Astronomer CEO resigns following Coldplay concert scandal

Andy Byron, the startup executive at the center of an extraordinary social media furor, has resigned as CEO of data operations startup Astronomer. 

Byron, who is married, was captured on a Coldplay concert “kiss cam” with his arms around the company’s chief people officer Kristin Cabot. After Byron and Cabot quickly tried to hide from the camera, Coldplay singer Chris Martin joked, “Either they’re having an affair or they’re just very shy.”

Video of the awkward incident soon went spectacularly viral — Axios, citing Muck Rack data, reported on Friday that over the preceding 24 hours, 22,000 news articles had been published about the startup, including 9,000 about Byron himself. (Amidst the many jokes and memes, 404 Media argued that the incident is “emblematic of our social media surveillance dystopia.”)

Astronomer, which announced in May that it had raised a $93 million Series D, said Friday that Byron had been placed on leave, with cofounder and Chief Product Officer Pete DeJoy becoming interim CEO. Cabot has reportedly been placed on leave as well.

Now, the company has released a longer statement announcing that Byron has resigned.

“Our leaders are expected to set the standard in both conduct and accountability, and recently, that standard was not met,” Astronomer said.

“Before this week, we were known as a pioneer in the DataOps space, helping data teams power everything from modern analytics to production AI,” the company added. “While awareness of our company may have changed overnight, our product and our work for our customers have not.”

DeJoy will continue to serve as interim CEO as the board searches for a permanent replacement.