Dive Brief:
- Chegg ($CHGG) debuted on the New York Stock Exchange Wednesday, falling 22.6% below its $12.50 IPO price to $9.68
- The textbook rental startup's CEO, Dan Rosensweig, played down the first day of trading, insisting instead that setting the company up for future success is the important thing to focus on.
- Chegg was founded in 2005 and rents textbooks from its 180,000-title catalog for a semester at a time, but also offers a catalog of over 100,000 etextbooks, as well as services that connect high school students with colleges and scholarships.
Dive Insight:
A primary concern regarding Chegg's business is that companies like Amazon.com might move in on the etextbook space, providing a challenge that would be hard to overcome. Regardless, Rosensweig is playing down such concerns and remaining optimistic, saying that investors were enthusiastic during the company's two-week roadshow. Going public also allowed the startup to raise $187.5 million to facilitate its expansion.