United States of America
Born in the US, the engineer and CEO advocates a model of decentralized social networks where users (and not algorithms) can choose what they want to see
The origin of Bluesky dates back to 2019, when Jack Dorsey , one of the founders and then CEO of Twitter, proposed to the other board members to experiment with the idea of decentralizing the social network. Dorsey has been characterized as an atypical businessman, with anti-capitalist ideas, creative, a yogi and who meditates daily, and dreamed of giving users back their power over algorithms, but did not know specifically how. He named the project Bluesky and put Jay Graber (Tulsa, USA, 1991) in charge of the research, an engineer who graduated from Penn University —part of the Ivy League of university excellence in the country— and who, despite her youth, had developed her own social application called Happening as an alternative to Facebook Events. Graber had years of experience creating decentralized social protocols and began her career as a digital rights activist, working to protect neutrality and privacy on networks.
However, time passed and there were no concrete plans to implement the idea of decentralization developed by Bluesky, especially since Musk began negotiations to buy Twitter. The key to Jay Graber's success lies precisely in that moment, when instead of shrinking, she continued to champion the project with the persistence and conviction that characterize her. In 2021, at the age of 31, she founded Bluesky as a company and became CEO of the company. It may seem that she was predestined for this, because anecdotally the company and Graber share the same name. Graber is the daughter of a Swedish-born mathematician and a Chinese acupuncturist who emigrated during the Chinese Cultural Revolution of the 1960s and 1970s , and in addition to her American name, Jay, her mother gave her a Mandarin name, Lantian, which in English translates as blue sky .
Bluesky opened to the public in February 2024, and just three months later, Jack Dorsey left the project, claiming that the company was repeating the same mistakes as on Twitter, raising questions about the future of the initiative and making many media headlines. “Jack Dorsey leaving didn’t change anything at all,” Rose Wang , Bluesky’s COO, explains bluntly via video conference. “He was just on the board of directors and not involved in day-to-day decision-making. I had a vague idea that I wanted a decentralized system, but it was Jay Graber who figured out how to achieve that, created the ecosystem and all the specifications. She is the founder and soul of the project.”
Wang met Graber in 2018 during a weekend with mutual friends. “It was love at first sight, we became close very quickly,” Wang recalls, referring to the five-hour car ride to Lake Tahoe where they connected. They even became roommates in 2020. Years later, Graber invited her to join Bluesky, leveraging Wang’s experience in business-to-business. “I was really excited about the project because we have a history of being very honest and transparent with each other. Working with a friend is very rewarding when done well. We have productive conversations even when we disagree,” she says.
For Wang, the key to Jay Graber’s leadership success lies in the beauty of decentralization, which applies to both the product and internal decision-making. “What makes Jay so special is that in addition to being collaborative, she is a visionary, capable of anticipating 10 steps ahead of what is to come.” She also says that the internal functioning of Bluesky flows in a harmonious and relaxed way, aligning each person with their strengths. “Jay trusts people and believes they do the best they can, and always tries to understand why they do what they do before making any accusations,” which is also reflected in the social network, which lacks the animosity that proliferates in X . Graber’s way of leading is groundbreaking because she communicates directly with users, and is friendly and accessible. From her personal account, she writes threads explaining tricks to better use Bluesky and often reveals curious facts with a sense of humor. A few days ago she said: “You think I’m joking, but I’m serious that all our servers have names of mushrooms.” Her appearance is also radically different from that of a traditional senior executive. She tends to opt for casual, comfortable and simple clothing, so that after talking to her it is easy to forget what she is wearing and focus on what matters, which is what she is saying.
Half a year later, Bluesky’s popularity is booming following the return of Donald Trump as US president, with the help of Elon Musk, and Jay Graber has become one of the most influential global leaders, revolutionizing the social media industry. “We are building an open network that puts users first. The demand we have experienced in recent weeks proves that there is an increasing need for such a network. We are excited to continue building Bluesky as a home for healthy conversations,” Graber herself comments via email.
Bluesky replaces the algorithms that dictate what users see (censoring or limiting certain content as well) with a protocol that allows each user to customize the content they want to be exposed to. In addition, “it is designed to be billionaire-proof,” as Graber clarified in an interview with CNBC. “If someone buys Bluesky or even if the company goes under, everything is still open source”; users can migrate their accounts to other servers that use the same protocol and maintain their connections. Management has shown its ethical commitment, which makes the network unique compared to its competitors: it does not use ads, does not use content to train AI, and is constituted as a public benefit corporation, meaning that shareholders must prioritize the impact on the community over their profits.
Their team is also small, currently consisting of just 20 people, but they argue that more numbers do not necessarily mean efficiency. In a recent interview with technology website The Verge , Graber said: “I read something on Bluesky that I thought was really funny. Someone wrote: ‘My favorite thing about this app is that I don’t know who the CEO is. ’ And I thought, how cool. It’s a thriving enough community that they don’t need me as the main character.”
The country, Spain