The new interim CEO of Astronomer broke his silence on the Coldplay “kiss cam” scandal — and gushed that the small, New York-based AI firm is now a “household name.”
Brooklynite Pete DeJoy, the company’s co-founder, took the reins at Astronomer over the weekend after its disgraced boss Andy Byron resigned after being caught on the kiss cam cozying up with Kristin Cabot, the company’s head of HR.
“The spotlight has been unusual and surreal for our team and, while I would never have wished for it to happen like this, Astronomer is now a household name,” DeJoy said in a LinkedIn post on Monday.
“The events of the past few days have received a level of media attention that few companies – let alone startups in our small corner of the data and AI world – ever encounter.” he added.
Byron, after being spotted on the kiss cam with his arms wrapped around Cabot at last week’s Coldplay concert in Boston, literally ducked out of view as Cabot turned her back to the camera and rushed to cover her face with her hands.
That prompted the band’s frontman Chris Martin to quip: “Either they’re having an affair or they’re very shy.”
The snafu made headlines and quickly found itself the butt of many a joke, with both the Phillies and “SportsCenter” anchors recreating the mortifying moment.
DeJoy, who previously served as Astronomer’s chief product officer, seemingly embraced the viral bit — and took the opportunity to plug his company.
“At Astronomer we have never shied away from challenges,” DeJoy said Monday.
“From starting a software company in Cincinnati, Ohio, to keeping the lights on through the collapse of the bank that held all our cash, to scaling from 30 to 300 people during a global pandemic that demanded we do it all without ever being in the same room.”
Just a few months before the scandal, the privately-held software firm raised nearly $100 million from major investors including Bain Capital, Salesforce, Venrock and Meritech.
So far, none of those investors have commented on the viral uproar surrounding the company.
The interim boss also made his comments on Monday after the company’s employees last week were ordered to stay mum on the scandal.
Employees at Astronomer’s Manhattan office told The Post they were directed to keep quiet about the scandal.
“Nope, we’re not allowed to talk about it,” one worker said.
To date, the company has raised more than $350 million from outside investors since it was founded in 2015, according to data from Crunchbase and other funding trackers.
Other firms listed as investors on Astronomer’s website include JP Morgan Chase, Insight Partners, Sierra Ventures, Sutter Hill Ventures and KS Global.
DeJoy was a key member of the team that built the data company in 2017, according to his LinkedIn.
Here is the latest on the CEO caught cheating on a Coldplay concert jumbotron
He started Astronomer when he was fresh out of college, having graduated from Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine – a private, liberal arts school with a roughly $65,000 tuition price tag.
DeJoy was promoted to senior vice president in 2023 before his promotion to chief product officer in February.
