• by Colin Kirkland , March 9, 2026

After more than four years as CEO of Bluesky, Jay Graber has announced she will step down and transition to the role of chief innovation officer in order to make room for “a seasoned operator focused on scaling and execution.”

According to Graber, Toni Schneider -- former CEO of Wordpress creator Automattic and partner at venture capital firm True Ventures -- has been named Bluesky’s interim CEO while the social media platform’s board searches for a permanent chief executive.

Over the past year, Schneider has advised Graber and other Bluesky leaders in respect to creating “a more open, user-driven internet,” while both Automattic and True Ventures actively invest in Bluesky.

Since Graber and her team launched Bluesky alongside Twitter founder and ex-CEO Jack Dorsey in 2023, the platform has grown to 43 million users as over 500 interoperable third-party apps have also launched on the AT Protocol ecosystem.

Although Bluesky has approximately four times the user base of decentralized app competitor Mastodon, the platform falls far behind Meta’s Threads app, which was also created to provide users with an alternative to X, the app previously known as Twitter.

“Scaling up this company has been a learning experience unlike anything else,” Graber writes in her announcement, adding that she is ready to transition to a more focused role in which her energy is best utilized. 

In a separate blog post, Schneider says he will focus on allowing third–party app builders to thrive on Bluesky.