Chegg History

Chegg or Chegg.com is an online textbook rental company in the United States based in Santa Clara, CA, which was created in 2001 by three Iowa State University students. Students rent textbooks typically by ordering online, and return books after the semester. It was founded by entrepreneurs Osman Rashid and Aayush Phumbhra. The name Chegg is a contraction of the words chicken and egg, based on the founders' experience after graduating from college: they couldn't land a job without experience, but couldn't get experience without a job, or a chicken and egg type quandary.

 In 2001, Josh Carlson, Mike Seager and Mark Fiddelke created the precursor to the business called Cheggpost.com, a Craigslist-type classified service for college students at Iowa State University. Aayush Phumbhra, who attended Iowa State University and was an avid Cheggpost.com user, approached Carlson in late 2003 with the idea of taking the company national. Phumbhra mentioned the service to a friend, Osman Rashid, who saw potential in the idea and joined as chief executive officer to help fund the company in 2005 and formally launched Chegg, Inc., was incorporated in August. Carlson remained until February 2006 and then left to pursue other interests. In April 2006, Chegg found some initial investors including Sam Spadafora, Mike Maples and others. The co-founders quit their regular jobs to focus on Chegg full-time. They tested services; they acquired three college classifieds businesses; they publicized Chegg via campus campaigns and word-of-mouth. In summer 2007 the firm launched "textbookflix.com" which used the textbook rental model. Rashid and Phumbhra decided to switch the "textbookflix" name to "Chegg.com" in December 2007. The firm has enjoyed strong growth. According to a company spokesperson, Chegg rented its two millionth book in 2010.



source: en.wikipedia.org