Astronomer CEO resigns following Coldplay live performance scandal

Andy Byron, the startup govt on the heart of a rare social media furor, has resigned as CEO of knowledge operations startup Astronomer. 

Byron, who’s married, was captured on a Coldplay live performance “kiss cam” together with his arms across the firm’s chief folks officer Kristin Cabot. After Byron and Cabot shortly tried to cover from the digital camera, Coldplay singer Chris Martin joked, “Both they’re having an affair or they’re simply very shy.”

Video of the awkward incident quickly went spectacularly viral — Axios, citing Muck Rack knowledge, reported on Friday that over the previous 24 hours, 22,000 information articles had been revealed concerning the startup, together with 9,000 about Byron himself. (Amidst the numerous jokes and memes, 404 Media argued that the incident is “emblematic of our social media surveillance dystopia.”)

Astronomer, which introduced in Could that it had raised a $93 million Collection D, mentioned Friday that Byron had been positioned on depart, with cofounder and Chief Product Officer Pete DeJoy changing into interim CEO. Cabot has reportedly been positioned on depart as effectively.

Now, the corporate has launched an extended assertion asserting that Byron has resigned.

“Our leaders are anticipated to set the usual in each conduct and accountability, and just lately, that commonplace was not met,” Astronomer mentioned.

“Earlier than this week, we had been generally known as a pioneer within the DataOps house, serving to knowledge groups energy the whole lot from trendy analytics to manufacturing AI,” the corporate added. “Whereas consciousness of our firm might have modified in a single day, our product and our work for our prospects haven’t.”

DeJoy will proceed to function interim CEO because the board searches for a everlasting alternative.