Lift app will be backed by Twitter founders. But what does Lift do?

Lift – British slang for the thing that carts passengers from floor to floor, and also the new app funded by Biz Stone, co-founder of Twitter. In a post today over at Obvious, the corporation started by a couple other Twitter alums, including Evan Williams and Jason Goldman, Stone introduced Lift, while remaining frustratingly vague on what exactly this Lift thing is all about.

"Tony Stubblebine and Jon Crosby have created an interesting new application for unlocking human potential through positive reinforcement," Stone wrote. "We love this software for what it does, and because we’ve tried it and it works. Our plan is to build something extraordinary together. The Obvious Corporation will assist the talented Lift team with strategy, design, funding, recruiting – in general, we’ll be helpful wherever possible."

In exchange, Stone added, "Obvious will own some equity in Lift." Unfortunately, Stone didn't offer any more details. Luckily, over at ReadWriteWeb, Marshall Kirkpatrick has uncovered a clue of sorts – the Website of a company called Mibbles now redirects to Lift. Mibbles was created in part by Tony Stubblebine; so is Lift. Mibbles was "a way to share the daily accomplishments that mark progress towards your goals." Maybe Lift is, too.

"Back when it was called Mibbles, users joined multiple groups with names like Happydog (as in 'I want to keep my dog happy'), Love or Home," Kirkpatrick writes. "Then they gave themselves Awards when they achieved accomplishment leading towards the goals they were grouped around." Mibbles was a productivity app, in other words, for use by both companies and individuals.

Certainly sounds like the sort of thing Biz Stone and company would get behind.

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