Bluesky CEO Jay Graber is stepping down from the top leadership position and transitioning to a new role as chief innovation officer, the company announced Monday.
Graber, who helped develop its competitor X and Threads 43 million users and proceeded to develop the underlying AT Protocol, will be replaced by Toni Schneider as interim CEO. Schneider is the former CEO of Automattic and a partner at True Ventures
Both Automattic and True Ventures are investors in Bluesky.
In a blog post announcing changes, Graber explained that, as a more mature company, Bluesky needs an “experienced operator focused on scaling and execution.” Graber said she feels better suited to building Bluesky’s technology herself.
“I am most energized by exploring new ideas, bringing a vision to life and helping people discover their strengths. Moving into a more focused role where I can do what energizes me is my way of putting that belief into action,” Graber said.
The company said its board will look for a permanent chief executive. Meanwhile, Schneider’s experience with Automattic, which commercialized WordPress’ open source technology through WordPress.com, positions him to understand the challenges of balancing open source technology with a company’s needs to generate profit.
Under Graber, Bluesky has seen remarkable growth at times, particularly after the acquisition of Twitter by Elon Musk, now X, which led to a number of changes to the platform’s product and community. Bluesky has also struggled with moderation issues as it scaled. Some users expected the company to apply a heavier hand, while Bluesky promoted the use of monitoring tools that users could manage themselves.
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Now the company faces a new challenge: complying with a growing number of age-appropriate social media laws. One such law in Mississippi led Bluesky to choose to block the state entirely. Other state laws, such as those in Ohio, South Dakota and Wyoming, have forced the company to begin age verification. For someone interested in creating a new protocol for social networking, these compliance battles are decidedly less fun.
In his blog postSchneider highlighted the company’s growth to more than 40 million users and an ecosystem of more than 500 active applications. He said the focus now will be on the next phase of development, which includes allowing third-party manufacturers to thrive. During this transition, Schneider will remain active in his role at True Ventures as well.
“Bluesky has solved a conundrum that has baffled the industry for years: How to build a social network that has the best of both worlds. The personal freedom and ownership that comes from being part of an open network, and the immediacy and ease of use that people expect from modern social services,” Schneider wrote.
