*Disclaimer - while I don’t know @DaveMorin and team, I have a bias for anyone who wears plaid in a @nytimes interview

It will be interesting to see how Path’s limited network pans out but I applaud them for innovating.  A move away from “open” = innovating?  Think about some recent trends.  I’m a big fan of Letter.ly’s subscribers only approach, and I see similarities between Path’s thinking and that company’s bet.  There are people with private blogs, letters still get sent in envelopes, I haven’t found a “public” button to expose all my emails yet, and I find myself sharing picture texts rather frequently with the same circle of people despite also enjoying the openness of @instagram’s model. 

I certainly admirable the narrowness of @path’s approach.  While the ses pool that is frequently the @techcrunch comments section seems to think differently I believe the market is there for this kind of application. 

While the application will benefit from great exposure due to past successes I think user growth and activity will be a slower climb as opposed to some applications that go nutty with overzealous tech users for a few months before fading.

The exclusiveness of each person’s network should result in higher engagement, quality content, and loyalty built on people you actually know and care about.  Ashton Kutcher as an investor here really makes sense.  I can see high profile individuals benefiting from the exclusiveness - also think of families, companies, teams, etc.

I’m looking forward to seeing where this product goes.  Also +10 the UI is gorgeous.  Some of the interactions came with a bit of a learning curve but overall a very thoughtful and warm design.