GWallet's Chahal Balances Flashy Lifestyle, Family Commitment

While running his third startup, an entrepreneur known for talk-show appearances and swank parties keeps close to his lower-key relatives

By Rachael King

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In 1997, a year before he dropped out of high school, Gurbaksh Chahal wrote a letter to himself as part of a school assignment. His goals: caring for his family and becoming a doctor.

A decade later, his parents called to say the school had sent the letter. Chahal, now 27, never made it to medical school; that was his parents' dream, he says. Instead, he launched an entrepreneurial career that has netted two sizable sales of companies he started and has set the table for a third.

Chahal's latest venture, gWallet, lines up advertising inside social games on the Web. "I didn't have the appetite for learning in the classroom," says Chahal during an interview in gWallet's spare San Francisco office. "I was one of the few teenagers who loved CNBC."

Chahal, who lives in San Francisco's posh Infinity luxury condo tower, did realize his goal of taking care of his parents, who are originally from India and now reside in San Jose. In the past few years, he's paid off the mortgage on his parents' house, bought them each a new Lexus, and taken them on luxury vacations to Cabo San Lucas. "When I was 18, I was a millionaire and most people think having that much money requires retirement," says Chahal. "I wasn't going to retire at 18 or 21. At the end of the day, I never do anything for money."

Chahal has said he's worth more than $100 million, and he has the lifestyle to prove it. His routine includes swank parties, VIP trips to Vegas, and an auto ownership history that includes two Lamborghinis, a Ferrari, and a Bentley. He's appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show and Fox's The Secret Millionaire, is considered one of San Francisco's most eligible bachelors, and has already written an autobiography, The Dream (Palgrave Macmillan, 2008), that tells his tale of rapid ascent.

"Single-Mindedness to Succeed"

"This guy is on track to be a billionaire," says Tim McAdam, general partner at Trinity Ventures, which invests in gWallet. "He is cut of the mold of a Larry Ellison or Richard Branson, these irreverent types who are incredibly tenacious visionaries. It's not about education, pedigree, or connectedness. It's about the single-mindedness to succeed."

GWallet lets Web users who play games on social networks such as Facebook watch video advertisements or fill out marketing surveys to earn virtual "currency" they can use inside the games. The company has deals with advertisers including Best Buy (BBY), Coca-Cola (KO), Nestlé (NESN:VX), and The History Channel. GWallet connects those companies to developers of social networking games, then takes a percentage of sales.

Two months after Chahal started gWallet last September, Adams Street Partners and Trinity Ventures led a $12.5 million round of venture funding.

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