West Co Tangle, a new startup founded by former social media leaders, is testing a quieter approach to online interaction, aiming to rethink how digital platforms influence users’ time, attention, and daily habits.
For more than a decade, the social media industry has prioritized scale, engagement, and rapid growth, often rewarding constant activity and attention. West Co, a recently formed company co-founded by Biz Stone and Evan Sharp, is proposing a different direction. Backed by $29 million in seed funding led by Spark Capital, the company has introduced an early version of its first product, Tangle, which launched as an invite-only app in November.
From Engagement Metrics to Daily Intention
West Co Tangle positions itself as a response to the outcomes of engagement-driven design. Evan Sharp, who serves as the company’s chief executive, has described the project as emerging from reflection on how social platforms have shaped behavior and well-being over the past 15 years.
Rather than centering on feeds, virality, or creator performance, Tangle focuses on a single daily prompt. Each day, users are asked to state their intention. These intentions can be shared with a small network, creating a social layer built around personal goals and everyday realities rather than public performance.
The structure is deliberately minimal. There are no signals designed to encourage constant checking or comparison. Instead, the app emphasizes routine reflection and long-term pattern recognition. For entrepreneurs and business owners, the approach highlights an alternative product philosophy, one that prioritizes depth of use over frequency and scale.
This model reflects a broader conversation within technology companies about the psychological impact of algorithmic systems. Concerns around burnout, distraction, and distorted incentives have become more visible, particularly among founders who helped build earlier platforms. West Co Tangle suggests that future products may compete not by demanding more attention, but by helping users manage it.
A Business Experiment Still Taking Shape
West Co Tangle remains an early-stage product, and its creators have acknowledged that it may change substantially before a wider release. That uncertainty is part of the company’s approach. Rather than locking in features or growth targets, West Co is observing how users respond to a slower, intention-focused format.
For business leaders, this raises practical questions. Can a social platform maintain its core values once it scales beyond a limited audience. Can it resist the pressure to optimize for engagement metrics that traditionally drive advertising and revenue? These challenges are familiar to founders balancing long-term vision with commercial sustainability.
West Co’s funding signals investor interest in exploring these questions. While the company is not positioning Tangle as a replacement for existing platforms, it represents a shift in how social technology might be designed and evaluated. Success, in this context, may be measured less by user volume and more by retention, trust, and meaningful use.
The launch of West Co Tangle also reflects a broader trend of reassessment within the technology sector. As markets mature, entrepreneurs are increasingly questioning whether established models truly serve users or businesses over time. Products like Tangle suggest that differentiation may come from restraint rather than expansion.
Tangle is unlikely to resolve the complex issues associated with social media on its own. However, its existence sends a signal from within the industry that the values driving product design are open to change. For entrepreneurs and business owners, the experiment offers insight into how intentional design choices can redefine success in digital products.
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