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.[3][4] Chegg is a portmanteau 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.[5]

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.”[6] The company was incorporated in 2005 by Carlson, Rashid, and Aayush Phumbhra.[4] At that time, it offered scholarship searches, internship matching, and college application advice.[2] Some initial start-up funding was provided by Rashid.[7]

In February 2006, Carlson left the company.[7] Phumbhra and Rashid rebranded, in December 2007, launching Chegg Inc., with Rashid becoming CEO. Disabling services unrelated to renting and purchasing textbooks,[4] Chegg then expanded to a national market, later adding goods and student services through corporate acquisitions.[8]

In 2007, the company adjusted its business model to reflect that of Netflix's then rental-based model, concentrating on renting textbooks to students.[5][9]

In 2008, revenues were about $10 million; in 2009, revenues for the month of January were reported as $10 million.[10]

Following a brief tenure by former Ask.com and Match.com CEO Jim Safka, in 2009,[11] former Guitar Hero CEO Dan Rosensweig was appointed CEO, in 2010.[12]

In 2014, Chegg announced a partnership with Ingram Content Group, which expanded, in 2015, to give Ingram full management of Chegg's distribution.[13][14]

Chegg CEO Rosensweig was, in March 2016, among over 80 CEOs to sign a letter denouncing a North Carolina law that invalidates legal protections against the discrimination of LGBT people.[15]

In April 2017, Chegg and Pearson Education began a textbook rental partnership.[16]

In September 2018, Chegg announced a data breach had occurred in April 2018 that had impacted 40 million user accounts. The breach included the loss of user names, hashed passwords, addresses and e-mails. The company reported that Social Security numbers and bank account information were not affected by the breach.[17]

In 2018, Chegg was named to Fortune’s annual “25 Best Small and Medium Workplaces for Women” list.[18]

Chegg and College Pulse launched an interactive college student political polling tool for the 2020 United States presidential election, as the Chegg/College Pulse Student Election Tracker, in July 2019.[19]

In June 2019, Chegg launched a program that provides its employees with $3,000 to $5,000 annually in company shares for individual student debt relief, citing corporations as “the beneficiaries of those people who have gotten an education”.[20]

On July 29, 2019, Chegg Services reported 2.23 million subscribers.[21][22]

In 2010, Chegg made its first acquisition, purchasing CourseRank (later disabling the platform, in 2014).[23][24] That year, Chegg also acquired Cramster, a provider of online homework help,[25] and Notehall, an online marketplace for class notes.[26]

In 2011, Chegg acquired Zinch, a scholarship search and networking service for high school students and college recruiters, and continues to offer the service, under the Chegg brand name.[27] Chegg acquired software company 3D3R in late 2011 to develop its digital textbook product, kickstart its mobile product group and open an engineering office in Rehovot, Israel. [28]. Chegg acquired online tutoring platform InstaEDU, in 2014, for a reported $30 million,[29] renaming the division Chegg Tutors,[24][30] as well as Internships.com.[31]

Chegg acquired Imagine Easy Solutions, a provider of online bibliography and research tools, for a reported $42 million, in 2016.[32] In 2017, the company acquired Cogeon GmbH, a German math education provider, for $15 million cash.[33] Cogeon's App, Math 42, uses artificial intelligence to assess individual students' weaknesses in math, and to inform targeted training.[34]

In April 2017, the publisher Pearson unveiled a textbook rental partnership with Chegg. In the pilot program, Pearson made 50 editions of high-volume textbooks (both digital and print) available only to rent. Chegg served as the exclusive rental outlet.[16]

In 2018, Chegg acquired WriteLab from Matthew Ramirez for $15 million, which uses AI to analyze text and suggest improvements,[35][36] and online flash card tool StudyBlue.[37]

In July 2018, Chegg acquired StudyBlue for approximately $20.8 million.[38][39]

During late 2019, Chegg acquired online coding school Thinkful,[40] for $80 million cash.[41]

By 2016, textbook rentals and student services were about even in company revenues;[42] by 2018, Chegg Services reported 3.1 million subscribers,[43] with services accounting for 79% of revenue. Students may search for both scholarships and internships on the website, and typically pay to access Chegg Services, such as Study, Advanced Writing, Tutors, and Math Solver, on a monthly basis.[42]

Chegg sponsors music instruction contests for colleges in a program named Music 101. These conclude with live classroom instruction by noted music artists, and a $10,000 grant from its David B. Goldberg Music Scholarship fund for the winning school music department. In 2019, the company launched its ninth annual Chegg Music 101 campaign featuring YUNGBLUD. Previous events have featured U2, Imagine Dragons, Taylor Swift, Ed Sheeran, Shawn Mendes, Steve Aoki, and Liam Payne.[44][45]

In December 2008, $25 million was raised from Silicon Valley venture capitalists by Chegg.[10] By April 2016, the company had progressed through 12 funding rounds, garnering $289.6 million in venture capital funding, according to Crunchbase.[46] Investors include Foundation Capital, Insight Venture Partners, Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers, Pinnacle Ventures, and TriplePoint Capital.[47][7]

Chegg began trading shares publicly on the New York Stock Exchange in November 2013.[48] Its IPO was reported to have raised $187.5 million, with an initial market capitalization of about $1.1 billion.[49]

In February 2019, Chegg formed a partnership with Purdue University's Online Writing Lab (OWL), to make online educational writing tools more accessible to its students.[53] The affiliation was met by some faculty criticism, alluding to Chegg helping students cheat;[54] OWL director Harry Denny reported that he did not expect Purdue's reputation to suffer as a result, citing that “My experience has been that the company is committed to partnering with faculty and administration to address their concerns."

A report published by Citron Research in July 2019 claims that "Chegg has created forums to circumvent Turnitin, proving that Chegg is helping users continue institutionalized cheating".[55]

In April 2020, amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, Georgia Tech alerted students in a physics class that certain students in the class had cheated on their online final exam by using answers posted on Chegg,[56] and certain students in a chemistry class at Boston University were found to have similarly cheated on an online exam.[57] Chegg is cooperating with both universities' investigations.[58][59]

• Amazon textbook rentals
• BookRenter
• CourseSmart
• Books on Google Play
• Tutor.com
• Zovio

• Official website
• Chegg India - Subsidiary of Chegg Inc.
• Business data for Chegg, Inc.:
  • Google Finance
  • Yahoo! Finance
  • Bloomberg
  • SEC filings