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© Robyn Twomey 2012.

In the great race for social-media dominance, it has been a simple, well-designed app called Path that has made Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ take notice. It’s the brainchild of C.E.O. Dave Morin, an entrepreneur groomed at Facebook and Apple, who co-founded Path with Dustin Mierau and former Napster creator Shawn Fanning. The product keeps your social network small, limiting Path users to only 150 friends in an attempt to mimic real-world friend-and-family circles, and it’s an angle that has attracted a devoted five million users. We spoke to the Montana native, who now resides in San Francisco with his wife, Brit, of lifestyle brand Brit and Co., about his black iPhone 5.

Phone: Black iPhone 5.

Ringtone: None.

“I don’t use a ring of any kind on my phone. This is so that I am always on offense and never defense.”

Case: JackBacks.com.

“I have a custom walnut-back [case] engraved with the Path logo.”

Background: The Tetons.

“They remind me of home and my values. The mountains are my soul.”

Courtesy of Dave Morin.

Last Text: To Path co-founder Dustin Mierau.

“We were talking about product-design feedback.”

Last App I Used: Uber.

“It got me to work this morning.”

Currently Obsessed with: Circa, the news app.

Editors curate the most important news stories of the day and break them down into basic points, quotes, and imagery. The stories are formatted simply for phone viewing. Says Morin, “It is the highest-quality news in the world right now.”

Last Download: Mailbox.

“I use [it] to keep things at ‘inbox zero.’ The founder [Gentry Underwood] is a friend and design collaborator.”

Most Surprising App on Home Screen: Operator.

“It’s a custom-designed, one-of-a-kind bespoke app I had built for my assistant and I to communicate and collaborate through.”

Text or Call? Text.

“I’m in meetings all day and all night.”

Remaining Battery: 18 percent.

“I have two iPhones, one for day and one for the night. When the day phone runs out, the night phone takes over. I never have to worry.”