1. Gurbaksh Singh Chahal was born on July 17,1982 and is an Indian-American entrepreneur who has founded, managed, and frequently sold several internet advertising companies.
39 Facts About Gurbaksh Chahal
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Gurbaksh Chahal has since founded other internet-based companies including RadiumOne, Gravity4, and BNN Breaking.
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Gurbaksh Chahal is currently the CEO of VendorCloud and RedLotus.
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The next year, Gurbaksh Chahal was listed among the 25 richest entrepreneurs under the age of 30 by Complex magazine, and in 2013 he was one of Ernst and Young's entrepreneurs of the year.
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Also in 2013, Gurbaksh Chahal went to trial on charges of domestic violence and battery; although he pleaded not guilty, he was convicted and sentenced to probation.
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Gurbaksh Chahal was fired as CEO of RadiumOne by the board of directors.
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Gurbaksh Chahal resigned as CEO of Gravity4 and served six months in jail.
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Gurbaksh Chahal was born on July 17,1982, in Tarn Taran Sahib, a city near Amritsar in India's Punjab state, in a Sikh family.
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Gurbaksh Chahal's father, Avtar Singh, was a police officer and mother, Arjinder Chahal, was a nurse in Tarn Taran Sahib.
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In 1985, during the aftermath of the Khalistani insurgency, Gurbaksh Chahal's parents emigrated to the United States, his father having won a green card lottery.
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Gurbaksh Chahal was raised by his grandmother for a short time.
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Gurbaksh Chahal's father took a job with the Postal Service and his mother worked as an nurse's assistant.
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Gurbaksh Chahal's family were devout followers of Sikhism and Chahal and his brother used to wear a turban, a type of headwear based on cloth winding.
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Gurbaksh Chahal was an average student during schooling, earning B and C grades in his studies.
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Gurbaksh Chahal started receiving cease-and-desist letters and had to give the domains back.
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Gurbaksh Chahal started his career buying and reselling printers on eBay, after being turned away from a job at McDonald's.
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In 1998, at the age of 16, Gurbaksh Chahal founded ClickAgents, which was among the first pay-per-click networks.
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In 2004, Gurbaksh Chahal founded BlueLithium, a company that specialized in behavioral targeting, a technique whereby web users' online habits are tracked in order to show customized ads.
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In 2009, Gurbaksh Chahal launched gWallet, a venture that partnered with brand and game developers to bring users virtual currency offers.
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In 2010, Gurbaksh Chahal founded RadiumOne, another online ad company of a slightly different genre, which started as a loyalty and rewards program but later migrated to the targeted-advertising domain, having acquired multiple social-media-centered startups.
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Gurbaksh Chahal attempted but failed bid to buy back RadiumOne and closed in 2017.
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In 2015, an employee of Gravity4 sued Gurbaksh Chahal, claiming that Gravity4 never paid him and that he was the subject of abuse and harassment by Gurbaksh Chahal.
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In 2019, Gurbaksh Chahal founded TaaraLabs, an incubator helping build companies to address problems in the fields of artificial intelligence, IoT, and data sciences.
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Gurbaksh Chahal has been the Chairman of the Gurbaksh Chahal Foundation since August 2012.
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In 2022, Gurbaksh Chahal founded the now-defunct news website and aggregator BNN Breaking in Hong Kong.
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Trimfeed was temporarily closed after The New York Times informed Gurbaksh Chahal they were doing a report on BNN.
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Gurbaksh Chahal was recognized as an "Entrepreneur Extraordinaire" in January 2014 by Darpan Magazine.
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In 2020, Gurbaksh Chahal donated face masks, test kits, personal protective equipment and ventilators to hospitals across several countries during the Coronavirus pandemic, and extended procurement networks to help governments in mitigating the supply-chain chaos.
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Gurbaksh Chahal once resided in San Francisco Bay Area but is as of 2019 based in Hong Kong.
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Gurbaksh Chahal has attracted attention for his physique and extravagant lifestyle, including a fleet of luxurious cars and a penthouse apartment.
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Gurbaksh Chahal was featured in The Secret Millionaire, where he went undercover in San Francisco and gave away $110,000 of his wealth.
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Gurbaksh Chahal professed to be a devout Sikh, and was largely inspired by his grandmother.
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Gurbaksh Chahal was a regular donor to Democratic Party candidates; he was twice invited to the White House during Barack Obama's presidency.
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Gurbaksh Chahal is a motivational speaker, advocates one-dollar salary for CEOs, and has written an autobiography called The Dream.
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In 2019, Gurbaksh Chahal started a relationship with Punjabi film actress Rubina Bajwa.
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Gurbaksh Chahal was arrested in 2013 and charged with 45 felonies following an attack on his then-girlfriend.
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Gurbaksh Chahal proclaimed his innocence but nevertheless entered into a no contest plea to one charge of domestic violence battery and one charge of battery.
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Gurbaksh Chahal was sentenced to three years' probation, ordered to pay a fine, and compelled to undergo a 52-week domestic violence training course along with 25 hours of community service.
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The California Courts of Appeal upheld the verdict in April 2018 and Gurbaksh Chahal served six months in San Francisco County Jail.