Dave Morin's Existential Crisis Is Playing Out on Twitter
In past six weeks former Facebook mafioso Dave Morin has changed his Twitter bio at least three times. Three versions of his mini memoir—"Small town guy," "Small town guy from Montana," and "Entrepreneur & Investor"—omitted any mention of Path, the struggling social networking startup that has raised $77 million in funding.
A tipster alerted us to Morin's mercurial temperament through a helpful tool from an Amsterdam startup called BioIsChanged. It's one of last remaining apps that organize and track the bountiful data that Twitter lets float around unsupervised.
Here are some of the recent notifications from BioIsChanged:
June 21, 2014
Your Twitter friend @davemorin changed his/her bio
| New bio | Small town guy. | |
|---|---|---|
| Old bio | Co-Founder & CEO @Path / Board @Eventbrite, @USSkiTeam, @SFMOMA |
Jul 12, 2014
Your Twitter friend @davemorin changed his/her bio
| New bio | Entrepreneur & Investor. | |
|---|---|---|
| Old bio | Small town guy from Montana |
August 1, 2014
Your Twitter friend @davemorin changed his/her bio
| New bio | Entrepreneur & Investor / Co-Founder & CEO @Path / Boards of @Eventbrite,@USSkiTeam, & @SFMOMA | |
|---|---|---|
| Old bio | Entrepreneur & Investor |
Startup founders may submit themselves to glossy magazine profiles or lightly sweetened press releases, but they remain secretive when it comes to their undisclosed hopes and dreams. That's why overzealous observers are forced to decipher Twitter clues like modern-day hieroglyphics. Take Square and Twitter cofounder Jack Dorsey, who called himself a sailor and a tailor in his last Twitter bio—hinting longingly at his thwarted ambitions in fashion design. Square's IPO looks less and less likely and now Jack's bio now says nothing. He's just another beardo from California.
Then there's of the earnest think pieces that have sprung from the Twitter avatar of Uber CEO Travis Kalanick and the subsequent shuffle that happened when he switched from Randian to Federalist.
In Morin's case, there's one obvious well of angst. Whatever dark arts Path used to climb the charts last summer has lost its mojo. Its new growth strategy is a creaky pivot toward Snapchat ephemerality. Path also took a page from the Facebook fragmentation playbook by acquiring TalkTo and releasing a new messaging app called Talk, which is when Morin morphed back into a simple "small town" fella.
Path Talk is still very new . . . and very quiet.
Twitter is not the only fodder for armchair psychoanalysis. Morin also dropped some poignant quotes on Facebook that could be applied to his current business predicament. C'mon now Dave, emo is what Tumblr was made for.
I have reached out to Path and will update if they respond. To reach the author of this post, please email nitasha@gawker.com.
