Bluesky CEO Jay Graber Steps Down, Tony Schneider Named Interim Chief
Bluesky, a social media platform competing with X and Threads, has announced that its Chief Executive Officer Jay Graber is stepping down. In an announcement on Monday, 9 March, the company said Graber will leave the CEO position and assume the role of Chief Innovation Officer. TechCrunch reported the development.
Graber will be succeeded by Tony Schneider, who will serve as interim Chief Executive Officer. 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 explaining her decision, Graber said Bluesky has now matured into a more established company that requires an “experienced operator” who can focus on expansion and execution. She added that she considers herself better suited to building technology.
Under Graber’s leadership, Bluesky achieved notable growth, with the platform currently hosting 43 million users. She also played a key role in developing the platform’s underlying AT Protocol.
The company’s board has said it will begin searching for a permanent CEO. Analysts believe Schneider’s experience at Automattic—particularly in commercialising the open-source technology behind WordPress—makes him well suited for Bluesky. He is expected to manage the challenge of balancing open-source technology with profitability.
Bluesky has recently faced several challenges, including the need to comply with an increasing number of social media age-verification laws. Due to legislation in Mississippi, the platform decided to block access across the entire state. Laws in Ohio, South Dakota and Wyoming have also required the platform to implement age verification measures.
In his own blog post, Schneider highlighted the company’s ecosystem of 40 million users and more than 500 active apps, stating that the next focus will be enabling third-party developers to grow. During this transition period, Schneider will also remain active in his role at True Ventures.
DBTech/BMT/OR
