Valleywag: bluelithium

ValueClick to buy Revenue Science?

Owen Thomas — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 14:40:00 PDT

Behavioral targeting is all the rage in online advertising. The technology aims to show ads to Internet users based on the sites they visit and the actions they perform, rather than targeting words they search for, as Google does, or matching advertisers' desired demographics to a site's audience, as most banner-ad purchasers do today. ValueClick has introduced its own product, in competition with AOL's Tacoda and Yahoo's BlueLithium. But ValueClick's executives may not be particularly confident in the product — if rumors are true that they're talking to startup Revenue Science about an acquisition. Revenue Science has raised more than $70 million in venture capital, and recently appointed former ValueClick executive Jeff Hirsch as its CEO.

Gurbaksh Chahal to pretend to be poor, learn life lessons in new Fox reality show

Nicholas Carlson — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 12:00:00 PDT

Now we know why BlueLithium founder and short-time Yahoo employee Gurbaksh "G" Chahal decorated his $6.9 million penthouse with tacky animal skins and a cheap-looking chandelier. To look rich for middle America. Chalal is starring in a Fox "reality" show this fall called The Secret Millionaire. In it, G will live among poor people and pretend to be one of them. But before doing that, he'll have to convince Fox's audience at home he's used to living a fabulously wealthy lifestyle. Hence, the decorations, G's decorator tells us in an email defending his efforts.

I am very proud of this project as it was a challenging one. I had to "dress up" (in addition to furniture, art accessories, a new lighting plan and flooring as well as stage it) almost 4,000 sqf in one month in order to fulfill my client's as well as Fox's network criteria as the penthouse used to film part of the Secret Millionaire show airing in fall. Fox was thrilled with the way it turned out(as they described it- it looked like a "movie set")

Gurbaksh "G" Chahal spotted with blonde on arm, fooling no one

Owen Thomas — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 12:00:00 PDT

Spotted at the opening of overpriced-denim boutique Duke et Duchess in San Francisco's Hayes Valley neighborhood: Gurbaksh "G" Chahal, the megalomaniacal playboy founder of BlueLithium, who's been spending his take from Yahoo's $300 million acquisition of that company on trying to launch an acting career. He's been "working on his instrument," as they say in L.A., for sure — with that outfit, you can hardly avoid checking out his pecs and quads, even if you avert your eyes. Wonder who his trainer is. (Photo by SFLuxe)

Gurbaksh "G" Chahal, the millionaire Yahoo sellout, on "confidence vs. arrogance"

Nicholas Carlson — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 14:40:00 PDT

"Many try to exude confidence through arrogance," BlueLithium founder Gurbaksh Chahal — known as "G" in his press kit — writes on his blog. "I consider myself very confident but at the same time grounded enough to never be arrogant." To illustrate G's humility, G then offers this parable from the life of G, who made millions from the $300 million sale of BlueLithium to Yahoo:

When you’re arrogant, you tend to be insecure of your surroundings. Recently, I was at a black tie event and I was introduced to a couple. When the wife of the couple looked at me, she saw an unfamiliar face of youth and basically looked down at me. Later, that evening when she found out who I was – she tried to revive things. Life’s too short to live like that. So, I never struck a chord with her again. I just walked away and smiled. Their loss.

Gurbaksh Chahal's swingin' bachelor pad in the sky

Jackson West — Mon, 19 May 2008 13:40:00 PDT

When we heard that BlueLithium founder Gurbaksh Chahal bought a $6.9 million penthouse, we figured he'd go with something tastefully modern to match the building and his taste in slim suits and slimmer ties. But no, oh no. Think animal skins; a headboard and coffee table monogrammed with his signature "G;" and actual chintz upholstery on the dining room set, which a cheap-looking but showy chandelier hovers over. It's like a pileup on the midcentury-minimalism and rococo-inspired Gucci decadence highway.

His self-aggrandizing website is muted and subued in its design by comparison, and that's saying something. Seems Chahal didn't bother to spend any of his millions on a subscription to Architectural Digest or Wallpaper. (Photo via SFLuxe)

Taj Chahal makes fameball brother Gurbaksh look even more narcissistic

Jackson West — Wed, 07 May 2008 15:00:00 PDT

Everyone's favorite topless egoist Gurbaksh "G" Chahal has a new startup and an agent at William Morris who has landed him a television appearance and a book deal (which, not surprisingly, is about him). But what of his older brother, Taj Chahal, the former VP of operations at ad network BlueLithium which was sold to Yahoo for $300 million? He's wasting his time, and his money, feeding the homeless at Martha's Kitchen in San Jose. He spent $8,000 catering a meal for local homeless on his birthday, and is pictured here pouring drinks for one of the approximately 300 who came to eat. So who, exactly, is the most eligible of the two Chahal brothers, both bachelor millionaires? Your move, G.

How Oprah helped a startup CEO take Yahoo for $300 million

Nicholas Carlson — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 12:40:00 PDT

In its April 2008 issue, Entrepreneur caught the immodest-to-a-fault Gurbaksh Chahal in a self-promoting mood — not hard to do — when it asked him how he sold ad-targeting startup BlueLithium to Yahoo for $300 million. "G" — as Chalal calls himself — responded with a tale from the life of Oprah:

A couple years ago, Oprah went to Montecito, saw a house and fell in love with it. It wasn't for sale, so she ended up paying above market value for it—several times over the price—because it was something she really, really wanted. That's an analogy for selling a company. You want to be the house that everybody wants that's not for sale. I saw the market consolidating. I couldn't put a "for sale" sign out there, so I had to do it unconventionally. The way I did it was to make sure people realized I wasn't for sale. It made them realize that they needed me. They heard from different sources in different ways what BlueLithium was. That attracted them to my company rather than me going [to them]

The short version: Play hard to get. If only Chahal took his own advice when it came to pitching himself to the media.

Gurbaksh Chahal buys $6.9 million penthouse

Jackson West — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 10:20:00 PDT

BlueLithium founder Gurbaksh Chahal, who flipped his online-advertising startup to Yahoo for $300 million, recently purchased a penthouse suite at the Infinity on Rincon Hill for $6.9 million according to the San Francisco Business Times. I'm not exactly sure who SF Luxe's Damion Matthews is proclaiming confirmed bachelor Chahal most eligible for — my head is starting to hurt trying to parse exactly what Matthews means by "ladies." Can't get enough of the adorable egoist? His recently released self-promotional YouTube video after the jump.

Gurbaksh Chahal gets buff with gay porn star

Owen Thomas — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 14:00:37 PST

Gurbaksh Chahal, the egomaniacal entrepreneur who sold ad startup BlueLithium to Yahoo for $300 million in cash, has been pumping up his acting career. And his body. A new shirtless picture is up on his site. We hear that's the result of training with Tom Austin, a San Jose-based bodybuilder who's appeared in gay porn videos such as "Minute Man 24" (NSFW, or for men uncomfortable in their heterosexuality) as Bo Dixon. (Some suggest Austin offers other services as well.) Good work, Gurbaksh! Which raises a question:

With the body he now has, if Chahal is seeking notoriety, why doesn't he just do gay porn himself, instead of appearing in front of Fox Business Network's 6,300 viewers? That seems easier.

Yahoo's Gurbaksh Chahal is "G"

Nicholas Carlson — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 12:40:00 PST

Meet BlueLithium founder and Yahoo employee Gurbaksh Chahal, "more commonly known as 'G,'" according to his personal site. "At 25 years old," the site also reports, "[G] is one of the youngest and most successful entrepreneurs of recent history." But more than that, he is beautiful. After the jump, both G's recent appearances on Fox Business News — and how his publicist announced them.

Online entrepreneur and shockingly accomplished prodigy Gurbaksh Chahal will appear on the new Fox Business Network (hosted by David Asman) on Tuesday, November 6, at 3 p.m. ET.

After making such a grand entrance and an even greater impression earlier in November, online entrepreneur, Gurbaksh Chahal, will appear for a second time on the Fox Business Network.

Yahoo shuts a social network

Owen Thomas — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 16:00:51 PST

Nick Douglas described MingleNow, ad network BlueLithium's answer to MySpace, as "Yelp meets Cheers." A more accurate description, I suspect, was "excuse for a bunch of San Jose nerds to fly around the world for parties." The expense-account game is over. Yahoo, which acquired BlueLithium for its ad technology, not its wannabe social network, is shutting MingleNow on January 7, and suggesting users go to the Yahoo-owned Flickr or Upcoming instead. Which, come to think of it, is what BlueLithium's investors probably wish its founders had done in the first place.

Yahoo is spending $300 million in cold, hard ...

Owen Thomas — Tue, 04 Sep 2007 17:50:30 PDT

Yahoo is spending $300 million in cold, hard cash to buy BlueLithium, an ad-targeting startup. If the rumors we hear are true, founder Gurbaksh Chahal, who's not sticking around for long after the acquisition, will find ways of spending that. [PaidContent]