Having worked for the likes of Yahoo, AOL and file collaboration service Hightail, Garlinghouse has made himself known in the technology sphere, before settling in at Ripple.
When asked on an episode of CNBC’s “Life Hacks Live” what his deciding factors would be when considering between a new opportunity or staying put, Garlinghouse saw three areas as key.
1. Who’s involved
“One of the first things I always think about is the people involved. A group of smart, motivated, ambitious people that you want to work with,” said Garlinghouse.
“Some of the people at Ripple, I think are truly the smartest people I’ve ever worked with in my career, which makes it a lot of fun to go to work every day.”
2. The market’s size
“The size of the market I think is very important. I think there’s sometimes people are solving interesting problems but there’s a very small market — which is less exciting to me.”
3. Defensibility and competitive differentiation
“The third one I would highlight is: Is there a ‘defensibility’? Is there a competitive differentiation that’s building a competitive moat? Such that as other competitors enter the market, you have some ability to protect your position in the market — and I think again for Ripple, all of those things exist.”
Life Hacks Live is a series produced by CNBC International for Facebook, where tomorrow’s leaders get to ask some of the world’s biggest influencers for advice. You can watch the full interview here.
