Osman Rashid
Rashid in 2019 (or earlier)
Born1970 (age 53–54)
London, UK
Alma materUniversity of Minnesota
Known forSOAR, Chegg, Convo

Osman Rashid (born 1970) is a Pakistani American businessman in Silicon Valley, California. He has worked in enterprise software and consumer products.

He was co-founder and CEO of three companies, an online textbook rental and student hub Chegg, remaining involved in it until early 2010 after growing the company from its inception in 2005.[1] He was co-founder and CEO of Kno, Inc, (acquired by Intel, 2013)[2] a digital education platform company.[3] Kno has received funding from Andreessen Horowitz,[4] Intel Capital, Goldman Sachs, FLOODGATE and GSV Capital, while Chegg was funded by KPCB, IVP, Gabriel Ventures and others. He founded Galxyz Inc.,[5] in 2014, which was an educational software company focusing on creating next generation language arts and science enhancement products for primary and middle school students.[6]

Rashid is the CEO of Convo Corp,[7] an enterprise software company that focuses on in-context collaboration that is used as a conversational tool at work, and the co-founder & chairman of SOAR Education. His aim is to spread affordable STEM education in Pakistan.[8]

Personal life

Rashid was born in London,[9] did his early schooling in Ghana and finished middle and high school from Islamabad, Pakistan. He later moved to the United States where he received a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from University of Minnesota in 1993.[10]

Career

Before founding Galxyz, Chegg and Kno, Rashid also started Gravitywell, an ASP based customer service company, and worked at Venturian, a subsidiary of ATIO Corporation, where Osman was VP of Business Development and Marketing. Between start-ups, Osman was Director of Business Development at Chordiant Software, Inc.[11]

Awards

He was awarded Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of The Year Award in 2009 for Consumer Products in Northern CA.[12]

He has also been recognized as Forbes Impact 15 for 2012[13] and in Inc.’s Immigrant Edge: 9 Wildly Successful Entrepreneurs.[14]

Philanthropy

Osman helped spearhead Chegg for Good program which plants a tree for every rental made, and to date has helped plant over 6 million trees. At Kno he developed a partnership with DonorsChoose.org to donate $1 of every sale made to help classrooms get school supplies. Osman is actively involved as a board member at ChildLife Foundation Pakistan which is bringing critical care and prevention of diseases to millions of young and needy children in Pakistan through a network of Urgent Care Clinics.[15]

He plans to set up an Endowment Fund to provide quality education to the financially disadvantaged, of which the platform is SOAR STEM Schools.[16]

References

  1. ↑ "Rosensweig to Leave Guitar Hero; Takes Over as CEO of Online Textbook Rental Start-Up Chegg". All Things D. 2010-02-02.
  2. ↑ "Intel Education Welcomes Kno to the Family". CRS@Intel. 2013-11-08.
  3. ↑ "The Kno, a Tablet for the College Market". New York Times. 2010-06-02.
  4. ↑ "Kno Wants a Slice of Apple". Time Magazine. 2010-11-11. Archived from the original on November 15, 2010. Retrieved 2010-11-19.
  5. ↑ "Galxyz". www.galxyz.com. Retrieved 2018-02-12.
  6. ↑ "Chegg Co-Founder Osman Rashid Announces Galxyz, A Gaming Startup Focused On Science Education". TechCrunch. 29 April 2014. Retrieved 2020-12-14.
  7. ↑ "Team communication and collaboration software". www.convo.com. Retrieved 2018-02-12.
  8. ↑ "Speaking with Osman Rashid, Serial Entrepreneur with multiple exits in US". TechJuice. 2020-05-21. Retrieved 2020-12-14.
  9. ↑ "Chegg CEO Rashid applies Netflix concept to textbooks". USA Today. 2009-01-12.
  10. ↑ "The Spark Academy".
  11. ↑ "ABC News".
  12. ↑ Rashid, Osman (2009). "Hall of Fame - EY Entrepreneur Of The Year". eoyhof.ey.com. Retrieved 2020-12-14.
  13. ↑ "Forbes Impact 15 for 2012". Forbes.
  14. ↑ "Inc.'s Immigrant Edge: 9 Wildly Successful Entrepreneurs".
  15. ↑ "ChildLife Foundation". ChildLife Foundation. 2020. Retrieved 2020-12-14.
  16. ↑ "SOAR STEM School".
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