chief Stew/Purser turned tech entrepreneur.
A serendipitous meeting with a yacht-owning family was when Ciara first heard about the industry. Initially from Ontario, she headed to the Rocky mountains for a dose of adventure in her 20s and ended up working in hospitality. After liking what she heard, she headed to do her courses, and an extremely dodgy hostel staying experience later secured her first role onboard.
She experienced highs and lows throughout her time onboard, a particular high found in lycra as she cycled the world's coastlines during her downtime. Throughout her career, she went in and out of stages of wanting to leave, but it wasn't until health issues forced her hand.
After going through a challenging ordeal and recovery process in Florida, throughout Covid and alone, she was determined to get through it, and her persistent self saw her returning to yachts after a full recovery. While recovering, she took various software development courses to fuel her idea of creating a software solution for managing preferences better onboard.
Her problem-solving and determined nature resulted in her launching Sevenstar, the yacht preference app, born from frustration with an aim to help the operations of such a niche industry. Now able to talk the software tech language she is riding the entrepreneurial wave, constantly learning, getting feedback, and improving her product.
Tune in to hear Ciara's inspirational story, her very valuable advice to others wanting to make the jump, and the scary reason why she won't be returning to the Azores…