Bijan Sabet
About Tweet Work Archive
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Investing in Lift
Earlier this year, towards the end of spring, I found myself in a bit of a funk.
I wasn’t taking good care of myself. I was working like mad. I was eating badly and not connecting very well to the things and people I cared about most. I was gaining weight and focused on the wrong things.
About the same time, I had lunch with Jason Goldman in NYC. Jason was part of the original team at Twitter as the head of product and was also on the board of directors with me. Today he is a cofounder at Obvious Corporation with Twitter’s cofounders Evan Williams and Biz Stone.
Jason told me about Lift and the founders Tony and Jon and how much Lift has helped his wellness turnaround. Obvious partnered with the company very early on. He introduced me and on my next trip to SF I stopped by Obvious HQ and was able to spend time with Tony. I also signed up for the private beta and got going with their iPhone app.
Then I started to pay attention. I set up habits that I was naturally doing anyway and I also set up some actions that I wanted to turn into daily or weekly habits. Things like
-Be grateful for something or someone
-Spend time outside
-Dinner with the kids
-Low carb lunch
-Meditate
-Exercise
With Lift, I check into each habit every time I complete the activity on my phone. The app lets my friends know of my progress and I can watch their progress as well. I can give them “props” and/or leave a comment. It also serves as a diary and I can watch my progress each week of each month. It’s simple, positive, social support and I got hooked.
Back in August, Biz wrote this wonderful post about Lift. Well worth reading if you missed it the first time. I particularly liked this part:
Lift compliments any device or technique you might already use for health and that’s just the start. We have beta users who are committed to forming new habits such as “talk to at least one stranger,” and “call mom.” Whatever it is you want to achieve, Lift can get you there. Like an elevator, Lift is a mechanism for bringing you where you want to go. We all start at the lobby, sometimes we’re going to the same place, and it’s fun to press the button—a tiny win when I was a kid.
It was about that time we were invited to invest in the company. By then, we had gotten to know the team and grew connected with their vision of improving people’s lives.
Today, the company has announced on their blog this new round of founding. We led the round along with Obvious, SV Angel, RRE, Tony Robbins, David Allen and Greg Yaitanes. It’s a thrill to to work with Tony, Jon and the Lift team. I’m also delighted to work again with Biz, Jason and Ev.
I’ll end this post with a screen grab of my check-ins for one of my favorite Lift habits. It serves as a daily reminder of some good advice this smart fellow once said.
Download Lift today and give it a try. And let me know what you think. Thanks!
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