Gurmer Chopra, 32, is the co-founder of clothing brand YoungLA.
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Right after graduating from university in 2015, Gurmer Chopra, 32, landed his first corporate role at a “Big Four” accounting firm. But after less than a year on the job, he decided to quit.
“Four months into it, I [was] like: ‘I freaking hate it here.’ It was just the most boring work, and I felt like I was making zero difference in the world,” Chopra told CNBC Make It.
“At one point, I [started studying] for my [certified public accountant exam]… Then I opened the book [and] I remember just reading the first page, and I think that’s literally when I realized I cannot do this with my life, or I’m gonna just not be a happy person,” said Chopra.
At that time, he was also working on an e-commerce business on the side with his older brother Dashmeet Chopra. In their free time, the duo went into Downtown Los Angeles to source items such as T-shirts, jeans and shoes at wholesale prices and resold them on eBay.
Their eBay side hustle has since become YoungLA, a lifestyle clothing brand that brought in over $167 million in 2024, according to documents reviewed by CNBC Make It.
From souvenirs to clothes
Originally from India, Chopra and his family immigrated to the U.S. in 2002 and spent their first four years in New Jersey before landing in California. Chopra said he got his entrepreneurial chops from his dad, who worked at a souvenir shop after moving to the U.S.
His dad eventually started a wholesale souvenir business and managed some gift shops in Los Angeles. Chopra and his brother became involved in their dad’s business endeavors at a young age.
Brothers Gurmer and Dashmeet Chopra with Arnold Schwarzenegger.
“That was honestly the start of me becoming an entrepreneur with my brother, because … I was 12 years old, and helping my dad with running this business,” said Chopra.
After some time running these brick-and-mortar stores, Chopra’s dad realized that he had better success by selling their goods online. Inspired by his discovery, the two brothers decided to experiment with e-commerce themselves.
Initially, me and my brother pulled together $5,000 and that’s all we’ve ever invested in the company. And we’ve always been able to …just reinvest.
Gurmer Chopra
Co-founder, YoungLA
In March 2014, Chopra was studying economics and accounting at the University of California, Santa Barbara, when he and his brother first opened their eBay account.
“Initially, me and my brother pulled together $5,000 and that’s all we’ve ever invested in the company. And we’ve always been able to just reinvest,” said Chopra. The two used this money to source their first few products.
“We were buying jeans, Converse, Vans … Tupac shirts, Biggie shirts … We would just buy a lot of stuff from Downtown LA, and kind of just throw a bunch of things on the wall. Whatever listings that would start popping off, we would [put] more time and effort into that,” he said.
Besides selling on eBay, Chopra and his brother also expanded to Amazon and Shopify, which they decided to name YoungLA.com — inspired by a DJ on their local radio station called “Young California.”
From there, they shifted their focus from only reselling items they bought wholesale to going all-in on the YoungLA brand. Chopra said they began manufacturing their own products and would add the name “YoungLA.com” to the tags of their items to create brand recognition.
The business brought in its first million in revenue in 2017, Chopra said. Ultimately, there were two key successes that catapulted the brand’s growth further: “drop culture” and influencer marketing — both of which are still core parts of the business today.
Drop culture is a marketing strategy where brands release limited-edition items, or “drops,” at specific times, to create exclusivity and buzz on social media.
“In 2018 we started … focusing on our website, and we wanted to kind of create a “drop culture,” said Chopra. “So whenever a new product came out, we would like try to hype it up beforehand and then drop it on the website.”
In 2019, YoungLA signed its first major contract with an influencer, and by 2020, the business had hit over $6 million in revenue, added Chopra. Last year, the business brought in, on average, more than double that amount in monthly revenue.
Lessons learned
When asked if he is happy that he left his accounting job, Chopra said: “I don’t think I could be happier. [I’m] very, very satisfied with where we’ve been, but it is definitely stressful.”
“I think a few years into running the business, you realize [that] nobody could have prepared me for this… I think some of the hardest things in the beginning was firing an employee … or just dealing with really tough situations, dealing with stress, getting sued and things like that too,” he said.
“You learn so much when you’re actually in it … But I think figuring those things out teaches you so much about the world, but also about yourself.”
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