Colin Kroll, Co-Founder of HQ Trivia and Vine Dies at 34
Sunday, December 16, 2018
Colin Kroll, co-founder and CEO of the popular HQ Trivia app, was found dead in his apartment Sunday by the New York Police Department. He was 34.
Kroll sold Vine to Twitter and then co-founded HQ Trivia — an app which has dominated the App Store and became a global sensation.
“An NYPD spokesperson confirmed Kroll's death to USA TODAY. The department was conducting a wellness check on Kroll when it found him in his apartment. He was pronounced "dead on arrival" at 12:18 a.m. ET in what is believed to be a possible drug overdose,” reported the paper.
HQ Trivia Tweeted, “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.
On January 5, 2018, the New York Times reported on the explosion of HQ Trivia.
"On New Year’s Eve, I went to dinner in Los Angeles to close out 2017 with friends. Naturally, the meal ended with me white-knuckling my phone, my eyeballs glued open and my mind laser-focused on spitting up ephemeral internet trivia like who is the most followed celebrity on Instagram (Selena Gomez) or which book topped Goodreads’ best-of list in 2017 (“Little Fires Everywhere”). That’s because, just as the check arrived, HQ beckoned: The live trivia app had announced a surprise game, and if I wanted a shot at answering 12 multiple-choice questions and vying for a share of the $18,000 pot, I had to tap in instantly.
For the next 15 minutes, I was not exactly human. I was a slave to HQ.
HQ blasted out of obscurity this fall to become the best worst thing on the internet. It’s the most popular app that barely even works. The questions (“How many times does the word ‘sex’ appear in the U.S. Constitution?”) can be so obscure as to be meaningless, and the wording (“What is the more common plural form for octopus?”) is frequently indecipherable. (The hugely controversial “correct” answer: octopuses.) Some questions (“Which retro fashion style did NOT make a comeback this year?”) basically test opinions. Others, which mine inconsequential information about obscure start-ups, stink strongly of advertorials."
