Chegg

In October 2000, Iowa State University students Josh Carlson, Mike Seager, and Mark Fiddleke launched Chegg's forerunner, Cheggpost, a Craigslist-style message board for Iowa State students. Chegg is a combination of the words chicken and egg, and references the founders’ catch-22 feeling of being unable to obtain a job without experience, while being unable to acquire experience without a job.Carlson then teamed with Iowa State MBA Osman Rashid, an avid user of the site who recognized its potential to disrupt the textbook market, which had "drastically outpaced the rate of inflation". The company was incorporated in 2005 by Carlson, Rashid, and Aayush Phumbhra. At that time, it offered scholarship searches, internship matching, and college application advice. Some initial start-up funding was provided by Rashid.In February 2006, Carlson left the company. Phumbhra and Rashid rebranded, launching Chegg, Inc. in December 2007, with Rashid as CEO. After ending services unrelated to renting and purchasing textbooks, the company adjusted its business model to reflect that of Netflix's rental-based model, concentrating on renting textbooks to students, and Chegg expanded to a national market. It later added goods and student services through corporate acquisitions.In 2008, revenues were about $10 million; in 2009, revenues for the month of January were reported as $10 million.Following a brief tenure by former Ask.com and Match.com CEO Jim Safka in 2009, former Guitar Hero CEO Dan Rosensweig was appointed CEO in 2010.Chegg began trading shares publicly on the New York Stock Exchange in November 2013. Its IPO was reported to have raised $187.5 million, with an initial market capitalization of about $1.1 billion.In 2014, Chegg entered a partnership with book distributor Ingram Content Group to distribute all of Chegg's physical textbook rentals.In April 2017, Chegg and Pearson Education began a textbook rental partnership; In the pilot program, the publisher Pearson made 50 editions of high-volume textbooks available only to rent. Chegg served as the exclusive rental outlet.In September 2018, Chegg announced a data breach had occurred in April 2018 that may have involved 40 million active and inactive registered users. The breach may have included data such as user names, Chegg passwords, email addresses, and shipping addresses. The company reported that social security numbers and bank account information were not affected by the breach.As of March 2020 the company reported having 2.9 million subscribers to Chegg Services.In June 2021, Chegg unveiled Uversity, a new educational platform that will provide a space for professors and other educators to share content. In the same year, Chegg partnered with Varkey Foundation to launch Global Student Prize to recognise outstanding students that make an impact to local or international communities.