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Path Axes 20 Percent Of Staff In A ‘Realigning Of The Company’

51 points| capkutay | 12 years ago |techcrunch.com | reply

48 comments

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[+] Steko|12 years ago|reply
Path laid off 13 staffers today, axing 20 percent of its workforce...

Path founder and CEO Dave Morin, who celebrated his 33rd birthday yesterday, has not responded to requests for comment.

Cmon Techcrunch, you should know that Path dude never answers his phone, it puts him on defense.

[+] prawn|12 years ago|reply
Did they call his day phone or his night phone?
[+] meritt|12 years ago|reply
I wonder how many of those guys had job offers in their inbox before they had their exit interview.
[+] jfb|12 years ago|reply
Is Path particularly well-regarded?
[+] leothekim|12 years ago|reply
Maybe depends on their title? Software engineer, yeah probably getting nibbled to pieces. Other job description, ymmv.
[+] capkutay|12 years ago|reply
I think this is interesting because this may represent a pullback in the social/mobile consumer space from an investment standpoint. Path is a VC darling given that it raised over $40 million from the likes of KPCB (a firm that also mentioned a direction change[0]). Anyone talking about a SV bubble should consider that some companies with tremendous momentum are scaling back a little bit. It could be a healthy pull back.

0: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6540362

[+] sneak|12 years ago|reply
Either that or the market finally wised up to the fact that Path is managed by asstards who don't have a shred of respect for their customers.
[+] wellboy|12 years ago|reply
It all comes back to you if you try screwing over the market, the market sees everything.

I love the market.

[+] sniddy|12 years ago|reply
"The spokesperson said that Path currently has 20 million users"

Has Path ever released a data point other than total number of registered users?

[+] yapcguy|12 years ago|reply
Translation: Path stole 20 million e-mail addresses from iOS and Android address books and spammed them.
[+] stevewilber|12 years ago|reply
Did Path destroy itself with questionable ethics[1] or is there really no way to compete with Facebook anymore?

[1] http://techcrunch.com/2012/02/07/path-uploads-your-iphones-a...

[+] untog|12 years ago|reply
Path originally touted the idea of having a limited friends group - only your closest. I thought that actually made sense.

Then they started spamming people in your phone book, completely ruining the entire point of their original pitch. Now they seem to make money selling stickers? I'm not sure why any self-respective developer would still be working there.

[+] potatolicious|12 years ago|reply
Neither? The address book debacle was a big deal for a little while, but the bad press faded quickly.

I also don't think Facebook's position is unchallengeable. After all, Facebook wasn't the first social network, and it looks like the youth today aren't using Facebook nearly as much as older generations, preferring newer apps like Snapchat.

In all likelihood Path destroyed itself by being a not-very-good Facebook competitor. This says little about the feasibility of toppling Facebook.

[+] morewillie|12 years ago|reply
According to their site, they are still hiring for five positions. Maybe it's just a massive cleansing?
[+] mikkelewis|12 years ago|reply
or they just haven't updated their website :)
[+] wellboy|12 years ago|reply
That's what happens when you realise that it costs more to acquire a user than you can make money off him/her. There'll probably another layoff in 4 months and another one and then we have an acquihire, yeah!

Ugh, I tried to like it, but I just dont like Path. If I can think of a vanity startup with vanity PR, vanity founder, vanity metrics, it's Path. Ugh.

[+] Andrex|12 years ago|reply
I'm the same. Really tried using and liking path for 6-8 months but I just couldn't find a use-case outside of using it like Instagram without having to admit I used Instagram. It's derivative and deliberately-limited for no perceivable benefit. And since everyone (even Trello!) is adding "stickers" Path had to hop on the bandwagon too.
[+] 6thSigma|12 years ago|reply
To people who use Path - why do you use it over Facebook?
[+] gummadi|12 years ago|reply
Facebook for me is just an address book of all my contacts. I never share anything personal there due to the number of privacy settings I need to hop through to make sure I shared with the right people.

Path is just a curated set of close friends with whom I feel free to share anything. Also when it came out Path mobile app is far better than Facebook.

[+] gooderlooking|12 years ago|reply
I use Path (mostly) for pictures of my kids. Path is invite/opt-in which makes it easy to share with only the family and friends who are interested.

I don't want everyone on Facebook seeing my family photos any more than they want to be flooded with updates from a doting father.

[+] auctiontheory|12 years ago|reply
I cannot tell from their website what this company does. (Other than that it might be a Facebook clone.)
[+] lnanek2|12 years ago|reply
That's basically what is. A Facebook clone focusing on mobile. They limit your number of friends and have a better mobile experience by doing things like putting things accessible from fewer screens, because mobile users hate multi-screen flows, etc..