When we grew up, our family and kind of gaggle of cousins would go to the south of France for the summers. And we just had a grand time.

My family emigrated to the U.S. after the Iranian revolution in 1978.

My family owned a bunch of pharmaceutical manufacturing plants and other consumer-goods manufacturing plants. We would license Western goods and manufacture them in Iran and distribute them throughout the Middle East.

When you go to a voice-based interaction, you can't tell people, 'Ask me this question and structure it in this way.' And if they ask a question, and you have a bad answer, first time, maybe they'll be okay with it. Third time, they're going to say, 'This is a complete waste of time. I'm going away.'

My father had to go back to Iran to take care of his father when I was 13 and was detained for six years before returning. My mom was raising three kids without a dad.

Uber is a company that is redefining the transportation industry on a global basis; to be part of that story is something that is interesting and would be a real privilege.