Founders Parade

Founders Parade: Flipboard

Flipboard

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Mike MccueCo-Founder and CEO (Left), Evan DollCo-Founder (Right)

On the Product:

Flipboard is an incredibly intuitive application for mobile devices, which advertises itself as the first “social” magazine. The application was conceived by co-founders Evan Doll and Mike Mccue (now CEO of Flipboard Inc.), as an application that allows people to share, tag and assemble their own collections of stories found online. Flipboard utilizes a variety of social networks and allows its users to aggregate their resources into content displayed as a digital magazine.

On The Founders:

Mike Mccue has a wealth of experience in the realm of mobile technologies both on the management and development side. His previous experience as the CEO of Tellme Networks (a Microsoft subsidiary) attests to his competency as a leader and his experience as the developer and founder of Paper Software, a company that pioneered 3-D browser technology and later bought-out by Netscape demonstrates his technical expertise. Evan Doll, a former iPhone Engineer for Apple and lecturer at Standford University, heads up the product development and strategy side of the operations. Between these two individuals, it is clear that Flipboard has a competent leadership team with vast amounts of valuable experience, both in terms of the business and product development.

Analysis and Reflection:

At the turn of last year, Flipboard announced that they had reached the 100 million user mark. This news was quickly followed the company boasted the raising of another $50 million in their financing bid, raising their valuation to $800 million, a figure supported by Goldman Sachs amongst other venture analysts.What Flipboard’s success indicates is that a co-founder model, in which a business specialist teams up with a technical specialist can work exceedingly well, but the caveat being that both individuals have an understanding and appreciation for what the other brings to the table.

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