Bluesky CEO Jay Graber steps down

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.

“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”

TechCrunch

Toni Schneider will serve as interim CEO.

TechCrunch

The article describes Schneider as the former CEO of Automattic and a partner at True Ventures.

The article also notes that Automattic and True Ventures are investors in Bluesky.

The company said its board will search for a permanent chief executive.

Graber said in a blog post that, as a more mature company, Bluesky needs a "seasoned operator focused on scaling and execution," and that she feels better suited to building Bluesky's technology itself.

The article credits Graber with helping grow Bluesky and furthering the development of its underlying AT Protocol, and states the company grew to 43 million users.

TechCrunch

It also says Bluesky's growth accelerated after Elon Musk's acquisition of Twitter, now X, and that the platform has struggled with moderation issues as it scaled, with some users expecting a heavier hand while Bluesky promoted moderation tools that users themselves could manage.

Schneider, in his blog post, touted the company's growth to "more than 40 million users" and an ecosystem of over 500 active apps.

“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”

TechCrunch

He said the next phase of growth will focus on allowing third-party builders to thrive.

The article notes Schneider will remain active in his role at True Ventures.

It says his experience with Automattic, which commercialized WordPress's open source technology through WordPress.com, positions him to understand tensions between open source technology and commercial needs.

The article flags a regulatory challenge: Bluesky is facing age-assurance laws that have forced operational changes.

Mississippi led Bluesky to block the state entirely, while Ohio, South Dakota, and Wyoming have forced the company to begin age verification.

The article includes both a "43 million users" figure and Schneider's "more than 40 million users" figure, creating a contradiction that the article itself presents.