'Unusual and Surreal', new Astronomer CEO breaks silence after Coldplay Kiss Cam scandal

Dubai: Pete DeJoy, freshly minted interim CEO of data startup Astronomer, made his first public statement Monday—carefully navigating the PR storm that has turned his company into the most unexpected headliner of Coldplay’s world tour.

Calling the viral drama “unusual and surreal,” DeJoy acknowledged the “level of media attention that few companies—let alone startups in our small corner of the data and AI world—ever encounter.”

Translation: We make cloud tools, not headlines, and suddenly everyone’s watching.

Though DeJoy never mentioned the elephant in the stadium—aka his predecessor Andy Byron—everyone knows why he’s suddenly in charge. Byron, Astronomer’s now-former CEO, resigned over the weekend after being caught on a kiss cam at a Coldplay concert, embracing the company’s Chief People Officer, Kristin Cabot. The catch? She’s not his wife.

The footage, beamed onto the stadium’s big screen in Foxborough, Massachusetts, showed Byron hugging Cabot, who quickly recoiled and covered her face. Coldplay frontman Chris Martin, ever the master of timing, quipped: “Either they’re having an affair, or they’re just very shy.” Social media lit up like a fireworks finale.

From AI to PDA

Three days later, Byron was out. Astronomer issued a crisp statement saying its leaders are expected to “set the standard in both conduct and accountability”—and that standard “was not met.”

DeJoy, who co-founded the company and served as Chief Product Officer, stepped into the role amid the chaos.

In his LinkedIn post, he thanked Astronomer’s team for their “resilience” and vowed to lead with a “wholehearted commitment to taking care of our people and delivering for our customers.”

It was calm, composed… and clearly trying to move past the scandal that made Astronomer a trending topic.

“I would never have wished for it to happen like this,” DeJoy wrote, referring to the startup’s newfound fame. You and the rest of LinkedIn, Pete.

Concert clapbacks and Meme mayhem

The kiss-cam-gate didn’t stay confined to one stadium. Artists across genres have been weighing in with zingers of their own. Liam Gallagher, never one to hold back, told his crowd in England: “Don’t worry, we ain’t got any of that Coldplay, snidey [expletive] camera [expletive].”

Country star Morgan Wallen joked in Arizona that if anyone brought “their side chick or whatever,” they were “safe” from public exposure.

Luke Bryan, not missing a beat, warned his South Carolina audience: “We’re gonna shine our cameras on anybody.”

Even Coldplay itself leaned into the spectacle during a show in Wisconsin, teasing fans with more crowd camera moments: “We’re gonna use our cameras and put some of you on the big screen,” Martin said to roars of laughter.

And what about Byron?

While fake apology statements quoting Coldplay lyrics have circulated online (yes, really), Astronomer confirmed that Byron hasn’t issued a word since his swift exit. Cabot, for her part, remains listed as the company's Chief People Officer.

Astronomer may be used to processing data—but no amount of analytics could’ve predicted this plot twist.