Osman Rashid

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

Osman Rashid
Rashid in 2019 (or earlier)
Born1970 (age 52–53)
London, UK
Alma materUniversity of Minnesota
Known forSOAR, Chegg, Convo

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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