Ad Buying Platform Trade Desk Bulks Up With COO Hire

Lots of investors are no longer that bullish on ad technology startups. But many of the startups say they’re seeing a rush of business, as ad buyers increasingly look to automate and speed up their purchases.

Here’s one of them: The Trade Desk, a three-year-old ad buying platform that is staffing up as its sales boom. The company, which expanded from 17 to 40 people in the last year, has hired Rob Perdue as its first chief operating officer.

Perdue’s last job was at digital ad shop EyeWonder, where he managed 320 people; he also helped broker the company’s sale to MediaMind in 2011.

Trade Desk CEO Jeff Green says his company has seen revenue jump 1200 percent in the last year, and had hit a run rate of about $100 million at the end of 2012. Trade Desk is one of the partners powering Facebook’s ad exchange, and Green says his shop is already profitable.

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