Gurbaksh Singh Chahal (born July 17, 1982) is an Indian-American internet entrepreneur and a best-selling author. By the age of 25, he had founded and sold two advertising companies for a total of US$340 million.
Early life :
Chahal was born in Tarn Taran Sahib in Punjab, India to Avtar Singh and Arjinder Chahal. In 1985, 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 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. [unreliable source?] Chahal had a three year non-compete agreement with ValueClick.
On January 12, 2004, Chahal formed BlueLithium. BlueLithium specialized in behavioral targeting of banner advertising (a process that tracks web users' habits online in order to show ads they are most likely to respond to). The advertising network which was recognized as an innovator in the online advertising space in a Business 2.0 article. In 2006, under Chahal's leadership, BlueLithium was named Top Innovator by AlwaysOn.
On October 15, 2007, Yahoo! bought Blue Lithium for $300 million in cash. Chahal remained CEO of the company through the transition period.
In September 2009, Chahal started his third venture, gWallet, an advertising company focused on bringing brands into social media. 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. On 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. On March 2011, RadiumOne announced it had raised another $21 million in financing which valued the Company at $200 million
Television appearances :
On October 23, 2008, Chahal appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show to discuss his life and business journey. In his interview, Oprah Winfrey introduced him as "one of the youngest and also the wealthiest entrepreneurs on the planet Earth".
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 $110,000 of his own money.
On January 8, 2009, he was featured on Extra TV as America's Most Eligible Bachelor
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. In April 11, 2011, Men's Health also recognized him as one of the world's richest and fittest guys.
Awards and recognitions
2006: AlwaysOn Top Innovator of the Year
2010: Anokhi Awards, Excellence in Digital Entrepreneurship
2010: BusinessWeek, Best Young Tech Entrepreneurs
2010: Pace University, Leaders in Management Award
2010: Darpan, Extraordinary Awards - International Sensation
2010: MensXP, X51 - India's Most Influential Business Man of the Year
2011: Most Influential CEO - Under30CEO
2011: Forbes Greatest Risks
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