Porsche has always taken pride in being one of the favorites amongst passionate car enthusiasts, especially celebrity car collectors. One of them is Jan Koum, the billionaire cofounder of WhatsApp, who fell in love with Porsches while growing up in a suburb of Kyiv, Ukraine. In fact, the tech genius claims the desire to own one of the German sports cars is what fueled his ambition in the early years of his career. However, Koum, who had once lived on food stamps, went on to acquire not one but many ultra-rare and highly sought-after Porsches thanks to the fortune made by selling WhatsApp.
How Porsche inspired Koum’s climb from supermarket cleaner to tech mogul
Koum’s journey from poverty to becoming a billionaire is a classic “rags to riches” story driven by determination, and his love for Porsche. Born in 1976 in a suburb of Kyiv, Ukraine, his family faced severe financial difficulties. In 1992, at the age of sixteen, he immigrated to the United States with his mother, hoping for a better future. Life in the U.S. was still challenging, as they relied on welfare and food stamps. Koum worked as a cleaner at a supermarket, while his mother did ironing on a piecework basis. Every time he saw a Porsche, it reminded him of his dream. ‘For me, a Porsche always represented the epitome of success,’ Koum recalls, and this desire motivated him to learn programming.
After nine years at Yahoo, Koum co-founded WhatsApp in 2009, marking the start of his remarkable success. In 2014, Facebook acquired WhatsApp for $19 billion, catapulting Koum into the ranks of the world’s wealthiest people. Despite his immense fortune, he remains grounded but is unwavering in his passion for Porsche. ‘My brand is Porsche,’ he proudly says, having fulfilled his lifelong dream of owning one.
Koum bought his first Porsche 911 in 2003 and never looked back. Back in 2018, he announced that he’d be stepping down from Facebook’s board of directors to pursue his dream. He said he wanted to “take some time off, enjoy things outside of technology, and collect air-cooled Porsches; work on cars; and play ultimate frisbee.”
Within a year, his collection of Porsches had become so big that he had to auction ten incredibly collectible cars through Gooding & Co. The sale featured three ultra-rare air-cooled Carrera RS 911s, a 997 GT2 RS, and a 918 Spyder hybrid hypercar. Koum’s current collection features a 993-generation 911 GT2 and a Porsche Carrera GT.
Koum’s obsession with Porsche’s six-cylinder symphony
One thing common on all of Koum’s Porsche cars is the radio delete option. It is basically getting a car from the factory without the radio installed. Instead of a radio or an infotainment system in modern Porsches, there’s a shelf, which also helps in reducing the overall weight of the car. “I prefer to buy cars that have a ‘radio delete’ option,” Koum told Porsche customer magazine Christophorus.
“Because the best music of all is the sound of the six-cylinder boxer engine.” The last Porsche in the US that was offered with a radio delete was the 991.2 GT3. In 2018, a federal regulation in the US took effect, requiring all new vehicles sold in the US to be equipped with backup cameras. However, aftermarket radio delete shelves are still easily available.
Note – At the time of writing this article, according to Forbes, Jan Koum has a net worth of $16.2 billion. Based on its closing price, the market cap of Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche AG is $32 billion.
