Andy Byron, the startup govt on the heart of a unprecedented social media furor, has resigned as CEO of information 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 individuals officer Kristin Cabot. After Byron and Cabot shortly tried to cover from the digicam, 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 data, reported on Friday that over the previous 24 hours, 22,000 information articles had been printed concerning the startup, together with 9,000 about Byron himself. (Amidst the various 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 Series D, mentioned Friday that Byron had been placed on leave, with cofounder and Chief Product Officer Pete DeJoy changing into interim CEO. Cabot has reportedly been placed on leave as properly.
Now, the corporate has launched a longer statement saying 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 referred to as a pioneer within the DataOps area, serving to knowledge groups energy the whole lot from fashionable 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 clients haven’t.”
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DeJoy will proceed to function interim CEO because the board searches for a everlasting alternative.
