Lantian “Jay” Graber, who was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in 1991, has become a major player in the tech world. As the CEO of Bluesky, a decentralized microblogging platform that is changing the way we communicate online, he is leading the charge. Graber is leading Bluesky toward becoming a strong competitor to traditional social media giants by combining technical skills, an entrepreneurial spirit, and a vision for giving users more power. Her journey—from a curious student to a blockchain enthusiast and now a trailblazing executive—shows how much she wants to make the digital world more open, honest, and focused on the user. This article looks at Graber’s life, work, and important role in shaping the future of social media.
Jay Graber was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, to a Chinese mother and a Swiss father. This is where her story begins. “Lantian,” which means “blue sky” in Mandarin, was the name her mother, an acupuncturist who grew up in China during the Cultural Revolution, gave her. It was a symbolic wish for her to have unlimited freedom. This name, by chance, fits with the values of Bluesky, the platform that Graber is now in charge of. However, the connection was purely coincidental because Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey chose the name for the platform before Graber got involved. Graber’s father was a math teacher, and he helped create a home where intellectual curiosity and different points of view were valued. This helped shape Graber’s worldview as she grew up in a multicultural environment.
Graber probably learned about technology from her early experiences with different cultures and ideas. Her approach to technology stresses inclusivity and user autonomy. Her parents’ experiences, especially her mother’s move from a restrictive environment to the United States in the 1980s, gave her a strong sense of freedom and self-determination, which are themes that come up in her work.
Graber went to the University of Pennsylvania in 2009 to get a Bachelor of Arts (or Bachelor of Science, as some sources say) in Science, Technology, and Society. This program, which looks at how technology and social systems affect each other, was a good choice for someone who would later connect technical progress with social change. Graber helped start the Penn Time Bank, a student-run project that let people trade tasks in one-hour blocks, which encouraged people to work together in her senior year. This early project showed her interest in making systems that give people and communities more power, a theme that would continue throughout her career.
Graber started her career in the tech industry after she graduated in 2013. She worked in Silicon Valley. She became a software engineer at SkuChain in 2015. The company is based in Mountain View and works on blockchain-based supply chain solutions. This job helped her improve her technical skills and taught her about the possibilities of decentralized technologies. Graber’s career took an unusual turn, though, when she moved to Moses Lake, Washington, to work in a factory soldering bitcoin mining equipment. She learned a lot about how blockchain technology works in the real world by using cryptocurrency hardware. This helped her connect her theoretical knowledge to real-world situations.
In 2016, Graber became more interested in decentralized systems when she became a junior developer on the Zcash cryptocurrency project. Graber’s growing interest in technologies that give users more control and freedom matched well with Zcash, which is known for its focus on privacy and security. Her work on Zcash helped her learn more about how blockchain could change centralized systems. This idea would later shape her leadership at Bluesky. During this time, she also worked with digital rights nonprofits to promote privacy and freedom online. This made her commitment to user-centered technologies even stronger.
Graber made a brave business move in 2019 when he started Happening, Inc., an event planning website that makes it easier for people to plan and go to events. Happening didn’t become a big hit, but it was an important step in Graber’s career. She learned a lot about how to get users to interact with her platform and how hard it is to build platforms that people want to use. These lessons were very helpful when she had to lead Bluesky, which was a much bigger challenge.
Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey came up with the idea for Bluesky in 2019 as a way to study decentralized social media protocols. The goal was to make an open, user-controlled alternative to traditional platforms. Graber became Bluesky’s first CEO in August 2021. This put her at the head of a movement to change how people think about social media. Her appointment came at a key time, as Bluesky was changing from a project supported by Twitter to an independent public benefit corporation. Graber pushed for this change to make sure the platform could run on its own, especially since Twitter’s future was uncertain after Elon Musk bought it in 2022.
Graber has turned Bluesky into a decentralized microblogging platform that is based on the AT Protocol, an open-source framework that lets users control their data and move easily between platforms. This user-centered approach is very different from the algorithm-driven, centralized models used by platforms like Twitter and Facebook, which often put engagement ahead of openness. Graber’s idea for Bluesky is based on decentralization, which is not only a technical fix but also a way of thinking that opposes a few big companies controlling all digital spaces.
Bluesky has grown very quickly, especially after Musk bought Twitter and a lot of people left to find other options. When Bluesky opened to the public without invitations in February 2024, it got 1.32 million new registrations in just two days. By September 2024, the platform had more than 9.9 million registered accounts. By the end of 2024, it had grown to 19.9 million users, with 1.1 million of them using it every day. Graber herself was shocked by how quickly this was happening. She wrote on Bluesky, “Wow another million in a day!” Thanks to everyone. We’ll do our best to make this place great for you.
There have been problems with running Bluesky. Because so many people are using the platform so quickly, it has had technical problems and outages. This has put Graber’s ability to scale the infrastructure while keeping the platform’s decentralized nature to the test. Graber said in a 2024 TechCrunch interview that her job was like that of a substitute teacher, dealing with a “mischievous audience” that wanted to see how far the platform could go. One funny example was when users tried to call Bluesky posts “skeets,” a name that Graber jokingly resisted, but the community “endlessly ridiculed” him for it. This fun exchange shows how well she can connect with users while still keeping a clear vision for the platform.
Graber’s dedication to decentralization goes beyond the technical framework of Bluesky. She imagines a digital world where users, developers, and creators have more freedom than ever before. The AT Protocol lets developers make their own feeds and moderation models, which helps create natural communities around niche interests. For example, Graber’s favorite feed is one that is all about moss. Bluesky can stand out from competitors like Mastodon, which uses the older ActivityPub protocol, because it is flexible. It can still work with other platforms through community-driven projects like Bridgy.
Even though she has a high-profile job, Graber keeps her personal life on social media simple, focusing on interactions that are planned and meaningful. Bluesky’s design shows this philosophy by not using algorithms that take advantage of people and instead giving users more power. Graber’s multicultural background and work in blockchain and digital rights advocacy shape her leadership style, which combines technical know-how with a strong commitment to doing good in the world.
People know her as a thought leader in the decentralized web movement because of the work she has done. She has spoken at events like the Decentralized Web Summit in 2018 and is in high demand to speak about topics like software engineering, decentralization, and new ideas in social media. Her estimated net worth of $5 million shows how successful she is, but her real impact comes from her ability to question the way things are on social media and push for a more democratic internet.
Jay Graber’s rise from a curious student to the CEO of Bluesky shows how strong, visionary, and skilled she is with technology. At 33, she has already made a big impact on the tech industry by making Bluesky compete with centralized social media platforms. She is a leader in the fight for a healthier digital ecosystem because she focuses on decentralization, user empowerment, and openness. As Bluesky grows, Graber’s leadership will surely change the way we connect, talk to each other, and do well online. This shows that the “blue sky” her mother saw is not just a dream but a real thing.
