Stig Leschly

Stig is a Senior Lecturer at Harvard Business School where he teaches entrepreneurship.  Stig was also a lecturer on entrepreneurship at HBS from 2001-2004.  Apart from his work at HBS, Stig is a practicing entrepeneur, and he is currenlty the CEO and Founder of College101, an issue advocacy organization focused on US higher education.

Stig's work as an entrepreneur includes:

• Founder and CEO, College101 (2021-current).  College101 is a non-profit issue advocacy organization focused on US higher education. College101 uses research, data and communications — and a lot of plain-spoken common sense — to shine a bright light on the problems of US colleges (skyrocketing tuition, abysmal graduation rates, and erratic employment returns) and on the root cause of those problems (decades of public policy blunders that have set up US colleges to function like a publicly funded cartel shielded from competition and accountability). College101 favors solutions in policy and practice that encourage true innovation and that increase student choice.

• Cofounder, CEO and Board Chair, Fishtank Learning (2015-2020).  Stig co-founded and led Fishtank Learning, a leading open-source curriculum website that offers teachers and school leaders free or low-cost access to high-quality, standards-aligned, and proven instructional materials in core K-12 subjects. Fishtank Learning is one of the largest and fastest growing open-source curriculum websites in the US. Fishtank Learning was launched as a subsidiary at Match Education and eventually spun out as a lone-standing non-profit organization. Stig is currenlty the board chair of Fishtank Learning.

• Cofounder, CEO and Board Chair, Duet.org (2014-2020).  Stig co-founded and oversaw Duet, an innovative college and jobs organization that helps young adults from low-income households earn high-quality, affordable college degrees and qualify for career-track jobs.  Duet.org was launched as a subsidiary at Match Education and eventually spun out as a lone-standing non-profit organization. Stig is currenlty the board chair of Duet.

• CEO, Match Education (2011-2018).  Stig was the CEO of Match Education, a nationally recognized edcuatoin nonprofit that operates high-performing K-12 charter schools and an innovative graduate school of education that trains and grants Master’s degrees to teachers.

• Founder and Managing Partner, Newark Charter School Fund (2005-2010).  Stig was the founder and CEO of the Newark Charter School Fund, an operating foundation dedicated to public school reform and improvement in Newark, NJ.   The foundation partnered closely with Newark's then-Mayor, Cory Booker, on city-wide education reform, and it was a joint venture between the Gates Foundation, the Walton Foundation, and several other prominent national philanthropies focused on US school reform.

• Founder and CEO, Exchange.com and EVP, Amazon.com (1997-2001).  After graduating from Harvard's business and law schools, Stig was the founder and CEO of Exchange.com, an early competitor to eBay.com. Exchange.com primarily operated web-sites for buyers and sellers of hard-to-find books and music titles.   In 1999, Amazon.com purchased Exchange.com to help launch its move into intermediated business-to-consumer commerce.  After the acquisition, Stig worked at Amazon.com in various general management and strategic planning capacities and reported to Jeff Bezos.

Stig holds a BA in Comparative Literature (summa cum laude, Phi beta Kappa) from Princeton University (1992) and a combined JD-MBA degree from Harvard Law School and Harvard Business School (1998). 

Stig lives in Brookline, MA with his wife, Sherry Riva. They have three daughters.

Cases and Teaching Materials

• Leschly, Stig, David G. Fubini, and Kelleigh Whelan. "Barry's." Harvard Business School Case 821-091, March 2021. (Revised April 2022.) View Details
• Leschly, Stig, and Benjamin Henkes. "Business Model Ideation." Harvard Business School Technical Note 821-071, January 2021. View Details
• Leschly, Stig. "The Choice to Cofound and Initial Control and Ownership Splits in Startups." Harvard Business School Technical Note 820-095, January 2020. (Revised December 2020.) View Details
• Leschly, Stig. "Unit Economics in Startup Settings." Harvard Business School Technical Note 820-092, January 2020. (Revised December 2020.) View Details
• Leschly, Stig. "The Cash Flow Curve in Startups." Harvard Business School Technical Note 820-091, January 2020. (Revised December 2020.) View Details
• Leschly, Stig. "Hypothesis-Driven Entrepreneurial Management." Harvard Business School Technical Note 820-090, January 2020. (Revised December 2020.) View Details
• Leschly, Stig. "Business Model Analysis of Startups." Harvard Business School Technical Note 820-089, January 2020. (Revised December 2020.) View Details
• Leschly, Stig. "KIPP National (A) (Abridged)." Harvard Business School Case 805-068, November 2004. (Revised August 2008.) View Details
• Childress, Stacey M., Stig Leschly, and John J-H Kim. "Note on Student Outcomes in U.S. Public Education." Harvard Business School Background Note 307-068, October 2006. (Revised January 2019.) View Details
• Childress, Stacey M., and Stig Leschly. "Note on U.S. Public Education Finance (A): Revenues." Harvard Business School Background Note 307-069, October 2006. (Revised December 2012.) View Details
• Childress, Stacey M., and Stig Leschly. "Note on U.S. Public Education Finance (B): Expenditures." Harvard Business School Background Note 307-070, November 2006. (Revised December 2012.) View Details
• Childress, Stacey M., Stig Leschly, and Purnima Kochikar. "Finding a CEO for the School District of Philadelphia: Searching for a Savior?" Harvard Business School Case 803-072, January 2003. (Revised July 2005.) View Details
• Leschly, Stig. "Excel Academy Charter Middle School, The." Harvard Business School Case 804-113, January 2004. (Revised April 2004.) View Details
• Leschly, Stig. "Aspire Public Schools." Harvard Business School Case 804-114, February 2004. View Details
• Leschly, Stig. "Note on School Choice in U.S. Public Education." Harvard Business School Background Note 804-091, November 2003. (Revised December 2003.) View Details
• Leschly, Stig. "Note on Organized Labor in U.S. Public Education." Harvard Business School Background Note 804-018, July 2003. (Revised January 2013.) View Details
• Leschly, Stig. "KIPP National, 2002 (B): Managing a School Network." Harvard Business School Case 804-049, August 2003. (Revised September 2003.) View Details
• Leschly, Stig. "KIPP National, 1999 (A): Designing a School Network." Harvard Business School Case 803-124, January 2003. (Revised April 2003.) View Details
• Leschly, Stig. "Gates Foundation and Small High Schools, The." Harvard Business School Case 803-110, December 2002. (Revised March 2003.) View Details
• Leschly, Stig, Michael J. Roberts, William A. Sahlman, and Todd H Thedinga. "Amazon.com-2002." Harvard Business School Case 803-098, November 2002. (Revised February 2003.) View Details
• Leschly, Stig. "New Leaders for New Schools." Harvard Business School Case 803-073, October 2002. View Details
• Leschly, Stig. "Seattle Public Schools, 1995-2002 (A): The Freedom Agenda." Harvard Business School Case 803-037, September 2002. View Details
• Leschly, Stig. "Seattle Public Schools, 1995-2002 (B): The Performance Agenda." Harvard Business School Case 803-038, September 2002. View Details
• Leschly, Stig. "Seattle Public Schools, 1995-2002 (C1): Race, Class, and School Choice." Harvard Business School Case 803-039, September 2002. View Details
• Leschly, Stig. "Seattle Public Schools, 1995-2002 (C2): Race, Class, and School Choice." Harvard Business School Case 803-040, September 2002. View Details
• Leschly, Stig. "Transformation of Seattle Public Schools, 1995-2002." Harvard Business School Case 802-197, April 2002. (Revised September 2002.) View Details

Areas of Interest

• control systems
• education
• law
• managerial incentives
• resource allocation
Additional Topics
• agency theory
• compensation
• contracts
• entrepreneurship
• general management
• human resource management
• industry structure
• knowledge management
• leadership
• nonprofit
• organizational learning
• organizational structure
• performance management
• performance measurement
• scaling-up
• social enterprise
• social entrepreneurship
• strategic human resources management
Industries
• education industry
Geographies
• North America