Latest news with #YoungLA
CNBC
2 hours ago
- Business
- CNBC
At 23, he quit his accounting job to start an eBay business–today, his company brings in $167 million a year
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. 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. "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. 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 — 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 " 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. 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."
Entrepreneur
13 hours ago
- Business
- Entrepreneur
Brothers' Side Hustle Made Over $175 Million: 'No Investors'
It's the era of the side hustle, and if you've ever considered starting one to earn some extra cash outside of your 9-5, you're in good company. These days, more than one-third of U.S. adults have side hustles, and their supplemental gigs make an average of $891 a month, according to recent research from Bankrate. Of course, the most successful side-hustlers see much higher earnings, especially when they start a business that brings in nearly as much as — or significantly more than — their full-time sources of income. Los Angeles, California-based brothers Gurmer and Dashmeet (Robby) Chopra launched their side hustle with $5,000 in 2014 and turned it into a successful brand worn by Arnold Schwarzenegger, YG and others, and have collaborated with UFC, Gold's Gym and Yu-Gi-Oh!. Learn more about their journey, here. Looking for a profitable side hustle but not sure where to start? Money Makers is a free newsletter providing helpful tips, ideas and action items to build your own lucrative venture — delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up here. Image Credit: Courtesy of YoungLA. Gurmer Chopra and Robby Chopra. What was your day job or primary occupation when you started your side hustle? At the time, I was a college student and working part-time at Ernst & Young. My brother Robby was working for a company called DEX. Robby and I were both hustling, working on other small ecommerce side projects, selling on Amazon and eBay. We weren't in the fashion industry at all; we were just two guys who got into the fitness space and wanted to create something better but affordable for that industry. Related: 'We Were Too Stupid to Fail': Their 'Scrappy' Side Hustle Turned Full-Time Business Has Seen More Than $150 Million in Revenue When did you start your side hustle, and where did you find the inspiration for it? We officially launched YoungLA in 2014, but it really started a little earlier when we saw a gap in gymwear that fit well, looked good and didn't break the bank. We were inspired by our own frustration with overpriced or underwhelming fitness gear. So we made our own shorts with just one product, and it snowballed from there. What were some of the first steps you took to get your side hustle off the ground? We designed one pair of bodybuilding shorts, listed them on Amazon and eBay and used the profit from the first batch to fund the next. No investors, no loans, just reinvesting everything. We fulfilled every order ourselves from our parents' garage, handled customer service and learned the business side on the fly. If you could go back in your business journey and change one process or approach to save you time, energy or just a headache, what would it be, and how do you wish you'd done it differently? I would've built out better systems earlier. For fulfillment, inventory tracking and marketing automation. We were doing everything manually for way too long, and it cost us time, energy and sometimes even sales. Delegating sooner would've scaled us faster. Related: She Quit Her Job at Trader Joe's After Starting a Side Hustle With $800 — Then She and Her Brother Grew the Business to $20 Million When it comes to this specific business, what is something you've found particularly challenging and/or surprising that people who get into this type of work should be prepared for, but likely aren't? Forecasting demand is way harder than people think. You can go viral overnight and suddenly not have enough inventory, or drop something you thought would kill and get crickets. The fashion and fitness worlds move fast. Staying ahead means always adapting, but also not moving too quickly, where you're stuck with something that is off-trend or doesn't even make sense to launch anymore. Can you recall a specific instance when something went very wrong? How did you fix it? In the early days, we botched a shipment from overseas. Wrong color, wrong sizes, and we had already started marketing the drop. We couldn't launch it all; it wasn't something we could sell to our customers. We ate the cost, apologized to customers and expedited a new batch. That taught us the importance of quality control and having backup suppliers, but more importantly, the right supplier that meets our standards. How long did it take you to see consistent monthly revenue? How much did the side hustle earn? It took about 12-18 months before we saw consistent monthly sales. We were reinvesting everything, so profit wasn't the focus, just growth. But once we started seeing five-figure months, we knew this wasn't just a side hustle anymore. What does growth and revenue look like now? As of 2023, we crossed $100 million in annual revenue, with over one million customers worldwide. We've grown into a full-blown brand! Sponsoring athletes, collaborating with influencers and expanding our women's line, gym gear and accessories. How much time do you spend working on your business on a daily, weekly or monthly basis? It's full-time and then some. I'm in the office daily in meetings with our creative team, supply chain, marketing and athlete relations. My brother and I stay hands-on, especially with new drops. We live and breathe YoungLA. Sundays are the only semi-off day, but even then, we're thinking about what's next. Related: This 34-Year-Old Was 'Wildly Un-Passionate' About His Day Job, So He Started a 9-Figure Side Hustle: 'Be an Animal' What do you enjoy most about running this business? The community we've built. Seeing people rep YoungLA in the gym, on social media or in everyday life is the most rewarding feeling. It's not just clothes — it's a lifestyle people connect with in and outside of the gym. You have to genuinely be passionate about what you are working on. I take pride in the clothes we make because I know I put in the work to make the best possible clothing. You don't need to wait to be perfect, but adjust as you go, especially in the early stages of the brand.
Miami Herald
16-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Miami Herald
Gymshark customers furious after second drop disaster
It was supposed to be a comeback. Hype was high. Fans were ready. The brand even promised it had "learned from last week." But within minutes, the chaos began. Items vanished from carts. Country-specific sites refused to load. Some shoppers never even saw the collection drop. Related: Gymshark stumbles big time and customers are furious And just like that, the backlash hit harder than before. For many, this wasn't just another launch fail - it was a breaking point. One that pushed die-hard supporters to call it quits, publicly and permanently. The popular gym wear brand, Gymshark, held a "do-over" drop on May 15 following a botched release the week prior. But instead of redemption, it delivered déjà vu. Some users claimed bots bypassed human verification. Others, particularly in Canada, said the site never loaded at all. Many experienced a checkout queue that emptied their carts before they ever got a chance to buy. "What actually happened? A mess," Reddit user u/CorneZeeman wrote. Related: Gymshark consumers furious, call for boycott That same user accused the brand of using "artificial scarcity" tactics, saying, "The whole 'limited edition' thing? No one cares. We don't want exclusivity, we want accessibility." He emphasized that fans want to actually wear the clothes - not fight over scraps. To many, the entire experience felt like a betrayal of the loyal community that helped build the brand. Redditor u/No-Spare-6843 kept it simple: "I'm buying YoungLA now," referencing one of Gymshark's rising competitors. Fueling the outrage was Gymshark's Instagram post claiming that the Onyx collection "sold out in 25 minutes." Many customers said it was gone almost instantly, leaving them feeling "gaslit" and "trolled." The mismatch between the brand's messaging and user experience deepened the divide. Customer trust, once a core strength for the brand, may now be its biggest weakness. According to Zendesk Benchmark data, 73% of consumers will switch to a competitor after multiple bad experiences, a figure that brings sharp clarity to Gymshark's current challenge. On launch day, multiple threads lit up across Reddit's r/Gymshark community, filled with complaints, memes, and frustrated farewells. Some, like u/Independent-Bass8848, declared "no more Gymshark for me," while others questioned whether the brand is intentionally throttling access to boost hype. In a follow-up post, Gymshark said, "Onyx will return." But for many fans, that promise came too late. After two chaotic drops in less than a week, frustration had already boiled over. The company has not publicly addressed the second launch failure. But with customers defecting to rivals and social media sentiment turning sour, the stakes are getting higher. Limited-edition drops may build buzz. But when your most loyal customers feel betrayed, buzz can quickly turn into backlash - and hurt the bottom line. Related: Veteran fund manager unveils eye-popping S&P 500 forecast The Arena Media Brands, LLC THESTREET is a registered trademark of TheStreet, Inc.
