Mind Rockets is leveling the playing field for the deaf community—and making new horizons possible for a marginalized segment of the population. Finally, someone is filling this crucial gap…and their inclusive, multi-tiered goals encompass widespread societal progress on a massive scale.
1 – Could you please introduce yourself and tell us what you do?
My name is Malek Zuaiter. I am the Business Developer Executive of Mind Rockets.
2 – What is Mind Rockets? What are the different solutions you provide for deaf people?
Mind Rockets is a startup that develops assistive technologies for the deaf—more specifically, the technology to translate text/speech to sign language instantly, using animated avatars. What this means is that we have developed the means to make any service deaf-friendly. I call it “deaf-friendlinization.”
Here are just a few examples:
- A mobile app for individual use to communicate with a deaf person, which can also be used to learn sign language. (So far, we have two apps: one for American Sign Language, and the other for Arabic Sign Language. They can be found on our website for iOS and Android.)
- A video interpreter (currently in alpha testing and soon to be launched) featuring our avatars in the corner of any video or movie, providing sign language interpretation for the deaf audience (80% of the deaf population has no access to education, resulting in a very high illiteracy rate and an inability to read subtitles.)
- A pharmaceutical solution: a customized solution for deaf-friendlinizing pharmacies.
- Shopping malls: Deaf-friendlinizing shopping experiences (providing a barcode/QR scanner that will provide the sign language interpretation of any product).
- Etc.
3 – What inspired you to launch this business?
Mr. Mahmoud Darawsheh (CEO and Founder) has been programming since middle school. In high school, his school noticed his talents, and suggested that he participate in the INTEL ISEF Awards (2008) and come up with a solution for deaf people. He ended up winning third place in the world in the Behavior & Social Science category. This is what happens when you create an ecosystem that will allow talented individuals to come up with solutions to seriously benefit society.
4 – Why did you decide to launch a social business?
MIND ROCKETS BELIEVES THAT THERE IS AN OBLIGATION ON EVERY CAPABLE PERSON, INNOVATOR/BUSINESSPERSON, AND INVESTOR TO HOLD AT THEIR CORE A DRIVE FOR SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY.
This should not be divorced from, or merely coincidentally present in, our entrepreneurial ideas. Rather, it should be at the core of every idea, in a time when this is much needed for prosperity, sustainability, and even the survival of our species.
5 – What makes your solutions different from or more useful than others?
Our solution is supported by a strong moral philosophy at its foundation: we operate under the ethical codes of Islamic Shari’a. We think of our breakthrough technology like water, which will fit into any vessel (service) to “deaf-friendlinize” it. From there, our vision is to seriously begin transforming our infrastructure to welcome and include marginalized deaf communities into our society.
6 – In your opinion, what made your startup win the ARAMEX PRIZE CHOICE?
We are humbled by Aramex’s choice and faith in us. We believe Aramex was able to see the positive effect we can have. We hope and are determined to be up to all our supporters’ expectations.
7 – How was the experience at the event? What did you learn from it?
The treasure in such events lies in the people involved. They’re great people: creative, smart, and rich in knowledge and experience from around the world. The boot camp and mentorships were quite informative, and require that I go back, study, and review all the notes and information shared to be able to better apply that knowledge to our operations.
Finally—and, in hindsight, this might not be so surprising—when you organize and get a group of special people together in one space, special things will happen. We need more of these gatherings in our society, so beautiful minds can collide and come up with more beautiful ideas and collaborations—which, aided by an urgent sense of moral obligation, promise to start providing the positive transformation in our infrastructures and institutions that our species needs.
8 – What specific challenges did you face as a social enterprise? The business model, the customers, the regulations…?
Because our technology is like water, as I explained earlier, it has very wide applications, which makes coming up with one business plan quite challenging. A lean mentality must be adopted in order to stay on the move and flexible to what the market demands, rather than stubbornly sticking to one business plan and waiting for it to work.
Another challenge has been the bureaucracies that stand in the way of accelerating our operations. One example is market research (difficulty in acquiring statistics for better market segmentation).
9 – What advice do you want to share with promising social entrepreneurs?
My first piece of advice would be to learn about and try to adopt a delayed-gratification mentality. In our instant-gratification culture nowadays, we are impatient when we fail to see rewarding results in very short time—an amount of time that is unrealistic in the startup world.
YOU MUST BE PATIENT, TAKE RISKS, AND CLIMB FROM ONE FAILURE TO THE OTHER WITH NEW LESSONS AND WISDOM.
Secondly, I would advise founders to learn to trust and delegate. After giving birth to your brainchild of an idea, it is understandably hard to let go of one’s complete hold over it. Nevertheless, at some point, as you grow, you must begin to let go of certain responsibilities in order that they be handed to others, whom you must learn to trust. This will enable you to adopt newer, bigger, and more strategic responsibilities, which are necessary for your brainchild to grow and shine.
Last of all, it is our advice, as Muslims, for social entrepreneurs to first trust in God, and second, given that they have adopted an idea that has “good” impact in its core, to have pure intentions and avoid succumbing to greed. We must remember that money must not be an end in and of itself, but a means to a higher end—that is, the well-being of our species, society, and families, as well as ourselves.