Chegg
http://www.chegg.com
Elevator Pitch:
An online textbook rental company
Founders:
Osamn Rashid
Aayush Phumbhra
Key ideas:
When it launched in 2007, Chegg quickly became known as the Netflix for textbooks. Rather than spending $100 or so on a physics or biology tome used for one semester, students turned to Chegg to rent books for as much as 80 percent off the cover price.
Chegg was inspired by Osman Rashid and Aayush Phumbhra’s frustration with the policies and procedures of their own university’s bookstore.
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.
Worth watching/reading:
Chegg (Wikipedia)
Chegg: Textbook Rental Takes Flight (HBS Case Study, 2011)
Chegg, a College Hub. Togas Not Included (BusinessWeek, 2012)