CrewPass, Crew Vetting & AI in Yachting with Conrad Empson | On The Bridge

How well does the superyacht industry really know the people it brings onboard?

In this episode of On The Bridge, Alicia Store, Chief Operating Officer at dsnm Ltd, speaks with Conrad Empson, Founder and Managing Director of CrewPass, about crew vetting, background checks, onboard safety, entrepreneurship, and the growing role of AI in yachting.

Conrad started in yachting as crew, working his way from deckhand to bosun before moving ashore. His experience onboard helped shape the idea behind CrewPass, a platform built to make crew background checks easier, more secure, and more useful for crew, recruiters, captains, management companies, and employers.

This conversation looks at a question the industry can no longer afford to ignore: how can crew be welcomed onboard some of the world’s most valuable private assets, working close to owners, families, guests, and other crew, without proper checks in place?

Conrad explains how CrewPass was built from a safety perspective, why a crew-held credential made more sense than relying only on employers to request checks, and how the platform creates a more practical ecosystem for background screening across a global crew market.

Alicia and Conrad also discuss the realities of building a company, from validating the idea with recruiters to the expensive lessons learned from trying to make background checks affordable for crew through a payment plan.

The conversation then turns to AI in yachting, including how CrewPass is using technology to understand digital footprints, how AI is beginning to change recruitment and software development, and why tools such as Cursor are dramatically reducing the time and cost required to build new digital products.

At the centre of the discussion is a simple but important point:

Professional yachting cannot keep relying on attitude, references, and luck when it comes to knowing who is stepping onboard.

Topics include:

• Conrad Empson’s route from yacht crew to founder

• Why CrewPass was created