The mobile, personal network – Path

It’s probably not that difficult to secure venture capital money for a social startup if your names are Shawn Fanning and Dave Morin (pictured). The former Napster founder and Facebook whizz kid have raised $8.75 million in venture capital for ‘Path’, their personal network project.
The idea behind Path is simple – it’s a social network that limits a user’s connections to 50 close friends/relatives. Launched in November 2010, Path is a “social networking-enabled messaging and photo-sharing service for mobile devices”. That’s right. Mobile.
Morin, the CEO of Path, told the press last November that the average person has “about five people whom you trust most, 20 whom you consider your BFFs that you hang out with all the time and about 50 or so who are your personal network”.
Path allows users to email videos and photos to this personal network. However, users still can’t post to Facebook or Twitter.
Over two million photos and videos have been shared on Path through the iPhone and iPod Touch to date. The company is developing Android and BlackBerry apps.
“It was our hope in the beginning that our experiments around more private sharing and more personal network models would enable shared experiences between people that care about each other, and thus form closer relationships,” wrote Morin in his blog. With the advent of 3G and 4G smart phones and networks, he may just be right.