Toni Schneider walked into Bluesky as interim CEO four months ago. Now the interim tag is gone, and he is laying out his strategy: smaller spaces and private communities are what will pull the social network out of its growth stall.
Schneider, a former Automattic CEO and current True Ventures partner, announced the permanent appointment in a personal blog post, writing that creating more intimate and private community features will “unlock the next wave of growth and innovation.”
The move comes at a critical juncture for the decentralized social network. Bluesky peaked around 43 million users following a surge after the 2024 U.S. election, when many users left X (formerly Twitter) over Elon Musk’s political involvement. But engagement has tapered off since then, and some observers have questioned whether the platform is losing momentum.
Schneider inherits a platform with strong technical foundations — the AT Protocol, which allows Bluesky and other apps to interoperate on the same social graph — but a fuzzy growth path. The network that once positioned itself as the escape hatch from X now needs a reason for new users to join beyond the old “not Twitter” pitch.
His bet on private communities mirrors broader shifts across social media, where users increasingly prefer smaller, invite-only spaces over broadcasting to the open feed. It also plays directly into Bluesky’s technical architecture, which already supports federated and custom moderation setups.
Schneider was originally brought in after founder Jay Graber stepped down in March to become chief innovation officer. Automattic and True Ventures, where Schneider is a partner, are both investors in Bluesky, giving him deep ties to the company’s backers. That alignment may help as Bluesky looks for its next stage of product development and, eventually, revenue.
For now, Schneider sounds ready for the fight. “We’re at the very beginning of this story,” he wrote.
Source: TechCrunch
