AUSTIN, TEXAS—Staring deep beyond his bathroom mirror, George Kurtz, CEO of Crowdstrike, repeated “There’s no such thing as bad publicity” under his breath. He let his head drop and began absentmindedly splashing water on his face, hoping the bags under his eyes would disappear before the back-to-back-to-back interviews that began the next hour.
Looking back up, he wiped down his face with a nearby hand towel embroidered with the phrase “Keep Austin Weird” and forced a haggard smile across his face.
“It was horrifying, seeing that smile,” said one anonymous witness. “It’s like he was auditioning for a new role as Joker.”
Kurtz began muttering to himself, with the comment “It’s just like Zoom during the pandemic” heard by passersby. He was seen thirty minutes later driving his Tesla Model X. Other drivers on the road noticed the man putting his head into his hands at every red light.
Later that day, Kurtz was seen staring at banks of computer monitors steeped in blue screens.