Trada
The business, the turning points, and the decisions behind them.
01 / WHAT IT BUILT
What the company did
Trada was a Boulder, Colorado crowdsourced search-engine-marketing marketplace founded in 2008 by Niel Robertson. Its model matched mid-tier advertisers with a crowd of certified pay-per-click experts — 'Optimizers' — who built ad campaigns, picked keywords and refined results, scaling the team on each account to the advertiser's budget. Backed by Google Ventures and Foundry Group, Trada raised about $19 million, grew to 75 employees and ranked 27th on the Inc. 5000 fastest-growing companies list in 2013.
02 / Trada FAILURE REASONS
Failure reasons
Trada's crowdsourced model never reached sustainable profitability. In late 2013 the company laid off most of its staff — dropping from about 65 to 11 — and tried to reboot around a product called PPCPath that sold expertise on a project basis. Founder Niel Robertson stepped down as CEO in January 2014, and the turnaround never took hold. Unable to pay its creditors, Trada ceased operations in 2015; CEO Matt Harada's farewell note instructed the remaining clients to move to WordStream and White Shark Media.
03 / EVENT HISTORY
Events in the structured record
- Founded
Niel Robertson founds Trada in Boulder, Colorado in 2008 as a crowdsourced marketplace for search-engine marketing.
- Funding
Google Ventures leads a $5.8 million Series C in July 2010; a $9 million Series D follows in January 2012, bringing total funding to about $19 million.
- Restructure
In late 2013 Trada lays off most of its staff and restructures around the PPCPath product; Robertson steps down as CEO in January 2014.
- Shutdown
Unable to pay its creditors, Trada ceases operations in 2015 after seven years.
04 / CONTEMPORARY REBUILD ASSESSMENT
Difficulty of rebuilding this project today
Material for this section is being gathered and checked. It will appear here once ready.
Overall assessment: Not completed
05 / CAUSAL CHAIN
How the factors connect
- 01
In 2015 Trada announced it was unable to pay its creditors and shut down the marketplace effective immediately, after seven years in business.
- 02
CEO Matt Harada's farewell note referred the remaining clients to WordStream and White Shark Media.