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Gurbaksh Chahal

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Gurbaksh Singh Chahal
G. Chahal with U.S. President Barack Obama
Born (1982-07-17) July 17, 1982 (age 42)[1]
Tarn Taran Sahib, Punjab, India
OccupationChairman & CEO of RadiumOne
Websitewww.chahal.com

Gurbaksh Singh Chahal (born July 17, 1982) is an American internet entrepreneur, philanthropist, and writer.[2] By the age of 25, he 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.[3]

Business career

On December 15, 1998, aged 16, Gurbaksh Chahal dropped out of high school[4] 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.[5] 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).[6] The advertising network which was recognized as an innovator in the online advertising space in a Business 2.0 article.[7] In 2006, under Chahal's leadership, BlueLithium was named Top Innovator by AlwaysOn.[8]

On October 15, 2007, Yahoo! bought Blue Lithium for $300 million in cash. Chahal remained CEO of the company through the transition period.[9]

In September 2009, Chahal started his third online ad company, focused on creating a new category of real-time advertising. On December 1, 2009, it raised its first institutional round of financing totaling $12.5 million from Adam Street Partners, Trinity Ventures, Stanford University and various others.[10] On October 18, 2010, a few days after Chahal's non-compete expired, the Company re-branded itself as RadiumOne, and launched its Programmatic Advertising Platform that leverages first party data to deliver real-time advertising across the web, mobile, Facebook.[11] On March 2011, RadiumOne announced it had raised another $21 million in financing which valued the Company at $200 million.[12] On March 2, 2012, RadiumOne's valuation surpassed $500 million.[13]

Television appearances

On October 23, 2009, 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".[14]

On January 8, 2009, he was featured on Extra TV as America's Most Eligible Bachelor.[15]

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.[16] In April 11, 2011, Men's Health also recognized him as one of the world's richest and fittest guys.[17]

Philanthropy

Chahal appeared on an episode of the Fox TV reality show Secret Millionaire, where he went undercover in the Tenderloin district of San Francisco and gave away $110,000 of his own money.

Chahal has also been actively involved with Pace University and in 2010 launched the Gurbaksh Chahal - Entrepreneurial Scholarship Program. [18]

Inspired by the deadly events relating to the Wisconsin Sikh temple shooting, Chahal founded the BeProud Foundation with $1 million of his own money. The foundation is designed to create awareness campaigns to stop future hate crimes.[19][20]

Guest lecturing

Chahal has also been a frequent guest lecturer at many universities including: Stanford University, Pace University, London School of Economics, University of California Berkeley, Columbia University, and Ryerson University. Chahal's book The Dream is required reading in entrepreneurship courses at some universities.[citation needed]

Publications

  • The Dream, Palgrave Macmillan (October 23, 2008) ISBN 0-230-61095-1

Awards and recognitions

  • 2006: AlwaysOn Top Innovator of the Year [21]
  • 2010: Anokhi Awards, Excellence in Digital Entrepreneurship [22]
  • 2010: BusinessWeek, Best Young Tech Entrepreneurs [23]
  • 2010: Pace University, Leaders in Management Award [24]
  • 2010: Darpan, Extraordinary Awards - International Sensation [25]
  • 2010: MensXP.com, X51 - India's Most Influential Business Man of the Year [26]
  • 2011: Most Influential CEO - Under30CEO [27]
  • 2011: Forbes Greatest Risks [28]
  • 2012: Light of India Awards 2012: People's Award for Excellence in Business Leadership [29]
  • 2012: Light of India Awards 2012: Amrapali Award for Entrepreneur of the Year [29]
  • 2012: iMedia's Top 10 Hottest Digital Marketers of 2012 [30]
  • 2012: Complex Magazine's: The 25 Richest Tech Entrepreneurs Under 30 [31]
  • 2013: Anokhi's Prestige Awards 2013: Tech Entrepreneur of the Decade [32]
  • 2013: San Francisco Business Times: Top 40 Under 40 [33]
  • 2013: Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award [34]
  • 2013: 40 Under 40 by Direct Marketing News [35]

References

  1. ^ http://www.ussearch.com
  2. ^ http://www.fastcompany.com/1743178/radiumone-ceo-talks-mcdonalds-rejection-social-ads-and-do-not-track-legislation
  3. ^ Gurbaksh Chahal, the Punjabi NRI writer & millionaire entrepreneur, Punjab Spider.
  4. ^ 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)
  5. ^ http://www.clickz.com/502181
  6. ^ Yahoo Snaps up BlueLithium
  7. ^ Big Innovations: BlueLithium, Business 2.0, September 20, 2006.
  8. ^ The 2006 AO 100, AlwaysOn.
  9. ^ Yahoo! press release re purchase of BlueLithium
  10. ^ http://venturebeat.com/2009/12/01/gwallet-raises-12-5m-for-more-ethical-virtual-currency-system/
  11. ^ McMahan, Ty (October 18, 2010). "New Ad Network RadiumOne Aims To Tap Social 'Mega Trend'". The Wall Street Journal.
  12. ^ http://techcrunch.com/2011/03/10/social-retargeting-ad-network-radiumone-raises-21m-at-a-200m-valuation/
  13. ^ http://techcrunch.com/2012/03/02/social-retargeting-ad-network-radiumone-raising-a-50m-round-at-a-500m-valuation/
  14. ^ Appearance on Oprah Winfrey's show
  15. '^ Extra TVs "Secret Bachelor"
  16. ^ http://www.businesswire.com/portal/site/home/permalink/?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20100407005265&newsLang=en
  17. ^ http://www.menshealth.com/fiscally-fit-man/worlds-fittest-richest-guys/page/3
  18. ^ http://news.blogs.pace.edu/2010/05/04/pace-university-awards-honorary-doctorate-to-internet-star/
  19. ^ [1]
  20. ^ http://www.entrepreneur.com/blog/224248?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter
  21. ^ http://www.adotas.com/2006/07/bluelithium-named-top-innovator-of-the-year/
  22. ^ http://www.anokhipulse.tv/shows/episode7.shtml
  23. ^ http://images.businessweek.com/ss/10/04/0419_best_young_tech_entrepreneurs/4.htm
  24. ^ Zinko, Carolyne (April 29, 2010). "S.F. venture capitalist Keith Benjamin dies". The San Francisco Chronicle.
  25. ^ http://www.darpanmagazine.com/2010/11/a-recap-of-darpan-magazines-extraordinary-achievement-awards/
  26. ^ http://www.mensxp.com/x51/results1.html
  27. ^ http://www.businessinsider.com/30-founders-under-30-who-are-shaking-up-industries-2011-1?slop=1#slideshow-start
  28. ^ "Gallery: Big Achievers Share The Greatest Risks They Ever Took". Forbes.
  29. ^ a b http://www.lightofindiaawards.com/
  30. ^ http://www.imediaconnection.com/content/32473.asp
  31. ^ http://www.complex.com/tech/2012/08/the-25-richest-tech-entrepreneurs-under-30/gurbaksh-chahal
  32. ^ http://www.anokhimedia.com/10thanniversaryevent/
  33. ^ http://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/print-edition/2013/03/01/gurbaksh-chahal-ceo-chairman-and.html
  34. ^ http://www.ey.com/US/en/About-us/Entrepreneurship/Entrepreneur-Of-The-Year/PNW_NCAL_Article_Overview_Page_Main
  35. ^ http://www.dmnews.com/honorees/section/3564/

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