Astronomer’s New CEO Speaks—Yes, About That

The lone people from Astronomer attending the Coldplay performance successful Foxborough, Massachusetts, connected July 16 were CEO Andy Byron and his caput of HR, Kristin Cabot. They were swaying successful mid-hug erstwhile the roving buss cam, a staple astatine the band’s performances, zeroed successful connected them. You person astir apt seen the clip of what happened next. The 2 of them scrambled similar kids caught raiding a cooky jar. Even Coldplay’s anodyne frontman Chris Martin couldn’t disregard their response. “They’re either having an affair, oregon they’re conscionable precise shy,” helium remarked. The CEO and his subordinate are nary longer with the company. Astronomer, a billion-dollar startup you’d apt ne'er heard of until past month, volition ne'er beryllium the same.

“We recovered retired the mode the remainder of the satellite recovered out,” says Pete DeJoy, who cofounded the institution and took implicit arsenic main enforcement erstwhile Byron left. He’s speaking to maine from Astronomer’s caller office successful the Flatiron territory of New York City. Until our conversation, his main nationalist connection pursuing the performance had been a LinkedIn post thanking his employees for their resilience and conspicuously omitting immoderate notation of wherefore a “surreal” spotlight was abruptly trained connected the company. DeJoy, a self-described nerd, tin inactive hardly judge what happened past month. But don’t beryllium fooled. The kiss-cam incidental created a uncommon accidental to telephone attraction to the company’s accomplishments, and amusement disconnected a spot of firm savvy successful however to grip the situation. The astir entertaining happening that has ever happened astatine a Coldplay performance turned retired to beryllium weirdly rhapsodic for the institution it supposedly humiliated. (Though possibly not truthful overmuch for Byron and Cabot.) But it inactive makes DeJoy cringe.

That’s why, successful our extended conversation, DeJoy made a constituent of distancing himself from the events astatine Gillette Stadium. He managed to twist each question astir the presumably sizzling goings-on successful the firm suite into a tribute to the heads-down, stick-to-business ethos of the firm’s 300 workers.

Cosmic Mess

DeJoy insists that wrong the company, determination was nary inkling of immoderate hanky-panky successful the C-suite. Still, I wonder, could the institution person been successful immoderate mode lax successful allowing its frisky executives to shatter the bounds? “Look, we’re reviewing each of our policies,” helium tells me. “It's truly important to maine that we marque definite that we prohibit relationships betwixt employees that make existent oregon perceived conflicts of interest.” So there’s an extracurricular investigation? “I’m conscionable going to accidental each of our workplace policies are being reviewed nary substance what. It's important to get this 1 right.” He won’t accidental whether the “review” entails Astronomer hiring an extracurricular steadfast to analyse the scandal. Nor did helium reply my question astir whether Byron got a severance bundle upon his untimely departure.

I asked him directly: Is DeJoy pissed astatine his erstwhile brag for embarrassing the company? “No, no, I don’t deliberation I tin accidental I am,” helium insists. “People marque mistakes. We truly conscionable privation to proceed focusing connected what matters here, which is our customers and our business.” (See what I mean astir messaging?) I inquire erstwhile helium past spoke to Byron. “A agelong clip ago,” helium says. “Before the event.” Wait, you haven’t talked to him since the Jumbotron? “That’s correct,” helium says. Now that’s acold play.

On the different hand, Astronomer’s outsourced effect to the incidental volition spell into the selling hallway of fame. While employees were moving overtime to guarantee customers that the kiss-cam play wouldn't interaction the company’s services, its executives hired Ryan Reynolds’ cheeky media steadfast Maximum Effort. The effect was a 60-second ad with Gwyneth Paltrow (Martin’s ex), who displayed Oscar-level deadpan erstwhile she promised the net she’d reply their questions astir the incident. The gag was that her responses to queries astir the performance were bromides astir the firm’s geeky business. (Kind of similar my interrogation with DeJoy.) Responding to “OMG! What the existent f!” she said. “Yes, Astronomer is the champion spot to tally Apache Airflow.” The absurdity of Paltrow, who is much often associated with integrated skin-care products and jade eggs, talking astir “data workflow automation” was priceless. It successfully shifted the narrative, astatine slightest a bit, to a question that galore radical were abruptly asking: What the existent f is Astronomer?

DeJoy, who says helium ne'er got to conscionable his celebrated (albeit temporary) spokesperson, is much than blessed to reply the question. The institution was started by a tiny radical of techies successful Cincinnati successful 2017. The archetypal thought progressive information tracking. That’s benignant of wherefore they named their steadfast Astronomer. “Astronomers were the archetypal information engineers, due to the fact that they were making consciousness of however the satellite worked by intuiting however the stars were moving successful the nighttime sky,” says DeJoy. “That's precise overmuch the occupation of a information technologist these days, right?” If you accidental so!