Ali Allage (SPT)

My Story
As Brief As I Can Make It

Originally I was born in the UK (Watford to be exact) and moved to the US when I was about two years old. Our family moved around a lot so I had a chance to live in different parts of the country (unfortunately I was too young to remember) before we settled in Maryland. A product of divorced parents at a young age, I was the text book troubled kid growing up and getting into a lot of mischief (nothing too severe, but more of the teenage rebellious stage that many kids go through). Thank God I came to my senses early enough to straighten out my life.

From a young age, I’ve always been into cars. Thanks to my brother (11 years older) who fed the passion with his hand-me-down car magazines, I turned to cars as my outlet. Together with my other two best friends, Mark and Shervin, we turned the passion into something more. Drooling at every red prancing horse that drove past us, attending any motorsports venue we could, attending car shows, and just surfing the web for dream cars. This passion slowly turned itself into a full time career for Mark and myself.

It all started with EvolutionM, originally called Lancer Forums. EvoM was the starting point for us that wasn’t realized until later in life (I’ll get into this more in a bit, be patient…). Mark originally created EvolutionM out of his love for the Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution and other Lancer models. At the time the only car available was the Mistubishi Lancer (the Evo wasn’t available in the US) and with cars like the Toyota Supra, Mazda RX-7, and Nissan 300zx all gone, there was a void that needed to be filled for car enthusiasts. The plan was to build the site up and use the audience to help us petition Mitsubishi to bring the Evo to the States (http://www.petitiononline.com/lancer/). To everyone’s surprise, Mitsubishi announced the arrival of the Evo to the States shortly after!! Within a short period of time, the site grew at a rapid pace.

Fast foward a few years, Mark and I decided to take the next step and create our company, Boost Labs. We moved to California (the mecca of anything car related) and decided to start fresh there. With a new company in development, it was time to get started on our long list of ideas. EvolutionM at this time was pretty successful and had a ton of momentum. We had future plans of expansion to include international regions to make sure we could become a large resource for everyone anywhere in the world. It was a big idea but we felt having a large resource available to everyone would be a great accomplishment. In addition we decided to start a couple other sites including:

• GTRForums.com (Nissan GTR community)
• ModDeals.com (A site to help enthusiasts find the best deal for parts)

Unfortunatly after a year of working together in our new venture, a tragic accident ended Mark’s life (more info: www.markmodaressi.com). Being involved in the same accident, it took me some time to recover physically. Mentally I was a mess and was in disbelief at what actually happened. My friend of 22 years was gone. During all of this the sites were still active and didn’t have anyone behind the helm managing them. It was time to pull it all together and it was my job to make sure our venture continued. I couldn’t let Mark down. After breifly negotiating with his family, I was able to purchase Mark’s half of the company and start pulling everything back into order.

At this point, everything was at a critical stage. With no one managing the sites, everything that could happened, happened. Server downtime, software issues, community issues, etc. With the help of my wife, we worked countless hours trying to pull everything back together. It took us a couple of months but we finally got the site and our company in working order. With everything as it was before the accident, it was now time to start where Mark and I left off.

To this day, I’ve put all I could into Boost Labs and it has paid off. EvolutionM is the largest resource available today when it comes to Mitsubishi Lancer & Evolution and our other projects are growing at a respectable rate, which couldn’t of made me more proud. It has been a long and difficult road since Mark’s passing. On days where I needed him the most, I could somehow feel his presence acting like a guide through the rough seas of life.

Who knows what the future will hold for me. All I know is as long as I continue to pursue my dreams, I’ll have no regrets.

Professional Background
resume style

Ali comes from the IT world having been a key player in the start up of two successful web development and software companies. Combining his passion for motorsports with his technical background he strives to help open the lines of communication between the aftermarket industry and their customers. Ali has had the challenge of continuing company operations after the passing of his business partner Mark Modaressi in 2005, taking on several aspects of the company from client relations to product and IT development to project car mechanic - all while maintaining the long-term goals of Boost Labs as an emerging leader in the automotive media industry. With the help of his staff, Ali continues to deliver innovative, successful advertising avenues that are effective in a world where technology and methods of consumer outreach are rapidly changing.