Andy Byron, a startup executive at the heart of extraordinary social media outrage, has stepped down as CEO of a data operation startup astronomer.
Married Byron was captured at the cold play concert “Kisscam” with his arms around the company’s chief talent officer, Christine Cabot. Coldplay singer Chris Martin joked after Byron and Cabot immediately tried to hide from the camera.
The video of the troubling incident quickly went viral and epic. Citing McLuck data, Axios reported on Friday that in the previous 24 hours, 22,000 news stories had been published about the startup, including 9,000 about Byron himself. (In many jokes and memes, 404 media claimed that the incident was “a symbol of social media surveillance dystopia.”
An astronomer who announced it had raised a $93 million Series D in May said Byron was on leave on Friday, with co-founder and chief product officer Pete DeJoy becoming interim CEO. Cabot reportedly also took a vacation.
The company is now releasing a lengthy statement announcing Byron’s resignation.
“Our leaders are expected to set standards in both conduct and accountability, and these standards have not been met recently,” the astronomer said.
“Previously this week, we’ve been known as pioneers in the DataOps space, helping our data teams move everything from the latest analytics to production AI,” the company added. “Our perception may have changed overnight, but not our products and work for our customers.”
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Dejoy will continue to serve as interim CEO as the board searches for permanent replacements.
