The Career Built on Course Corrections with Ruben Sarino

Episode Information

Show Notes

What happens when you stop planning your career and start asking better questions?

Ruben Sarino didn’t set out to co-found an AI security company. The path from military kid bouncing between six countries to RiskHorizon AI co-founder included selling car parts, packaging California honey, working Apple retail, cold calling at CrowdStrike, and several stops in between.

None of it was planned. All of it mattered.

What You’ll Learn

Growing up in Japan showed Ruben what technology could do when it actually worked. Tapping cards to ride trains and buy things felt seamless. Visiting developing countries showed him the same problems without the same solutions. That contrast planted a seed: technology should solve real problems for real people.

But Ruben didn’t study computer science. He studied business. His first exposure to entrepreneurship came through a car parts manufacturer where he learned the difference between pushing products and solving problems. Then came a honey business he fell into by chance, where terrible packaging met great product. Apple retail taught him how great companies operate. CrowdStrike as an SDR gave him front-row seats to hypergrowth and mentors who showed him what came next.

Each stop built skills that transferred to the next one.

Key Insights

On Getting Started: “If you know too much, you will never start.” Ruben talks about the danger of over-researching and why ignorance sometimes helps you take the first step.

On Career Direction: His annual self-check-in doesn’t ask “what do I want to do?” It asks “how do I want to feel next year?” From there, he works backward to figure out what needs to change.

On Problem-Solving: Whether it’s car parts, cybersecurity, or AI, Ruben looks for the underlying problem before building solutions. Not everything needs AI. Some things just need better execution.

On Mentorship: The CrowdStrike account executives who took time to show him what happened after the handoff shaped his trajectory. He didn’t formally ask them to be mentors – he asked good questions and stayed curious.

On Risk: Being comfortable with change helps, but it’s not required. What matters is believing you can course correct if things don’t work out the way you planned.

About Ruben Sarino

Ruben Sarino is co-founder of RiskHorizon AI. His career spans car parts manufacturing, honey business, Apple retail, cybersecurity sales at CrowdStrike, workforce intelligence startups, and healthcare technology. He’s comfortable with change, believes in transferable skills, and thinks most people overthink their next move.

Connect with Ruben on LinkedIn:

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TranscriptionManuel Martinez: Welcome everyone, my name is Manuel Martinez, and this is another episode of Career Downloads, where each episode I basically hit the refresh button, bring on a different guest, to learn more about their background and their experiences, to really help uncover any actionable advice that you can use as you’re managing your own career. So I’m excited for today’s episode. I have with me Ruben Sarino, and him and I met at a networking event. We got to talking, just learning about kind of what he’s doing. He was asking me what I was doing. You know, we connected on LinkedIn, got to know each other, our backgrounds. And I think he has a lot to offer, and there should be a lot of good stories, a lot of good information that people can use, you know, whether you’re just starting out or you’ve been in the field for a while, you know, and are looking to make a change, either to a different area or, you know, maybe even promotion-wise. So with that, I’ll introduce Ruben.

Ruben Sarino: Hey, how are you?

Manuel Martinez: Good, appreciate you coming on and being willing to share your experiences and your story.

Ruben Sarino: Thanks for having me.

Manuel Martinez: Of course, if you don’t mind, what I tell all the guests is if you want to start off and just tell me a little bit more about you and kind of where you grew up, and then eventually what got you kind of interested in technology.

Ruben Sarino: Yeah, that’s a long story. So I think this is the perfect venue for it, right? So let’s see, where I grew up. So my dad was in the military. I was born here in Las Vegas, and right at five years old, moved to about six countries, including Japan, England, and got to travel around, all around Europe, and ended up back in the Philippines for a little bit. Ended up in college in California, went to school in the Bay Area, San Jose State, and then have since moved all around the US as well. So now I’m back in Las Vegas, and that’s where we met.

Manuel Martinez: And what is it that kind of got you interested in technology, doing all that? Because I know that you spend a little bit of time in Japan, the Philippines, and I’m sure living in different countries also gives you a different perspective on not only how different countries, not just culture-wise, but the things that they value, don’t value, and like in Japan, like technology’s a big thing. So I’m assuming that had some influence, possibly on what you ended up doing later on in life.

Ruben Sarino: Yeah, I think, as a kid, I was always into video games, always looking for ways to beat the system in the video games, and then I moved to Japan, and here during the 2000s, everybody had these amazing cell phones, and everything was so digitized, and the experience was so seamless. And I remember thinking to myself as a kid, Japan has figured it out, and has solved a lot of our day-to-day problems to make living a lot smoother, right? Let’s say commuting to work or buying things. And again, early 2000s, so ordering from an app wasn’t really a thing then. But then I got to travel also to third world countries, developing countries, and seeing those same human problems without those same solutions, and thinking to myself, there has to be a better way. And so technology has always, I’d say, fascinated me because at the end of the day, we’re ideally using technology to solve human problems, day-to-day problems, and really to make our lives a lot easier, because why work harder, right? So technology is a great way to help bridge the gap.

Manuel Martinez: And you mentioned day-to-day life. Kind of seeing the differences between a third world country or even a developing country and somebody like Japan that is so technology advanced. Did it feel seamless? Like when you go to Japan, it’s not like, oh my gosh, I have to go and do these things because it flows very well. Like I know people that have gone there, and it just, it seems, and you kind of touched on it a little bit, a part of daily life. It’s not like, well, I have to go out of my way to kind of use technology. It’s built into where it almost feels, I’m gonna say, invisible, even though it’s there.

Ruben Sarino: Yeah, that’s the best kind of technology, right? And you hit it spot on. I think, I remember growing up and things were just seamless, right? The way you interact with technology, you don’t think of all of the small systems that build it, but you tap a card to pay. This was, again, early 2000s. So this was like revolutionary, but you tap a card and that’s how you pay for things. That’s how you get into the subway. That’s how you get around. And nowadays that’s, or sorry, traveling to a developing country where I still had to then wait in line to get a ticket, to ride the train, if they had a train in the first place or get a taxi. It was, it’s just mind blowing, right? So being able to see the difference, I would say, like that kind of opened my eyes to like asking, I’ve always been a curious kid, right? Breaking things and taking things apart. And like I said earlier with video games, right? Like I’m always trying to see like, what’s the underlying like technology or system underneath so I can make my life easier, right? So at any rate, yeah, that’s what fascinated me about technology is what’s actually going on underneath that’s helping life become seamless. And then kind of seeing that contrast early on as a kid made me realize like, wait, we can apply probably the same systems to a developing country or to our day-to-day lives or at work. And that’s again, what’s fascinating to me about technology.

Manuel Martinez: You kind of grew up, you bounced around and what is it that eventually got your career started? You know, did you think like, hey, I’m gonna go into tech or was it more like, I’m just gonna find a job or go to school or, you know, kind of what was your first step?

Ruben Sarino: My first step out of high school, let’s see, tr