Twitter founders announce their new venture, Lift

Lift is the latest app to earn the interest of Twitter co-founders Biz Stone and Evan Williams, and it’s shrouded in mystery.

In a blog post rich in allusion and light on actual detail, Stone said the app isn’t a new creation of Obvious Corp, the company he, Williams and former Twitter executive Jason Goldman re-founded in June after departing Twitter. Rather, the application is being supported by funding and human resources from Obvious Corp. In return, Obvious will get equity in Lift (obviously).

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The app itself is the brainchild of Tony Stubblebine and Jon Crosby. Crosby has a sterling Silicon Valley pedigree, having worked on Path, Songbird and the EngineYard. Stubblebine was an engineer at O’Reilly Media, then worked as head of engineering at Odeo. Most recently, Stubblebine founded CrowdVine, a social tool for group get-togethers.

The Lift team also includes Connor Montgomery, who had worked with Stubblebine previously on other projects.

In a brief boilerplate email from Lift, we read that the team is “interested in ways new technology can help unlock human potential, especially through the use of positive reinforcement.”

We do love the idea of apps that affect positive social impact, and we’re hoping this one aims for the stars in that regard. On his Twitter account, Crosby said Lift was a “meaningful product” and that he and his colleagues were “working… on good things.”

The app may have something to do with personal health and wellness, but that isn’t likely the primary focus of the application, which bears the motto “Achieve anything.” On his Twitter account, Stubblebine noted, “We really tried to stay away from calling ourselves a health app. I don’t think we’re competitive [in that space].”

Moreover, ReadWriteWeb’s Marshall Kirkpatrick has apparently seen the app itself and wrote, “It looks a lot like Twitter, but with more structure.” He went on to say that a few weeks ago, the app “was described as ‘a very simple tracking and encouragement tool.'”

But with regard to Kirkpatrick’s description of the app Stubblebine retorted in an email to VentureBeat, “The only accurate thing to say is that it’s still in development, has a handful of really strong success stories, and is going to change a lot before launch.”

You can sign up for Lift’s notification list now, and we’ll keep you up to date as more details emerge.

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