The Trade Desk Recalls Co-Founder Pickles as Revenue Slows and Stock Sits 91% Off Peak

The Trade Desk reported second-quarter revenue of $715 million, up just 3% year-over-year and roughly $37.6 million short of analyst forecasts — and now co-founder Dave Pickles is returning to fix the technology behind the shortfall. The company announced that Pickles, who left the CTO role and the board in 2023, will establish and lead a new CTO Council. The announcement lands one week before the adtech firm reports third-quarter earnings on November 9.

The council will work with The Trade Desk's engineering and product teams on core technology and the product roadmap. In a blog post, the company said the mandate covers "architectural direction, operational excellence, and key engineering investments—including agentic capabilities and advanced AI-powered advertising workflows."

CEO Jeff Green confirmed the hire in a statement. "I'm so excited Dave is back. I've missed working with him," Green said. "We've had so many successes together over the years, and I'm energized to take all of that history and point it toward the future. This is a pivotal crossroads for our company and the industry."

What does this change for advertisers?

For practitioners, the practical question is whether the move reverses a run of product instability that has already shifted budgets. The Trade Desk launched its Kokai platform in 2023, around the time Pickles stepped away. ADWEEK reported that advertisers frustrated with Kokai moved millions of dollars in ad spend to Amazon, and the company later sunsetted the product entirely.

The financial backdrop is the worst since the company went public in 2016, when it hit a $1.1 billion market capitalization on its first trading day. The stock now sits 91% below its peak. In August, The Trade Desk guided third-quarter revenue to at least $650 million — roughly 12% below the same quarter a year earlier, which would mark its first year-over-year revenue decline as a public company.

Pickles framed his return around the team he left behind. "I'm thrilled by all the progress our engineering and product teams have made in recent years," Pickles said in a statement. "The foundation here is strong, and I'm excited to support the team and help guide them through a new era of rapid change and opportunity."

Who holds technical authority now?

The governance picture remains unclear, and that uncertainty matters for partners weighing the platform's roadmap. Pickles stayed on as an advisor after his 2023 departure, handing day-to-day technical leadership to Sairaj Uddin, then SVP of engineering, and Gruia Pitigoi-Aron, then SVP of product, both reporting to Green.

The company did not say whether Pickles returns full time, rejoins the board, or holds an officer title. It also declined to specify how the CTO Council will divide authority with the current engineering and product leaders. The Trade Desk pointed reporters to its blog post announcing the move.

A co-founder's track record

Green and Pickles founded The Trade Desk in 2009, betting the open web could hold against the walled gardens of Google and Meta. Pickles ran the company's technology through most of the climb that followed. Before that, he came from AdECN, an ad exchange Microsoft acquired, where he led the team that built its real-time bidding exchange.

His return follows broader leadership turbulence. The Trade Desk has cycled through a string of CFO departures in recent years, and it has pushed into AI agents with Koa, its conversational AI interface — a product line the CTO Council's stated focus on "agentic capabilities" suggests will deepen.

Separating official confirmation from speculation: the council's scope, the blog post, and both executives' quotes are on the record. Whether Pickles's return stems the advertiser departures and the projected Q3 decline is untested, and the company offered no data to support it.

The November 9 earnings report will provide the first hard read on whether the co-founder's homecoming coincides with a stabilization in revenue — or with the first decline in the company's public history.