Coming Off the Bench for Bluesky

I'm excited to tell you that I will serve as interim CEO at Bluesky, a company whose mission I believe in deeply.

I've been a partner at True Ventures for many years, and one of the great privileges of that job is getting a front-row seat to companies that are trying to do something genuinely hard. Bluesky is one of those companies, and when the moment came to contribute in a more hands-on fashion, the timing felt right.

How I Got Here

I've spent most of my career working on open platforms, from WordPress and Automattic to the Yahoo Developer Network and to open marketplace businesses like Bandcamp that we backed at True. What I've learned is that openness is not just a technical choice, it's a philosophical one. Decisions about who controls the network, who owns the data, and who captures the value shape what the internet becomes.

I first met Jay Graber and Rose Wang (Bluesky's CEO and COO) about two years ago, while I was back at Automattic, serving as their interim CEO. Automattic was a seed investor in Bluesky, so an introduction made sense. What I didn't expect was how quickly that first conversation would turn into conviction.

I'll be honest: I was skeptical about decentralized social. The vision was always compelling. A social web that no single company controls, where users own their identity and their relationships, where anyone can build on top of the protocol. But I'd seen enough promising decentralized projects fade or fragment that I had stopped expecting one to get to scale.

Bluesky changed that. Hearing their vision and, more importantly, learning about the architecture they'd built (the AT Protocol) I became a believer. This was a real, scalable foundation for a different kind of internet.

Over the last two years I've been an investor and an advisor to Bluesky, a fan cheering the team on as they pulled off something many said was impossible.

What Bluesky Has Built

Bluesky has cracked a case that stumped the industry for years: How to create a social network that has the best of both worlds. The personal freedom and ownership that comes from being part of an open network and the immediacy and ease of use that people expect from modern social services.

That's not a small thing. A lot of people said you had to choose one or the other.

At Bluesky, a small and extraordinarily talented team has signed up over 40 million people, nurtured an open developer ecosystem with over 500 active apps, and scaled all the systems that make that experience smooth and possible: A consumer app, servers, on-boarding, moderation, safety, the list goes on. And they've done it while staying true to the open protocol underneath. Now it's time to build on that foundation and deliver more open goodness to the world.

Thank You, Jay

None of this would exist without Jay Graber. She had the vision, recruited the team, and drove the execution that got Bluesky to where it is today. I'm grateful for the trust she is placing in me to step in during this transition, and I'm excited to support her in her next chapter as Bluesky's Chief Innovation Officer. Her focus on the long-term architecture and vision of the protocol will propel us forward into exciting new territory.

What I'm Here to Do

For the Bluesky team: My job is to support you, not to change what's working. You've built something genuinely special, and my goal is to make sure you have everything you need to keep doing that.

For users: The commitment to an open, user-controlled social web isn't going anywhere. You own your identity, your data, your graph. If anything, we're doubling down.

For developers and atproto app builders: You are a core part of what makes this ecosystem work. Open platforms only thrive when third-party builders can trust them. We will continue to work on earning that trust and moving towards a fully decentralized system.

For anyone thinking about joining the Bluesky team: This is a rare moment. A platform with real technical foundations for decentralization, a passionate and growing community, and a lot of important and meaningful work still ahead. Come help build it!

PS: My role as interim CEO will be to help set up Bluesky's next phase of growth. While doing this work, I will remain active in my role as partner at True Ventures.