The era of hyper-optimized, engagement-maximized social media platforms may finally be facing a credible challenge from within Silicon Valley itself. West Co., a new venture co-founded by two architects of the modern digital landscape—Biz Stone, a co-founder of Twitter, and Evan Sharp, a co-founder of Pinterest—has successfully closed a substantial $29 million seed funding round, led by Spark Capital. This significant early capital injection underscores the venture community’s appetite for genuinely disruptive paradigms in a sector widely acknowledged to be suffering from systemic cultural burnout and a crisis of purpose. The stakes, however, are higher than simple market disruption; the founders are explicitly positioning West Co. as an antidote to the very societal harm their previous creations inadvertently propagated.
Evan Sharp, serving as CEO of West Co., articulated the company’s philosophical genesis in remarkably stark terms, describing the impetus for the startup as emerging from the profound 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 potent statement, acknowledging a moral debt from the industry’s past, serves as the foundation for their initial product, an invite-only application named Tangle, which debuted in an early-access phase in November.
The Problem of Algorithmic Devastation
Sharp’s phrasing of "terrible devastation" is not hyperbole but rather a succinct summation of a decade and a half of technological externalities. The core business model of legacy social media platforms—reliant on maximizing time spent and generating behavioral data—has necessitated the creation of complex, manipulative algorithmic feeds. These algorithms prioritize content based on its capacity to elicit strong, often negative, emotional responses, leading to well-documented societal fragmentation, the rapid spread of misinformation, and significant mental health consequences, particularly among younger demographics.
The original intent of platforms like Twitter and Pinterest was to connect people and facilitate the sharing of ideas and inspiration. Yet, as they scaled, the monetization imperative transformed them into engines of passive consumption and social comparison. Users became products, their attention the commodity, leading to a profound misalignment between user welfare and platform goals. West Co. is essentially attempting to solve the problem of algorithmic misalignment by rejecting the premise of endless, passive scrolling entirely.
Tangle: A Shift from Consumption to Intentionality
Tangle’s design ethos centers on a radical reversal of the traditional social media flow. Instead of logging in to passively consume an endless stream of algorithmically selected content, the user is immediately prompted with a simple but powerful question: “What’s your intention for today?”
This focus on intention represents a fundamental pivot from reactive engagement to proactive planning. Tangle is designed to facilitate sharing defined goals, helping users "plan with intention, capture the reality of their days, and see the deeper threads that shape their life." This model encourages users to use the app as a tool for self-improvement, accountability, and meaningful documentation, rather than as a source of ephemeral entertainment or external validation.
In a traditional social media environment, a user shares a highly curated, often idealized, outcome. On Tangle, the mechanism appears to favor sharing the process and the goals. If the platform can successfully integrate these goals into social feedback loops, it could shift the reward structure away from performative perfection and toward genuine progress and mutual support. This concept seeks to harness the positive aspects of network effects—community support and shared endeavor—while neutralizing the comparison traps fostered by highly visual, achievement-focused platforms.
The challenge, however, lies in behavioral modification. Decades of digital conditioning have trained users to expect instant gratification and effortless consumption. Introducing friction, even positive friction like the prompt for intention, risks alienating users accustomed to the smooth, dopamine-fueled slide of a traditional feed. As Biz Stone noted, the application is still in its early, invite-only phase and is highly subject to significant changes before a full public launch. This indicates a period of intense iteration focused on ensuring the philosophical ideals translate into sustainable, habitual user engagement.
The Return of the Titans: Implications for the Industry
The involvement of Stone and Sharp is not merely symbolic; it signifies a massive validation of the "intentional social" movement. These founders possess unparalleled institutional knowledge regarding how social networks are built, how they scale, and, critically, where they break down. Their combined experience spanning real-time global networking (Twitter) and curated personal aspiration (Pinterest) provides a unique vantage point from which to build a third-generation social platform.
The $29 million seed round, secured with Spark Capital leading the charge, is a massive sum for a company at such an early stage, especially one challenging the fundamental revenue models of the incumbent giants. This level of investment suggests that venture capitalists are not only recognizing the market fatigue with current platforms but are betting heavily on the ability of proven founders to engineer a viable, sustainable alternative. The investment is a calculated risk that the monetization of true digital wellness and meaningful connection can eventually outweigh the sheer volume of ad impressions generated by the attention economy.
This funding validates a burgeoning industry trend: the decentralization and specialization of social media. After years of mega-platforms absorbing all interaction, the market is fragmenting into niche communities and specialized tools (e.g., platforms focused solely on wellness, book clubs, specific professional development, or real-time ephemeral connection like BeReal). West Co., with Tangle, aims to capture a much broader, yet deeper, segment: personal growth and accountability through social mirroring.
Expert Analysis: Navigating Scale and Virtue
The central dilemma for West Co., as analyzed by industry experts, revolves around scalability and monetization without compromising core virtues. The platforms that caused the "devastation" did so because they needed billions of users and trillions of data points to satisfy shareholder expectations.
Dr. Anya Sharma, a leading researcher in digital psychology and platform design, notes that Tangle must navigate the "virtue trap." "Many small, beautiful, intentional communities exist, but they struggle to scale past the point where financial pressure dictates the design," Sharma explains. "The moment Tangle introduces elements that maximize daily active usage or lengthen session times purely for ad inventory, it risks replicating the extractive behavior it aims to abolish. The key metric cannot be time spent; it must be measurable goal attainment or perceived increase in well-being."
To avoid this trap, West Co. will likely need to explore alternative monetization strategies that align with user value. Subscription models, high-value data insights for self-improvement (aggregated and anonymized), or premium accountability features are potential avenues. However, building a mass-market social app on a subscription model is notoriously difficult, particularly when the major competitors offer "free" (ad-supported) services. The founders must convince users that the improved quality of life provided by intentional interaction justifies a financial cost.
Furthermore, the design must protect against performance anxiety. If Tangle becomes a platform where users feel pressured to constantly present highly ambitious, unrealistic goals, it will simply replace one form of comparison culture (curated lifestyle) with another (curated ambition). The ability to genuinely support "capturing the reality of their days"—the inevitable failures and mundane processes—will be critical to its success.
Future Impact and the Intentional Internet
The long-term impact of West Co. and Tangle could be far-reaching, setting a precedent for what is increasingly being termed the "Intentional Internet." If this model proves sticky and scalable, it suggests a market shift where consumers are willing to trade constant connectivity for quality interaction and genuine self-improvement tools.
This trend is not isolated. Across the tech ecosystem, there is a growing focus on "digital sovereignty" and tools that empower the user rather than extract from them. Tangle represents a bold thesis: that social media can function primarily as a utility for personal agency, rather than merely a communication channel or entertainment source.
The success of Tangle hinges on whether it can successfully institutionalize the philosophy of "digital wellness" into its core product architecture. This means rejecting the metrics of the past—likes, retweets, impressions—and pioneering new measures of success rooted in human flourishing: perhaps goal completion rates, reduction in reported anxiety, or verifiable strengthening of real-world connections.
As the tech industry enters 2026, the question is no longer whether social media has caused societal damage, but whether the very veterans who built the system can successfully dismantle and rebuild it using ethical, human-centric design principles. With $29 million and the weight of their industry reputation behind them, Biz Stone and Evan Sharp are launching one of the most significant, and potentially redemptive, experiments in the history of consumer technology. The industry watches closely to see if intention, backed by deep funding and experience, can indeed repair the devastation caused by engagement-maximized architecture. Should Tangle falter, it will confirm the cynical view that the attention economy is simply too profitable to escape; should it succeed, it heralds a fundamental, necessary restructuring of how we interact with technology and each other.