Bluesky CEO Jay Graber Steps Aside as Platform Enters Growth Phase

Bluesky CEO Jay Graber announced Monday that she will transition from her role as chief executive to become the company’s Chief Innovation Officer, signaling a leadership shift as the decentralized social network moves into its next stage of growth.

Graber said the change reflects Bluesky’s evolving needs as the platform scales. In a post announcing the transition, she explained that the company now requires “a seasoned operator focused on scaling and execution,” while she intends to focus more directly on product development and experimentation.

Taking over as interim CEO will be Toni Schneider, the former chief executive of Automattic and a partner at venture firm True Ventures. Both Automattic and True Ventures are investors in Bluesky.

Bluesky originally began as a project inside Twitter in 2019 under founder Jack Dorsey, before spinning out into an independent company in 2021 with Graber as CEO. The platform maintained close ties with Twitter until Elon Musk acquired the company in 2022 and rebranded it as X, after which the partnership between the two companies ended.

Since then, Bluesky has carved out a niche as a decentralized alternative in the rapidly shifting social media landscape. The platform has seen steady user growth, particularly following political and platform changes across the broader social ecosystem. User totals climbed from roughly 15 million in late 2024 to more than 42 million users as of early 2026, according to company figures.

Despite that momentum, Bluesky remains far smaller than competitors like X and Threads, both of which operate at the scale of hundreds of millions of users. Still, the company has tried to differentiate itself through its open-source architecture and decentralized design.

Graber previously described the platform as “billionaire-proof,” arguing that Bluesky’s open protocols make it difficult for any single owner to exert the kind of control that has shaped other social networks. Her shift into an innovation-focused role suggests the company intends to double down on that product vision even as it brings in more operational leadership to guide the next phase of expansion.