Colin Kroll, the co-founder of popular apps like Vine and HQ Trivia, died Sunday of a suspected drug overdose in New York. Kroll was 34.
In a tweet, HQ Trivia said: “We learned today of the passing of our friend and founder, Colin Kroll, and it’s with deep sadness that we say goodbye. Our thoughts go out to his family, friends and loved ones during this incredibly difficult time.” According to reports, police entered Kroll’s apartment after receiving a phone call from a friend. The HQ Trivia CEO was found in bed with substances that appeared to be cocaine and heroin nearby.
Kroll and HQ Trivia co-founders Rus Yusupov and Dom Hofmann launched the popular video looping app Vine in January 2013; less than two years and a $30 million acquisition by Twitter later, the service had over 200 million users. However, Kroll departed the company in 2014 following allegations of inappropriate behavior towards women (Kroll denied the accusations.) Twitter closed down Vine in 2016.
Kroll and Yusupov next co-founded HQ Trivia in 2017, an app that hosts a live game show where users could win cash prizes. The daily games were regularly drawing hundreds of thousands of users at its peak in early 2018, and the app was a mainstay near the top of the Apple app store charts. However in recent months, the app has faced decreasing popularity and internal struggles that followed Kroll’s appointment as CEO, replacing Yusupov.
Editorial credit: Sharaf Maksumov / Shutterstock.com