For Karan Walia, buying a luxury vehicle for a friend was far more than just a way to repay a favour. It was also a way to fulfill a long-forgotten promise.
Five years ago, the Toronto man was a university graduate with a dream. He believed an algorithm he’d been working on could lead to a successful business. But he needed a job to pay the bills while he got that company off the ground.
One of his friends offered him more help then he could have imagined. Zamir Rahemtulla recommended Walia for an open IT position at the company he was working for, then helped him navigate the application process. Once Walia got the job, Rahemtulla offered to cover for him when he needed to leave to attend meetings for his startup, Cluep.
“I knew he was onto something so much bigger,” Rahemtulla told CTVNews.ca in a phone interview.
Walia quit the IT job after a few months so he could devote his full attention to Cluep. When he announced that he was leaving, Rahemtulla had a quick response.
“I said ‘If there’s anything you can do once you sell, just buy me a Porsche and we’ll be all good,’” Rahemtulla said.
Rahemtulla meant it as a joke. Walia played along.
“I laughed and was like ‘Yes, of course, done.’ I was just super, super happy, because we had just landed funding,” Walia told CTVNews.ca.
Cluep grew by leaps and bounds over the next few years. Hundreds of advertisers, including global brands such as McDonald’s, Nike and Mercedes-Benz, signed up for its algorithm-based ad targeting service – the sort of technology that pushes ads for hair-colouring products to people who upload pictures of themselves with a little bit of grey hair showing.
Walia and his co-founders sold the company last month for $53 million. The buyer was Impact Group, a major American marketing firm.
Through all of this, Walia remembered the seemingly joking promise he had made to his friend five years earlier.
“It was always in the back of my head,” he said. “When we officially closed a few weeks ago, he was the first person to come to mind.” (Rahemtulla, on the other hand, says he had forgotten all about the Porsche comment.)
Described by his friends as someone always thinking several steps ahead, Walia set a plan in motion. He invited the people closest to him to dinner, telling them he had a couple of surprise announcements. The first was that Cluep had been sold. And the second?
“He said ‘You know what that means, Zamir’s getting a Porsche as well,’” Rahemtulla said. “I think I just went speechless and then started laughing hysterically.”
Over the next few days, the two friends started talking about different Porsche models and options. Rahemtulla says he still didn’t really believe Walia was serious until they started taking test drives.
Rahemtulla eventually selected a 2015 Porsche Cayman. He liked its six-cylinder engine and yachting blue interior, neither of which are available on newer models. He picked up the keys last week.
“It definitely felt like winning the lottery,” he said.
Walia said he was more than happy to do something nice for a friend who helped him get his company off the ground. He hopes the story of the promised Porsche will help others understand the importance of honouring their word.
“If you make a promise to someone, I think it’s very important that you live by it,” he said.
Rahemtulla describes the Porsche as more of a “weekend toy” than an everyday convenience, as his daily commute is only a short walk. He suspects, though, that the car will get plenty of use one way or another.
“I think my dad’s planning to visit a lot more often now,” he said.
