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{{Infobox Person |
Revision as of 23:51, 17 November 2010
Gurbaksh Singh Chahal | |
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File:G Chahal 003 0007.jpg | |
Born | [1] | July 17, 1982
Occupation | Entrepreneur |
Website | www.chahal.com |
Gurbaksh Singh Chahal (born July 17, 1982) is an American entrepreneur and author. By the age of 25, he founded two advertising companies worth $340 million, and more recently appeared on several TV shows and published a memoir.
Early life
Chahal was born in City Tarn Taran Sahib in Punjab, India to Avtar Singh and Arjinder Chahal. In 1982, his parents received a visa for America through the Diversity Visa (DV) program, also known as the Green Card Lottery, and the following year, when he was four, the family settled in San Jose, California.
Business ventures
On December 15, 1998, aged 16, Gurbaksh Chahal dropped out of high school [2] to work full time at his first venture, ClickAgents. ClickAgents was an advertising network focused on performance-based advertising. Two years later, on November 1, 2000, ValueClick announced it agreed to buy ClickAgents in a $40 million all-stock merger.[3][unreliable source?] Chahal had a three year non-compete agreement with ValueClick.
On January 12, 2004, Chahal formed BlueLithium. BlueLithium specialized in behavioural targeting of banner advertising (a process that tracks web users habits online in order to show ads they are most likely to respond to).[4] The advertising network which was recognized as an innovator in the online advertising space in a Business 2.0 article.[5] In 2006, under Chahal's leadership, BlueLithium was named Top Innovator by AlwaysOn.[6]
On October 15, 2007, Yahoo! bought Blue Lithium for $300 million in cash. Chahal remained CEO of the company through the transition period.[7]
In September 2009, Chahal started his third venture, gWallet, a virtual currency platform for social media. He remains the Chairman & CEO of the Company.[8] On December 1, 2009, gWallet raised its first institutional round of financing totaling $12.5 million from Adam Street Partners, Trinity Ventures, Stanford University and various others.[9] In October 18, 2010, a few days after Chahal's non-compete expired, the Company re-branded itself as RadiumOne, and launched an ad network focused on overlaying social and intent data together.[10]
Television appearances
On October 23, 2008, Chahal appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show to discuss his life and business journey. In his interview, Oprah introduced him as "one of the youngest and also the wealthiest entrepreneurs on the planet Earth".[11]
Chahal appeared on an episode of the Fox TV reality show Secret Millionaire, where he went undercover in the Tenderloin district of San Francisco to give away at least $90,000 of his own money.
On January 8, 2009, he was featured on Extra TV as America's Most Eligible Bachelor.[12]
Personal life
Chahal currently lives in San Francisco, California.
On April 29, 2010, Chahal was awarded the Leaders In Management Award and an Honorary Doctorate degree in Commercial Science from Pace University for his career achievements as an entrepreneur.[13]
Publications
- The Dream, Palgrave Macmillan (October 23, 2008) ISBN 0-23-061095-1
References
- ^ [1]
- ^ Zinko, Carolyne (October 26, 2008). "Advice from young millionaire Gurbaksh Chahal". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved January 6, 2010.
{{cite news}}
: Italic or bold markup not allowed in:|publisher=
(help) - ^ http://www.clickz.com/502181
- ^ Yahoo Snaps up BlueLithium
- ^ Big Innovations: BlueLithium, Business 2.0, September 20, 2006.
- ^ The 2006 AO 100, AlwaysOn.
- ^ Yahoo! press release re purchase of BlueLithium
- ^ [2]
- ^ http://venturebeat.com/2009/12/01/gwallet-raises-12-5m-for-more-ethical-virtual-currency-system/
- ^ http://blogs.wsj.com/venturecapital/2010/10/18/new-ad-network-radiumone-aims-to-tap-social-mega-trend/
- ^ Appearance on Oprah Winfrey's show
- '^ Extra TVs "Secret Bachelor"
- ^ [3]