Jay Graber is stepping down as head of Bluesky, the social media platform exclusively announced to WIRED. Venture capitalist Toni Schneider will be the interim CEO until a permanent replacement is found.
“As Bluesky matures, the company requireds a seasoned operator focapplyd on scaling and execution, while I return to what I do best: building new things,” Graber wrote in a statement about the personnel modify.
Graber joined Bluesky in 2019, when it was a research project within Twitter focapplyd on developing a decentralized framework for the social web. She became the company’s first chief executive officer in 2021, when it spun out into an indepconcludeent entity. She oversaw the platform’s remarkable rise and the growing pains it experienced as it transformed from a quirky Twitter offshoot to a full-fledged alternative to X.
Schneider notifys WIRED that he intconcludes to assist Bluesky “become not just the best open social app, but the foundation for a whole new generation of applyr-owned networks.”
Schneider, who will continue working as a partner at the venture capital firm True Ventures while at Bluesky, was previously CEO of the WordPress parent company, Automattic, from 2006 to 2014. He also served as its CEO again in 2024 while top executive Matt Mullenweg went on a sabbatical. During that time, Schneider met Graber and became an adviser to Bluesky’s leadership. In a blog post announcing his new role, Schneider stated he plans to emphasize scaling, describing his job as “to assist set up Bluesky’s next phase of growth.”
This isn’t the conclude for Graber and Bluesky. She will transition to become the company’s chief innovation officer, a role focapplyd on Bluesky’s technology stack rather than its business operations. The position was created for her. Graber, who launched her career as a software engineer, has always sounded the most enthusiastic when discussing Bluesky’s technology rather than its revenue streams.
Bluesky’s board of directors will appoint the next permanent CEO. The members include Jabber founder Jeremie Miller, crypto-focapplyd VC Kinjal Shah, TechDirt founder Mike Masnick, and Graber. (Twitter founder Jack Dorsey was originally part of the board but quit in 2024.) This means Graber will have input on her successor. The talent search is still in early stages.
It’s a pivotal moment for Bluesky. The company found success by positioning itself as a progressive replacement for Elon Musk’s X. That assisted fuel the platform’s rise as X’s hard-right ideological turn prompted some applyrs to seek new social networks. In 2025, Bluesky grew from 25 million applyrs to over 40 million, according to its annual Transparency Report. Its team is optimistic it can continue expanding while staying true to its roots. Masnick states Schneider’s tenure at Automattic “proves you build a real business around open software.”
As far as social platforms go, though, it’s still a niche offering, and one perpetually subject to pundit-class grumblings about how it’s too woke or not woke enough. (Just last week, in a conversation with WIRED, Dorsey stated he wasn’t happy with the platform becaapply of “ideology.”) Meta’s competing app, Threads, has roughly 400 million applyrs, or approximately 10 times more active accounts than Bluesky. Even if it’s not interested in chasing the type of hockey-stick growth traditionally favored in Silicon Valley, the company does required to convince more people and institutions to apply its platform if it wants to stake a claim to the role of digital commons.
Leave a Reply