Ok, that’s pretty great.
Tech firm Astronomer has gotten a lot of free – though probably unwanted – publicity over the past week or so, after their now-former CEO was busted having an affair with the company’s (also now-former) HR chief when the couple was shown on the jumbotron at a Coldplay concert.
By now I’m sure you’ve seen the video and have at least heard about the scandal that led to the resignation of both former CEO Andy Byron and former HR head Kristin Cabot:
Not long after the video went insanely viral, Astronomer announced that they had opened an investigation into Byron before it was ultimately announced a day later that they would be parting ways with their CEO:
“As stated previously, Astronomer is committed to the values and culture that have guided us since our founding. Our leaders are expected to set the standard in both conduct and accountability, and recently, that standard was not met.
Andy Byron has tendered his resignation, and the Board of Directors has accepted. The Board will begin a search for our next Chief Executive as Cofounder and Chief Product Officer Pete DeJoy continues to serve as interim CEO.
Before this week, we were known as a pioneer in the DataOps space, helping data teams power everything from modern analytics to production AI. While awareness of our company may have changed overnight, our product and our work for our customers have not.
We’re continuing to do what we do best: helping our customers with their toughest data and AI problems.”
Of course the controversy has brought a lot of attention to what was, just a few weeks ago, a relatively unknown company. I’m sure there were plenty of people in the tech space who had heard of Astronomer, but it was far from the household name that it is now. And interim CEO DeJoy said that the company was hoping to capitalize on that publicity:
“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. 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.
At Astronomer we have never shied away from challenges; a near-decade of building this business has tested us time and time again, and each time we’ve emerged stronger.”
And I’ll be honest, I still don’t have any idea what Astronomer actually does. I know they’re a tech company, but that’s about it. But it seems like the company wants to keep up their unexpected publicity, and today they released a new video featuring a celebrity spokesperson.
Not just any celebrity though: They turned to actress Gwyneth Paltrow, who happens to be the ex-wife of…Coldplay frontman Chris Martin.
Gotta hand it to ’em, that’s f—ing brilliant.
In the tongue-in-cheek video, Paltrow thanks the audience for their newfound interest in the company and seeks to answer questions about Astronomer:
“I’ve been hired on a very temporary basis to speak on behalf of the 300+ employees at Astronomer.
Astronomer has gotten a lot of questions over the last few days, and they wanted me to answer the most common ones.”
The video then flashes questions on the screen like “OMG! What the actual f…” and “How is your social media team holding…,” which Paltrow chooses not to answer while instead talking about the company’s work in data workflow automation and their “Beyond Analytics” event coming up in September.
You’ve gotta admit, they’re really making the best out of the situation. Props to Astronomer. Didn’t know that a tech company could have that kind of a sense of humor.
