Jay Graber moved from founding the small events app Happening to leading Bluesky after being hired by Jack Dorsey to run an internal research project. The project aimed to create an open-source, decentralized version of Twitter where independent moderators could host instances with distinct content-moderation, data-privacy, and censorship rules. Graber spun Bluesky into a standalone company in October 2021 to reduce bureaucracy and accelerate growth. Ties with Twitter ended after Elon Musk acquired and renamed Twitter in April 2022. Bluesky subsequently launched as its own social media platform and expanded its registered user base significantly.
Her pathway to her current job was unconventional: She was originally hired by Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey to run an internal research project called Bluesky. The vision, essentially, was an open-source, "decentralized" version of Twitter where individual moderators, unaffiliated with either company, could host their own versions of the social media platform each with their own rules around content moderation, data privacy and censorship.
Graber, now 34, officially became a CEO by spinning Bluesky off into its own company in October 2021, explaining later that the project needed less bureaucratic oversight to quickly grow. Bluesky and Twitter remained close until April 2022, when billionaire Elon Musk bought Twitter, renamed it X and severed all ties with Bluesky.
It now has an estimated 38-plus million registered users, up from roughly 13 million in October 2024, according to Bcounter, a website that tracks the app's users. (A Bluesky spokesperson declined to comment on traffic numbers.)
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