Q & A With Anousheh Ansari

October 10th, 2009 by bobpayne

Anousheh Ansari is the world’s first female space tourist. That’s what she’s famous for but it isn’t the greatest of her accomplishments.  I spent a few minutes talking with Anousheh and her husband Hamid during lunch at TEDxSMU.  The Ansaris are serial entrepreneurs.  You may have heard the name through their sponsorship of the Ansari X Prize, a $10 million prize to be awarded to the first non-governmental group to launch a craft into space twice within two weeks, a prize won by Spaceship One.

CoHabitat:

Why are you speaking at TEDxSMU today?

Anousheh:

Change happens when individuals start something that they feel passionate about and take action toward it.  I’m hoping that people here won’t just see problems that need solving and complain about it, but will actually do something about making a difference and changing it.

Cohabitat:

What was your biggest obstacle?

Anousheh:

Myself.  Me telling myself that I can’t do something and stopping myself from actually trying it.  Once you overcome that I think a lot of new doors open for you.  What has helped me is having a great partner.  My husband and I sort of encourage each other.  Sometimes I’m ready to give up and he tells me to keep going.  And sometimes he is ready to quit and I tell him he was to keep going.  It’s great to find that one person that will always be there with you and will always be there for you, so you can do things together.

Cohabitat:

That’s great.  I’ve got that person, too.  My wife is awesome.  You’ve obviously done enough for most people’s lifetime, but I know you’re not finished.  What is next for the two of you?

Anousheh:

I sort of live a dual life.  My first love is space and the other is my career in technology.  My husband and I started a company three years ago called Prodea systems.  We’re trying to change how people consume and use technology because it changes so rapidly.  Sometimes people, especially older people in their generation have a hard time keeping up with the changes.  It has created this divide between the younger generation and the older one.  We are trying to make things easy so that everyone can enjoy technology.  It tunes the way that technology is consumed by everyone, making it easy for everyone.

Cohabitat:

So are you focusing on the UI? The user interface?

Anousheh:

Well, we’re focusing on creating a generic platform so that all web sites can deliver content over it and have a consistent UI.  When new technologies come out, we just introduce these new capabilities into this same UI.  There’s no learning the new UI, IP addresses, passwords, and so on.  There’s one way of accessing all services and applications.  It’s sort of like an iPhone for the home.  It is all encompassing.

Cohabitat:

Would I find this at Prodea.com?

Anousheh:

Yes.

(Hamid scrunches his face a bit)

Cohabitat:

Hamid, you’re saying, “Not so much” about the website?

Hamid:

(Laughs) Yeah.  You’ll get some information but we’re not advertising it yet.  You don’t find a lot of details on the website.  It gives you some details but there is a lot of capability that we’re not displaying yet.

Anousheh:

First quarter next year we’re going to come out with a lot of details and news.  We’ll put it on the website then.

Cohabitat:

Its interesting.  You’re going with Prodea.  Why wouldn’t you use your name?  The “Ansari” brand is very strong.

Anousheh:

Well, we never thought of using our name as a brand.  Even with the X prize.  We just wanted to be sponsors and not use our name. We only did it because the foundation thought that there needed to be a family behind the public face of it.  We like to live a sort of a private life.

Cohabitat:

Yeah.  Good luck with that.

Hamid and Anousheh:

(Laughing)  Thanks.

Very humble and approachable people.

Tags: Ansari, Prodea, TED, TEDxSMU