Twitter co-founder Biz Stone and Pinterest co-founder Evan Sharp have successfully secured $29 million in seed funding for their new social media venture, West Co. The startup is developing an app called Tangle, which aims to address the perceived negative impacts of traditional social media by encouraging users to "plan with intention."
The funding round was led by Spark Capital, with details emerging from comments made by Stone and Sharp, as well as regulatory filings and job listings, as reported by the Financial Times. West Co had previously launched an invite-only version of its Tangle app in November.
Evan Sharp, who serves as West Co's CEO, articulated the company's ambitious mission, stating that the venture emerged from the question:
"What could I build that might help address just some of the terrible devastation of the human mind and heart that we’ve wrought the last 15 years?"
This reflects a growing sentiment among tech veterans to create more mindful and less addictive digital experiences.
Tangle, in its current iteration, prompts users with the question, "What’s your intention for today?" The app is designed to facilitate sharing these goals with friends, helping users to "plan with intention, capture the reality of their days, and see the deeper threads that shape their life."
Biz Stone indicated to the Financial Times that the app's features and functionality could undergo significant changes before its full public launch, suggesting a flexible development approach for the promising new platform.
