Evan Doll: Startup iPad app Flipboard a 'rollercoaster' success

Being the co-founder of Flipboard, named by Time Magazine as one of the top six tech inventions of 2010, is "more terrifying and more awesome" than anyone could ever imagine, Evan Doll told his hometown crowd Monday.

"Running a startup is a rollercoaster," Doll said to more than 100 people at 's Black Box Theater. "The ups and downs are more intense than anything I've ever felt before."

At once likeable and straight-talking as the senior class president and smart and confident as a Google No. 1 employee about to cash in stock options, Doll laid out his story of success to an appreciative group of family, friends, former teachers and aspiring computer software engineers.

"He was really inspiring," said Hanna Inman, 16, a Healdsburg High School junior who said she and her friends are trying to launch a startup project involving outdoors clubs. "His talk was really cool — it makes me want to move toward the challenge, even though it's difficult."

Palo Alto-based Flipboard, a free download that gathers social media, news and lifestyle website articles data and reformats your Apple iPad into a custom, visually appealing online magazine, is Doll's antidote for "information overload," he said.

"Instead of having to scroll down through lists of information to find what you want, Flipboard turns your iPad into something you can browse on a Sunday morning at a cafe — or at night in bed, before you go to sleep," he said.  "It's much more visual than a deep-data computer app."

About 10 percent of iPad users have downloaded Flipboard since the company launched last July, Doll said. That amounts to 1.5 million downloads, he said.

"We think that's a really great start," he said. "We're really psyched about it."

In fact, Doll, whose audience Monday included mother Mary Doll, grandmother Phyllis Goughnour and sister Robin Doll, 18, seems to be psyched about most things.

"It's amazing to grow up in the Bay Area," said Doll, a 1999 Healdsburg grad who went on to Stanford, graduating from that Silicon Valley tech incubator in 2003. "You've got all the Internet, all the cleantech, all the biotech here — if you like math, physics and chemistry, the future of jobs here is really good."

Doll should know. From Stanford, Doll was hired as an engineer at Apple Inc., where he helped design the original iPhone. On the side, Doll began teaching a class on iPhone applications programming. Even after Apple management told Doll he didn't need to keep teaching the class, he said he convinced them to let him continue.

"Teaching is a way to gain mastery," he told the group. "When you have to explain [a complex engineering tool] to a beginner, it makes you realize you don't really understand how it works."

Little did Doll know that his enthusiasm for teaching would catch the eye of tech recruiter Pam Hart. Hart had previously worked with Mike McCue, an experienced and successful tech entrepreneur.

Hart arranged for McCue to meet with Doll — and the two started bouncing ideas off each other, neither knowing exactly what they would create.

"Mike and me were camping out," Doll said. "We had no idea for the first five months what we were building.

"It was like taking a class and you come to the final exam," Doll added, "and instead of there being a short essay, multiple choice and some short answer questions, there are 10 pages, all blank, and you not only have to know the answers, but you have to figure out the questions."

McCue, who is now Flipboard's chief executive officer, had some venture capital firm connections from previous projects. Through those, Doll said, Flipboard was able to attract investors, such as well-known tech investor John Doerr, and several venture capital firms.

Doll said he decided that he wasn't afraid to risk going broke or being a failure. What risk did matter to him was the threat of losing time.

"You just think, "if you're not a success, would you feel like you wasted your time?" he said. "If not, OK, do it."

Doll's talk was part of the Healdsburg High School's Science Alliance lecture series. Science Alliance, formed a year ago, is sponsored by , ,