• A 'kiss cam' video appeared to show Astronomer's CEO embracing the firm's head of HR.
• The incident went viral around the world and led to CEO Andy Byron resigning.
• It's not the kind of publicity Astronomer would likely have hoped for, but it could benefit the firm.

All eyes this week have been on a once-little-known tech company called Astronomer.

While it's not been the kind of attention Astronomer would likely have hoped for, it's been said that all publicity is good publicity, and some public relations experts who spoke to Business Insider said the newfound fame could, ultimately, benefit the firm.

The viral moment that catapulted the data company into the global spotlight took place at a Coldplay concert near Boston on Wednesday, when a "kiss cam" appeared to show then-Astronomer CEO Andy Byron embracing the company's head of human resources, Kristin Cabot.

After spotting themselves on the big screen, the clearly panicked pair attempted to dodge the camera, prompting Coldplay front man Chris Martin to speculate that they were "having an affair or they're just very shy."

The clip shot around the world and fueled a torrent of memes and internet sleuthing. Major brands like Netflix and even the Phillie Phanatic got in on the viral opportunity.

Ryan McCormick, cofounder of Goldman McCormick, a public relations firm in New York, described it as a possible "blessing in disguise."

"The real silver lining is that if this company is doing something truly innovative and they're doing something truly groundbreaking, the likelihood of someone finding them has increased substantially," McCormick told BI.

"In the short term, they're embedded in controversy, but they're going to have people looking at them in a way they've never done before. I think that they'll probably come out OK."

In a statement on Friday, Astronomer said its leaders were "expected to set the standard in both conduct and accountability" and that it had launched a "formal investigation" into the incident. It added that Byron had been placed on leave. On Saturday, it said the exec had resigned.

McCormick said Byron's departure would create some distance between the viral drama and the company.

"I think they took the high road. They did what needed to be done, which was probably a hard decision," McCormick said. "If I were an investor or employee at that company, I would feel pretty confident."

The company also used its Saturday statement to draw attention to its work.

"Before this week, we were known as a pioneer in the DataOps space," it said. "While awareness of our company may have changed overnight, our product and our work for our customers have not."

Mike Fahey, the founder and CEO of Fahey Communications, told BI that this showed the company was making "a concerted effort to redirect the narrative to where it is favorable."

"Astronomer is fighting back, working to position its offerings and overall customer experience as strong and reliable," he said, adding that the company "now has more eyes on it than ever before."

But the New York-based firm had initially remained silent as the social media storm gathered force and users flooded its channels with comments, which Fahey said was a mistake.

"The timing of the statement was notably delayed," he said of Astronomer's Friday announcement. "The absence of official communication created a void quickly filled by rumors, fake statements, and memes that spread widely on social media."

One viral post included a fake apology letter attributed to Byron that featured a lyric from a Coldplay song. It was widely assumed to be real and picked apart relentlessly online. Astronomer said Friday that Byron had not made any statement and that "reports saying otherwise are all incorrect."

Kristi Piehl, founder and CEO of Media Minefield, said the company made the same mistake as the pair on the "kiss cam."

"The way that they reacted online and on social media is exactly how the two people involved reacted. When the camera hit them, they hid," Piehl said.

"The first impression is so important. And the company allowed the first impression to be social media, the internet, and strangers."

Deirdre Latour, the founder of Rebellis Communications, also suggested the company had gotten it wrong with its initial silence.

"This is just the worst version of PR malpractice that you can see from a company," she said. "They are letting this terribly worded statement, blaming Coldplay and others, fester out in the marketplace."

She added that the situation was "easy to fix" and that an internal memo should have been sent to employees addressing the incident.

Representatives for Astronomer did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

• Tech entrepreneur David Heinemeier Hansson said he looks for two key things when hiring programmers.
• Hansson, the creator of Ruby on Rails, says a good cover letter is crucial for applicants.
• If you can't write a good cover letter, "you're out," he told podcaster Lex Fridman.

A cover letter might not be your top priority if you're preparing an application for a job in tech — but perhaps it should be.

That's especially true if your hiring manager happens to be David Heinemeier Hansson, the creator of Ruby on Rails, a well-known framework for building web applications, and the CTO at software firm 37signals.

In a lengthy six-hour interview with podcaster Lex Fridman published Saturday, the exec shared the two key things he looks for when hiring new computer programmers.

"Up until this point, the main pivot point for getting hired was not your résumé, was not the schooling you've had, it was not your grades, it was not your pedigree," Hansson, who is also known as DHH, said, adding that AI could now change things.

It was about how well you do two things: your cover letter and programming, he continued.

"I can only work with people remotely if they're good writers," he told Fridman. "If you can't pen a proper cover letter and can't bother to put in the effort to write it specifically for us, you're out."

He also said you had to be able to program well.

"To the degree that I can look at your code and go like, 'Yeah, I want to work with that person.' Not only do I want to work with that person, I want to work on that person's code when I have to see it again in five years to fix some damn bug."

Hansson said that applicants would have to show their skills through a programming test that "simulates the way we work for real."

"I've been surprised time and again where I thought for sure this candidate is a shoo-in, they sound just right, the CV is just right, and then you see the code getting turned in and I'm like, 'No way. No way are we hiring this person,'" he said. "The capacity to evaluate work product is a superpower when it comes to hiring."

Writing cover letters has long been a necessary evil for job candidates. Often regarded as time-consuming and repetitive, many are also put off by rumors that hiring managers simply don't read them.

But even for jobs that don't specifically ask for one, studies suggest cover letters are still an important part of the application process.

In 2023, a Resume Genius survey of 625 hiring managers across the US found that 83% said they frequently or always read cover letters. And 73% of managers at companies that did not require cover letters also said they frequently read them.

For applicants to the tech industry, the key to a successful cover letter is conveying experience with relevant technology and providing a snapshot of what you'd bring to the specific company, Thomas Vick, a senior regional director at the talent firm Robert Half, previously told Business Insider.

"What return on investment have you created for an organization?" Vick said. "What have you done in your career that has helped save a company time, energy, and money?"

• President Donald Trump said in an interview aired Sunday that the US had found a buyer for TikTok.
• Trump told Fox News the buyer was a group of "very wealthy people."
• The president has repeatedly delayed the enforcement of a TikTok divest-or-ban law.

President Donald Trump says the United States has found a buyer for TikTok.

In an interview with Fox News that aired on Sunday, the president said the buyer was a group of "very wealthy people" that he would reveal in "about two weeks" — his favorite timeline.

Trump added that he would "probably" need China's approval for a sale to go ahead, but appeared confident that Chinese leader Xi Jinping would back it.

Trump has stepped in three times so far to extend a deadline for TikTok's Chinese owner, ByteDance, to find a new buyer or effectively cease operating in the United States.

An executive order on June 19 extended the deadline to September 17.

In a statement at the time, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the administration wanted to ensure US users would continue to be able to access the app.

"As he has said many times, President Trump does not want TikTok to go dark," she said. "This extension will last 90 days, which the Administration will spend working to ensure this deal is closed so that the American people can continue to use TikTok with the assurance that their data is safe and secure."

TikTok missed its original January 19 deadline and briefly shut down for millions of Americans before Trump intervened.

"Sorry, TikTok isn't available right now," a message on the app read for affected users. "A law banning TikTok has been enacted in the US. Unfortunately, that means you can't use TikTok for now."

A number of high-profile figures have previously expressed interest in purchasing the platform, including "Shark Tank" star Kevin O'Leary and former Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.

Trump also previously said he would support his once-staunch ally, Elon Musk, if he wanted to buy the app.

Musk said in January that he has been "against a TikTok ban for a long time," adding that he believed it "goes against freedom of speech." However, the Tesla CEO told the WELT Economic Summit later that month that he had not made a bid for the app.

"I don't have any plans for what would I do if I had TikTok," he added.

• Severe weather battered Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport this weekend.
• Storms led to hundreds of flight cancellations and the evacuation of an air traffic control tower.
• Delta said Saturday it expected continued disruption over the rest of the weekend.

Severe storms this weekend led to hundreds of flight cancellations and the evacuation of an air traffic control tower at Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport.

Heavy rainfall and high winds battered the world's busiest airport on Friday night, prompting flash flood warnings and the temporary evacuation of a traffic control tower.

Delta, which has a major hub in Atlanta, said Saturday that its teams were working hard to restore operations but that it expected delays and cancellations to continue over the remainder of the weekend, which comes at peak travel time amid the July 4 rush.

"The storm caused hundreds of cancellations, diversions and delays across our entire system as well as an evacuation and temporary power loss at the ATL air traffic control tower," the airline said in a statement.

"More than 100 Delta aircraft required inspection due to hail, and we anticipate several hundred more cancellations this weekend as we work to safely recover."

The carrier, which operates around 900 flights per day from Atlanta, apologized for the disruption and encouraged passengers to check the Fly Delta app for the latest flight information.

In a statement shared with Business Insider, the Federal Aviation Administration said air traffic controllers had "returned to the Atlanta control tower after the FAA evacuated most personnel due to strong winds."

"A few controllers remained in the facility to handle inbound aircraft," it added.

• The CEO of payments company Klarna has warned that AI could lead to job cuts and a recession.
• Sebastian Siemiatkowski said he believed AI would increasingly replace white-collar jobs.
• Klarna previously said its AI assistant was doing the work of 700 full-time customer service agents.

The CEO of the Swedish payments company Klarna says that the rise of artificial intelligence could lead to a recession as the technology replaces white-collar jobs.

Speaking on The Times Tech podcast, Sebastian Siemiatkowski said there would be "an implication for white-collar jobs," which he said "usually leads to at least a recession in the short term."

"Unfortunately, I don't see how we could avoid that, with what's happening from a technology perspective," he continued.

Siemiatkowski, who has long been candid about his belief that AI will come for human jobs, added that AI had played a key role in "efficiency gains" at Klarna and that the firm's workforce had shrunk from about 5,500 to 3,000 people in the last two years as a result.

It's not the first time the exec and Klarna have made headlines along these lines.

In February 2024, Klarna boasted that its OpenAI-powered AI assistant was doing the work of 700 full-time customer service agents. The company, most famous for its "buy now, pay later" service, was one of the first firms to partner with Sam Altman's company.

Later that year, Siemiatkowski told Bloomberg TV that he believed AI was already capable of doing "all of the jobs" that humans do and that Klarna had enacted a hiring freeze since 2023 as it looked to slim down and focus on adopting the technology.

However, Siemiatkowski has since dialed back his all-in stance on AI, telling an audience at the firm's Stockholm headquarters in May that his AI-driven customer service cost-cutting efforts had gone too far and that Klarna was planning to now recruit, according to Bloomberg.

"From a brand perspective, a company perspective, I just think it's so critical that you are clear to your customer that there will be always a human if you want," he said.

In the interview with The Times, Siemiatkowski said he felt that many people in the tech industry, particularly CEOs, tended to "downplay the consequences of AI on jobs, white-collar jobs in particular."

"I don't want to be one of them," he said. "I want to be honest, I want to be fair, and I want to tell what I see so that society can start taking preparations."

Some of the top leaders in AI, however, have been ringing the alarm lately, too.

Anthropic's leadership has been particularly outspoken about the threat AI poses to the human labor market.

The company's CEO, Dario Amodei, recently said that AI may eliminate 50% of entry-level white-collar jobs within the next five years. "We, as the producers of this technology, have a duty and an obligation to be honest about what is coming," Amodei said. "I don't think this is on people's radar."

Similarly, his colleague, Mike Krieger, Anthropic's chief product officer, said he is hesitant to hire entry-level software engineers over more experienced ones who can also leverage AI tools.

The silver lining is that AI also brings the promise of better and more fulfilling work, Krieger said.

Humans, he said, should focus on "coming up with the right ideas, doing the right user interaction design, figuring out how to delegate work correctly, and then figuring out how to review things at scale — and that's probably some combination of maybe a comeback of some static analysis or maybe AI-driven analysis tools of what was actually produced."

• Ark Invest's Cathie Wood has weighed in on the public feud between Elon Musk and Donald Trump.
• Wood said the feud reveals how much Musk's companies rely on the US government.
• Trump said Saturday he had no desire to fix his relationship with the Tesla CEO.

The public feud between Elon Musk and President Donald Trump has shown investors just how much control the US government has over Musk's companies, Ark Invest CEO Cathie Wood says.

"I think the way this is evolving is Elon, Tesla, and investors are beginning to understand more and more just how much the government has control here," Wood said in a video posted to the company's YouTube channel on Friday.

Many of Musk's companies have key links to the government and have received billions of dollars in federal loans, contracts, tax credits, and subsidies over the years.

"Elon is involved in companies that are depending on the government," Wood said, pointing to Tesla, SpaceX, and Neuralink as examples.

SpaceX's COO, Gwynne Shotwell, said last year that the company has $22 billion worth of federal contracts. Neuralink, Musk's brain chip company, is subject to FDA regulation, and a less friendly regulatory environment could impact Tesla's robotaxi rollout plans. Tesla stock fell more than 14% on Thursday after Musk and Trump became locked in a series of increasingly bitter clashes.

The feud appeared to begin, at least publicly, on Tuesday, after Musk criticized Trump's "One Big Beautiful Bill." He called it a "disgusting abomination" and said it would increase the national budget deficit.

Tensions rose fast between the once-close allies on Thursday. Trump threatened to cut Musk's government contracts and Musk said SpaceX would immediately begin decommissioning its Dragon spacecraft — which returned stranded NASA astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore from the International Space Station in March.

Musk later retracted that threat, which Wood said was a sign he was "beginning to walk this back."

Wood said the rift with Trump could, in part, be Musk's attempt to further decouple himself from the Trump administration. Musk announced in April that he would be stepping back from his government work.

"One of the hypotheses out there is that what has happened was partly — not entirely — orchestrated," Wood said. "Clearly, there has been some brand damage to Tesla, which he readily admits, and I think he's trying to disengage from the government and being associated with one party or the other."

Moving forward, Wood said neither Trump nor Musk needed to get "bogged down" with a fight and that she believed both would eventually heed that reasoning.

She also appeared to be confident that Musk could make the situation work for him. She said Musk "works really well under pressure" and that "he creates a lot of that chaos and pressure himself."

Trump, however, signaled Saturday that he had no desire to fix his relationship with the SpaceX CEO anytime soon.

"I have no intention of speaking to him," Trump told NBC News.

"I think it's a very bad thing, because he's very disrespectful. You could not disrespect the office of the President," he added.

Vice President JD Vance struck a somewhat friendlier tone when asked about the possibility of reconciliation during a Thursday interview with podcaster Theo Von.

Vance said that while he thought it was a "huge mistake" for Musk to "go after the president," he hoped Musk "figures it out" and "comes back into the fold."