Bluesky names Toni Schneider CEO as platform pushes to scale

Bluesky made Toni Schneider its chief executive officer and turned a three-month interim handoff into a permanent leadership change as the company pushes beyond its early anti-X identity. Schneider had served as interim CEO since March 9, when Jay Graber stepped down from the top job and became chief innovation officer.

The appointment puts a veteran operator in charge at a pivotal moment for the social platform. Schneider, the founding CEO of Automattic and a partner at True Ventures, had already been an investor in and adviser to Bluesky since 2024. Bluesky said he had also been advising Graber personally for more than a year before taking the interim role, and Schneider said he was “all in” on the platform’s mission.

Bluesky framed the move as a shift toward scaling and execution as the service matures. The company said it had grown from 13 million users at its Series A round to more than 43 million global users by March 2026, a sharp expansion that has raised the stakes for governance, moderation and product planning. In April 2025, Bluesky disclosed a $100 million Series B led by Bain Capital Crypto, giving the company more capital to turn rapid user growth into a steadier business.

The company also said its AT Protocol ecosystem had expanded to more than 500 active apps by March 2026, a sign that Bluesky wants to be judged on more than the app itself. Its 2026 product roadmap includes live moments and smaller, more private communities, features meant to make the service feel more distinctive as it competes with centralized platforms such as X.

Graber said she was returning to what she does best, “building new things,” while Schneider said in his transition post that he was excited to help Bluesky build on its foundation and deliver “more open goodness” to the world. For Bluesky, making the interim CEO permanent signals that the next phase is less about insurgent growth and more about proving that open social infrastructure can support a stable, scalable company.