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Gurbaksh Chahal

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Gurbaksh Singh Chahal
Gurbaksh Chahal 2012.jpg
Gurbaksh Chahal in 2012
Born (1982-07-17) July 17, 1982 (age 34)[1]
Tarn Taran Sahib, Punjab, India
Residence San Francisco, California
Known for Founder of BlueLithium, RadiumOne, Gravity4
Website GurbakshChahal.com

Gurbaksh Singh Chahal (born July 17, 1982) is an Indian-American internet entrepreneur. By age 25, Chahal founded two internet advertising companies, ClickAgents and BlueLithium.[2] He is also the founder of RadiumOne and Gravity4, also online advertising technology companies.

In 2014, Chahal pled guilty to charges of domestic violence battery and battery and was sentenced to three years’ probation.[3][4] In 2016, he was sentenced to one year in jail for violating his probation; the sentence was suspended pending appeal.[5]

Early life

Chahal was born on July 17, 1982 in Tarn Taran Sahib, a city in India’s Punjab state. At age four he moved with his family to San Jose, California.[6] Chahal dropped out of high school at age sixteen to pursue a career in Internet advertising.[7]

Career

Chahal’s first venture was ClickAgents, an advertising network focused on performance-based advertising. In 2000, two years after Chahal started the company, ValueClick (now part of Alliance Data) paid 5.3 million of its shares to purchase ClickAgents.[8]

In 2004, Chahal formed BlueLithium. The company 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 click.[9] In 2007, Yahoo! bought Blue Lithium for $300 million in cash.[10]

In 2009, Chahal started RadiumOne, an online ad company that focused on creating a new category of real-time advertising.[11][12] After a domestic violence incident, Chahal was fired as CEO of RadiumOne by the company's board of directors on April 27, 2014.[13][14][4]

In July 2014, Chahal launched his fourth technology company in online advertising, named Gravity4.[15] After the Wisconsin Sikh temple shooting, Chahal founded the Chahal Foundation. The foundation is designed to create awareness campaigns to stop future hate crimes, provide scholarships, support disaster relief efforts, and improve schools in third-world countries.[16]

Domestic violence conviction

In August 2013, Chahal was charged by the San Francisco District Attorney's Office with domestic violence.[17] On April 16, 2014, Chahal pleaded guilty to one charge of domestic violence battery and one charge of battery, for which he was sentenced to three years' probation, a 52-week domestic violence training course, and 25 hours of community service.[18]

In 2016, after evidence emerged of a second domestic violence incident, a court found he had violated his probation and he was sentenced to one year in jail; the sentence was suspended pending appeal.[19][20]

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. ^ Hoge, Patrick (April 17, 2014). "Ad mogul Gurbaksh "G" Chahal pleads guilty to two misdemeanors, all others dismissed in domestic violence case". San Francisco Business Times. 
  4. ^ a b Weissmann, Jordan (2014-04-24). "RadiumOne founder: Pleads guilty to domestic abuse". Slate.com. Retrieved 2015-03-01. 
  5. ^ Carson, Biz (August 14, 2016) “The rise and fall of Gurbaksh Chahal: How one tech CEO went from fame, fortune, and Oprah's couch to possible jail time.” Business Insider. (Retrieved April 9, 2017).
  6. ^ Carson, Biz (August 14, 2016) “The rise and fall of Gurbaksh Chahal: How one tech CEO went from fame, fortune, and Oprah's couch to possible jail time.” Business Insider. (Retrieved April 9, 2017).
  7. ^ Zinko, Carolyne (October 26, 2008). "Advice from young millionaire Gurbaksh Chahal". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved January 6, 2010. 
  8. ^ Editors (November 3, 2000) “ValueClick acquires Click Agents.” Advertising Age. (Retrieved April 9, 2017).
  9. ^ "The Times". Business.timesonline.co.uk. Retrieved 2015-03-01.  (subscription required)
  10. ^ Hendrickson, Mark (September 4, 2007) “Yahoo! Acquires Ad Network BlueLithium.” TechCrunch. (Retrieved April 9, 2017.)
  11. ^ "gWallet raises $12.5M for more ethical virtual currency/offers system | VentureBeat | Business | by Dean Takahashi". VentureBeat. 2009-12-01. Retrieved 2015-03-01. 
  12. ^ McMahan, Ty (October 18, 2010). "New Ad Network RadiumOne Aims To Tap Social 'Mega Trend'". The Wall Street Journal. 
  13. ^ Swisher, Kara. "Exclusive: CEO Gurbaksh Chahal Fired by RadiumOne Board". Recode. recode.net/. Retrieved 27 April 2014. 
  14. ^ "It's time for RadiumOne's abusive CEO to go - Fortune". Finance.fortune.cnn.com. 2014-04-25. Retrieved 2015-03-01. 
  15. ^ "Gurbaksh Chahal". Chahal.com. 2015-02-04. Retrieved 2015-03-01. 
  16. ^ Teri Evans (2012-08-21). "Serial Entrepreneur Gurbaksh Chahal Commits $1 Million to Stop Hate Crimes". Entrepreneur.com. Retrieved 2015-03-01. 
  17. ^ 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. 
  18. ^ Nagle, Rob (September 9, 2015). "RadiumOne Worked to Save IPO Amid Scandal". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 10 September 2015. 
  19. ^ Rainey, Libby (12 Aug 2016). "Tech mogul Gurbaksh Chahal gets 1 year in domestic violence case". San Francisco Chroncile. Retrieved 1 November 2016. 
  20. ^ Conger, Kate (1 Sept 2016). "Despite looming jail time, Gurbaksh Chahal is back as Gravity4 CEO". TechCrunch. Retrieved 1 November 2016.  Check date values in: |date= (help)

External links

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