Twitter and Pinterest founders launch social startup West Co.

West Co., a social media startup founded by Twitter co-founder Biz Stone and Pinterest co-founder Evan Sharp, has reportedly raised $29 million in funding. According to the Financial Times, Spark Capital led the seed round for the new venture. In the startup ecosystem, a seed round represents the first official equity funding stage of a company. The details of the funding and the company’s direction emerged after the Financial Times pieced together information from regulatory filings, job listings, and comments made by both Stone and Sharp. Prior to these reports, the startup had launched an invite-only version of its first app, Tangle, in November. This initial release restricted access exclusively to users who have received an invitation, keeping the platform’s early user base limited.

The company’s emergence comes as its founders reflect on the broader societal consequences of modern digital networks. Evan Sharp, the CEO of West Co., framed the startup’s mission as a direct response to the industry’s historical impact. Sharp described the venture as emerging from a fundamental 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 framing highlights a deliberate effort to address the mental health impacts associated with the last 15 years of social media, a time period Sharp explicitly references in relation to the impact of these platforms.

In its initial form, Tangle focuses on daily reflection and user planning rather than traditional social feeds. The app’s functionality currently includes the following features:

• It prompts users with the question, “What’s your intention for today?”
• It allows users to share their goals with friends, with the goal of helping them “plan with intention, capture the reality of their days, and see the deeper threads that shape their life.”

This structure represents a departure from conventional social media platforms. However, the current product design is not final. Co-founder Biz Stone told the Financial Times that the app could change significantly before West Co. executes a full public launch.

Why it matters

The entry of high-profile founders like Biz Stone and Evan Sharp into the social media space signals a potential shift in how platforms address the mental health impacts of the last 15 years of social networking.