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Gurbaksh Chahal

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Gurbaksh Singh Chahal
File:Gurbaksh Singh.jpg
Gurbaksh Chahal at 2019
Born (1982-07-17) July 17, 1982 (age 42)[1]
Tarn Taran Sahib, Punjab, India
Occupation(s)Entrepreneur, writer, philanthropist
Years active1998–present
Known forFounder of ClickAgents, BlueLithium, RadiumOne, Gravity4, Taara Labs, RedLotus
WebsiteGurbakshChahal.com

Gurbaksh Singh Chahal (born July 17, 1982) is an Indian-American internet entrepreneur, writer, and philanthropist. Chahal has founded two internet advertising companies, ClickAgents and BlueLithium[2] and he is also the founder of RadiumOne and Gravity4, also online advertising technology companies; Taara Labs[3] and RedLotus.[4] Through Chahal Foundation, he has launched initiatives to help people affected by disaster.[5]

Personal life

Chahal was born to Avtar Singh and Arjinder Chahal in Tarn Taran Sahib, a city in India’s Punjab state. In 1985 at age four he moved with his family to the slums of San Jose, California.[6] Chahal dropped out of high school at age sixteen to pursue a career in Internet advertising.[7] He has a sister Kamal Kaur, and an elder brother Taj Chahal.[8]

Career

ClickAgents and PlanetBollywood

Chahal started his career buying and reselling printers on eBay, after being turned away from a job at McDonalds.[6] In 1998 Chahal founded ClickAgents, an advertising network focused on performance-based advertising, on the lines of DoubleClick.[6] It was subsequently acquired by ValueClick (now part of Alliance Data) in 2000 in an all-stock deal valued at nearly $40 million, which paid his parents' mortgages lifting them out of poverty and made him an overnight millionaire.[9][6]

In 2002 Chahal along with his elder brother launched a restaurant Planet Bollywood, to cater to Indian movie stars flying into California.[6] However, it burned down soon and was not restarted.[6]

BlueLithium

In 2004, after being rejected from The Apprentice, Chahal co-founded BlueLithium—it specialized in behavioral targeting, a technique whereby web users' habits online are tracked in order to show customized ads[10][11] and went on to be widely hailed in the ad-tech industry.[6] In 2007, Yahoo! bought it for $300 million in cash.[12] He had also launched an associated social network MingleNow, for the socioeconomically affluent populace which was accorded a partnership deal by Anheuser-Busch.[6]

In 2008, he appeared at The Oprah Winfrey Show and then over The Secret Millionaire, as a new billionaire.[13][6] His appearance over talk-shows proliferated, and he was widely noted in the press for his extravagant lifestyle.[6]

RadiumOne

In 2009, Chahal founded RadiumOne, another online ad company[14][15] and remained its CEO before being fired, due to his conviction for domestic violence.[16][17][18] RadiumOne was later acquired by RhythmOne.[19]

Gravity4

In July 2014, Chahal launched Gravity4 (since renamed to DaVinci Marketing Cloud)[20] and soon tried to purchase back RadiumOne, before being rebuffed.[13] Gravity4 failed to be successful, despite an initial hype; it acquired numerous ad-tech companies, over-inflating its valuation in the process but failing to integrate them.[13] By mid-2016, the company was working from a co-working space and was primarily dependent on its overseas acquisitions.[13]

RedLotus and Taara Labs

In 2019, Chahal started Taara Labs, an incubator to build startup companies and help solve problems in the field of Artificial Intelligence, IoT, and Data Science.[21] Also in 2019, Chahal founded RedLotus in Hong Kong,[22] a company that uses marketing intelligence to help brands reach out to new audiences.[23][24]

Awards and philanthropy

In 2012, after the Wisconsin Sikh temple shooting, Chahal founded the Chahal Foundation (formerly BeProud Foundation). The foundation creates awareness campaigns to stop future hate crimes, provide scholarships, support disaster relief efforts, and improve schools in third-world countries.[25]

In 2014 Chahal was a recipient of Light of India Jury and People's Choice Awards for Excellence in Business Leadership[26] In 2013 Chahal was awarded Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year 2013 in the Platform Technology category.[27] In 2009 Chahal was one of the recipient of Leaders in Management Award and received an Honorary doctoral degree by Pace University.[28]

Domestic violence and battery conviction

In August 2013, Chahal was charged under 47 counts[29][30] by the San Francisco District Attorney's Office (SFDA) for engaging in gross domestic violence against his girlfriend[31][32]; whilst the victim refused to co-operate with the prosecution and later urged for dropping of charges, CCTV footage came to their aid.[33][34][35] Initially, Chahal claimed of innocence describing the episode as a mere loss of 'temper' on learning of adultery, and was bailed on a sum of $1 million.[29][35] However, with judge Brendan Conroy refusing to entertain the video-footage on grounds of unlawful seizure[34][36] (thereby massively weakening the prosecution-defense[37]), Chahal entered into a bargain and plead guilty to one charge of domestic violence battery and one charge of battery. He was sentenced to three years' probation, a 52-week domestic violence training course, and 25 hours of community service.[38] Chahal was subsequently fired as CEO of RadiumOne by the company's board of directors on April 27[16]; he has since went on to re-claim his innocence, and alleges coercion by the board behind his' pleading guilty.[39]

In 2016, he was again charged by SFDA for multiple violations of his probation, including physical assault of his then-girlfriend in September 2014 and restricting her from contacting emergency services; the victim was an Korean immigrant and refused to attend the trials on grounds of personal safety.[40][41] Whilst the prosecutors argued for an eighteen-month jail-sentence; the San Francisco County Superior Court reduced it to a year and additionally imposed a bail-bond of $250,000, before staying the order on grounds of a promised appeal.[42][43][41] In April 2018, a California state appeals court upheld the ruling.[30] Chahal spent six months in San Francisco County Jail for the probation violation.[44][45]

Whilst the older generation of Sikh migrants supported Chahal and claimed the charges were racially motivated; the millennials criticized him.[46]

Publications

  • The Dream: How I Learned the Risks and Rewards of Entrepreneurship and Made Millions, Palgrave Macmillan (October 23, 2008) ISBN 0-230-61095-1

References

  1. ^ "Find People, Lookup Phone Numbers, Run Background Checks, Access Public Records". USSearch.com. Retrieved 2015-03-01.
  2. ^ Ferenstein, Gregory (2011-03-29). "RadiumOne CEO on His McDonald's Rejection, Social Ads, and Do-Not-Track Legislation | Fast Company | Business + Innovation". Fast Company. Retrieved 2015-03-01.
  3. ^ "Gurbaksh Chahal's Taara Labs is giving a boost to AI start-ups across the world".
  4. ^ "Gurbaksh Chahal –founded RedLotus is transforming customer service & experience".
  5. ^ "Gurbaksh Chahal's 'The Chahal Foundation' brings light to lives of disaster victims".
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Cite error: The named reference businessinsider.com was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  7. ^ Zinko, Carolyne (October 26, 2008). "Advice from young millionaire Gurbaksh Chahal". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved January 6, 2010.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  8. ^ "The rise and fall of Gurbaksh Chahal: How one tech CEO went from fame, fortune, and Oprah's couch to possible jail time".
  9. ^ Editors (November 3, 2000) “ValueClick acquires Click Agents.” Advertising Age. (Retrieved April 9, 2017).
  10. ^ "The Times". Business.timesonline.co.uk. Retrieved 2015-03-01. (subscription required)
  11. ^ Ferenstein, Gregory (2011-03-29). "RadiumOne CEO on His McDonald's Rejection, Social Ads, and Do-Not-Track Legislation | Fast Company | Business + Innovation". Fast Company. Retrieved 2015-03-01.
  12. ^ Hendrickson, Mark (September 4, 2007) “Yahoo! Acquires Ad Network BlueLithium.” TechCrunch. (Retrieved April 9, 2017.)
  13. ^ a b c d "Gurbaksh Chahal flew high and fell fast". SFChronicle.com. 2016-08-13. Retrieved 2020-01-23.
  14. ^ "gWallet raises $12.5M for more ethical virtual currency/offers system | VentureBeat | Business | by Dean Takahashi". VentureBeat. 2009-12-01. Retrieved 2015-03-01.
  15. ^ McMahan, Ty (October 18, 2010). "New Ad Network RadiumOne Aims To Tap Social 'Mega Trend'". The Wall Street Journal.
  16. ^ a b Swisher, Kara. "Exclusive: CEO Gurbaksh Chahal Fired by RadiumOne Board". Recode. recode.net/. Retrieved 27 April 2014.
  17. ^ "It's time for RadiumOne's abusive CEO to go - Fortune". Finance.fortune.cnn.com. 2014-04-25. Archived from the original on 2014-06-01. Retrieved 2015-03-01.
  18. ^ Weissmann, Jordan (2014-04-24). "RadiumOne founder: Pleads guilty to domestic abuse". Slate.com. Retrieved 2015-03-01.
  19. ^ "RadiumOne acquired by RhythmOne | Mobile Marketing Magazine". mobilemarketingmagazine.com.
  20. ^ Editors (January 31, 2018) "Name Change Marks Renaissance for Gravity4." MrWeb.com (Retrieved June 11, 2016.)
  21. ^ "Gurbaksh Chahal's Taara Labs is giving a boost to AI start-ups across the world".
  22. ^ "Post RadiumOne, Gurbaksh Chahal seeks success again with RedLotus; in talks to raise $50 mn". Techcircle. 2019-11-12. Retrieved 2019-11-13.
  23. ^ "Gurbaksh Chahal –founded RedLotus is transforming customer service & experience".
  24. ^ "Gurbaksh Chahal reveals ways for boosting growth through marketing intelligence".
  25. ^ Teri Evans (2012-08-21). "Serial Entrepreneur Gurbaksh Chahal Commits $1 Million to Stop Hate Crimes". Entrepreneur.com. Retrieved 2015-03-01.
  26. ^ "19 NRIs honoured with Light of India awards".
  27. ^ "RadiumOne CEO and Founder Gurbaksh Chahal Awarded as the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year(R) 2013 Winner".
  28. ^ "Pace University Names Magazine Publishing Magnate David J. Pecker ('72) and Technology Entrepreneur Gurbaksh Chahal as 2010 Leaders in Management Recipients".
  29. ^ a b "Internet mogul Gurbaksh Chahal back in court Monday". The San Francisco Examiner. 2014-03-09. Retrieved 2020-01-23.
  30. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference sfgate.com was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  31. ^ Sabatini, Joshua. "DA: Internet mogul hit girlfriend 117 times over a half-hour period | Crime & Courts | San Francisco | San Francisco Examiner". Sfexaminer.com. Retrieved 2015-03-01.
  32. ^ "Gurbaksh Chahal, former CEO fired after domestic violence plea, settles dispute with RadiumOne". The San Francisco Examiner. 2014-07-21. Retrieved 2020-01-23.
  33. ^ Lee, Newton (2014), Lee, Newton (ed.), "Personal Total Information Awareness", Facebook Nation: Total Information Awareness, Springer, pp. 305–345, doi:10.1007/978-1-4939-1740-2_15, ISBN 978-1-4939-1740-2, retrieved 2020-01-23
  34. ^ a b "Judge quashes video evidence in Internet mogul's domestic violence case". The San Francisco Examiner. 2014-04-02. Retrieved 2020-01-23.
  35. ^ a b "Internet mogul pleads not guilty to assault". SFChronicle.com. 2013-08-09. Retrieved 2020-01-23.
  36. ^ "Entrepreneur accused of beating had high-profile backing". SFChronicle.com. 2015-09-12. Retrieved 2020-01-23.
  37. ^ "Tech mogul Gurbaksh Chahal's lawyers attack accuser's credibility". SFChronicle.com. 2016-05-17. Retrieved 2020-01-23.
  38. ^ Nagle, Rob (September 9, 2015). "RadiumOne Worked to Save IPO Amid Scandal". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 10 September 2015.
  39. ^ "Gurbaksh Chahal, former CEO fired after domestic violence plea, settles dispute with RadiumOne". The San Francisco Examiner. 2014-07-21. Retrieved 2020-01-23.
  40. ^ "Safety concerns keep ex-girlfriend from SF tech CEO's probation hearing". The San Francisco Examiner. 2016-04-23. Retrieved 2020-01-23.
  41. ^ a b "Former tech CEO gets prison time for violating probation in domestic violence case". The San Francisco Examiner. 2016-08-12. Retrieved 2020-01-23.
  42. ^ Rainey, Libby (12 Aug 2016). "Tech mogul Gurbaksh Chahal gets 1 year in domestic violence case". San Francisco Chroncile. Retrieved 1 November 2016.
  43. ^ Conger, Kate (1 September 2016). "Despite looming jail time, Gurbaksh Chahal is back as Gravity4 CEO". TechCrunch. Retrieved 1 November 2016.
  44. ^ Sernoffsky, Evan (August 31, 2018) "Tearful tech mogul Gurbaksh Chahal jailed for probation violation." San Francisco Chronicle. (Retrieved September 1, 2018.)
  45. ^ "Silicon Valley Internet Mogul Gurbaksh Chahal Sentenced to 6 Months in Domestic Violence Case".
  46. ^ Luthra, Sangeeta (2018-10-02). "Sikh American millennials at work: Institution building, activism, and a renaissance of cultural expression". Sikh Formations. 14 (3–4): 280–299. doi:10.1080/17448727.2018.1485374. ISSN 1744-8727.
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