He quit his job because he was bored.. He became a millionaire

He became a millionaire

 

He started with $5,000 and hated numbers... but he made a fortune of $167 million!

At the age of 23, while his colleagues were celebrating his first job at one of the "Big Four" accounting firms, Gurmir Chopra was planning to escape. He couldn't stand more than four months in his first job after graduation, so he decided to leave everything behind and start an adventure selling clothes on eBay.

Today, less than a decade later, Chopra and his brother lead YoungLA, an athleisure brand that generated more than $167 million in 2024 alone. "I would open my accounting exam book, read just the first page, and then I would say to myself, 'If I continue on this path, I'll never be happy,'" Chopra said.

At the time, he and his brother Dashmit were working on a side project: buying wholesale clothing from downtown Los Angeles and selling it online. But what started as a hobby turned into a life project.

From Tupac T-shirts to a global brand

The brothers started with just $5,000, saved from their savings. They bought T-shirts and shoes from brands like Converse and Vans and listed them on eBay. Over time, they expanded to Amazon and Shopify, and launched YoungLA.com, taking its name from a local radio station. In 2017, the company achieved its first million dollars in revenue. But the real breakthrough came with two strategies: "Drop Culture" and influencer marketing.

The secret is in timing... and influence

YoungLA relied on releasing limited products at carefully considered times, creating anticipation and increasing demand. In 2019, the company signed its first influencer deal, and revenues doubled to over $6 million in 2020, then jumped to over $167 million in 2024.

Despite the success, Chopra admits that the road hasn't been easy: "Nobody prepares you for what it means to be an entrepreneur. Some of the hardest moments were having to fire an employee, dealing with lawsuits, or the endless pressure." However, he adds, "I've learned a lot about the world and about myself. I couldn't be happier today."