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Advice on building a business from someone who sold $340M worth of companies before the age of 25

Lessons learned from entrepreneur by Bambi Francisco Roizen
March 12, 2010 | Comments (5)
Short URL: http://vator.tv/n/e2a

5

Gurbaksh Chahal is all of 27-years-old, and he's already made a significant mark as an entrepreneur. At 18, he sold his first company, Click Agents, for $40 million to ValueClick. At 25, he sold another, Blue Lithium, to Yahoo for $300 million in cash. 

(Editor's note: Be sure to catch Gurbaksh at Vator Splash. He'll be sharing advice on how to build a startup. Click here to register for tickets)

Now, he's onto his third, gWallet, a monetization platform for social networks. In this segment of "Lessons for Entrepreneurs," Gurbaksh provides his lessons and experience as an entrepreneur.

Firstly, "don't get emotional," he said. You can be passionate, but not emotional, he added. "When you’re emotional, you’re force-feeding yourself to do something that may or may not work," he explained. "When I started gWallet, I had the idea of being in the offer space with a coupon vertical. I tried this for two months and it didn’t work." He quickly moved on to another strategy.

Most entrepreneurs are afraid to change from their original strategy. But they need to realize that their ideas will quickly change.

"I remember looking at PPTs, starting the year off with one idea and ending the idea with something else."

Another piece of advice (which is a big lesson for many entrepreneurs) is to surround yourself with people who want to see you and your idea succeed.

Gurbaksh also gives advice about acquisitions and the art of being bought vs sold. Finally, he says that entrepreneurs need to grow their business without needing capital. They should only raise capital, ironically enough, when they don't need it.

 

Related companies, investors and entrepreneurs

Default
RadiumOne
Startup/Business
Description: gWallet has built a next-generation ad platform that connects reputable advertising offers with consumers in social games and virtual wor...
32770
Gurbaksh Chahal
Chairman & CEO,
RadiumOne
Bio: Gurbaksh is a die-hard internet entrepreneur. In January 1999, he started his first company, ClickAgents at the age of 16. It was one of...

Comments

Bill Keck
Bill Keck, on March 12, 2010

Great interview, great advice, great job Bambi and Vator, I love this site!


Rene Merzius
Rene Merzius, on March 14, 2010

Wow Bambi Great interviewee, he is correct not to be emotional. I also read his book about his life and ventures. He is very inspiring to everyone.


Bambi Francisco Roizen
Bambi Francisco Roizen, on March 16, 2010

Thanks, Renee
It's true that entrepreneurs can get "too" emotional about their ventures. At times, I've been guilty of it myself.


Bambi Francisco Roizen
Bambi Francisco Roizen, on March 16, 2010

Thanks, Bill: I hope you look through our library of "lessons learned" videos. Each entrepreneur has some nugget of wisdom to share about building a business.


Scott Thompson
Scott Thompson, on March 18, 2010

Fablous interview. It's nice to learn from young successful business builders. Keep up the great work.


Martin Kaufmann
Martin Kaufmann, on March 18, 2010

Very interesting, great job Gurbaksh and Bambi; Liked the part on flexibility most. In fact it applies to most aspects of life. Change is permanent ;-)


Bambi Francisco Roizen
Bambi Francisco Roizen, on March 19, 2010

Thanks, Scott: The amazing thing is that many of these 'successful' guys share very similar advice. I've done several hundred of these interviews, and you can categorize their advice in about 10 themes.


Bambi Francisco Roizen
Bambi Francisco Roizen, on March 19, 2010

Many people don't like change - especially if they're not the one driving it.


Amr Shaheen
Amr Shaheen, on July 6, 2010

Great insight ,, The G.W. latest Plan needs closer Attention to Gain the Real Flexibility and ability to Adopt to users Globally .


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