According to a new report from TMZ, Colin Kroll, the CEO and co-founder of HQ Trivia has died following an alleged drug overdose.
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Speaking to TMZ, law enforcement sources on the case reveal that police were first contacted early Sunday morning and asked to check up on Kroll by his girlfriend, who was unable to get in touch with him.
Following the tip, cops proceeded to downtown Manhattan where Kroll lives to do a welfare check. And when they entered his apartment they found Kroll dead on the floor of his bedroom with drug paraphernalia in the room with him. More specifically, cocaine and heroin are suspected to be involved with the overdose.
You may recognize Kroll from HQ Trivia, which he was the CEO of and a co-founder. In addition to founding HQ Trivia, he was also notably a co-founder of Vine.
Kroll graduated with a degree in Computer Science from Oakland University. From here, Kroll kicked off his career as a software engineer at Right Media in 2006, which was eventually acquired by Yahoo. Following the acquisition, Kroll served as an engineering manager at Yahoo for two years and even briefly as Chief Technology Officer (CTO) before co-finding Vine in June 2012.
A few months after Vine was founded, it was sold to Twitter. And then two years later in April 2014, Kroll stepped down from General Manger of the company.
After Vine, Kroll briefly worked at Twitter before getting fired from the massive social media company. At the time of his firing, it was alleged by some fellow female employees that his behavior made them uncomfortable, though no sexual harassment claims were ever actually filed.
Before his death, Kroll was still involved with HQ Trivia, which was steadily losing its audience after being one of the most downloaded iPhone games in the world just earlier this year. In addition to HQ Trivia declining, Kroll was also in the middle of a H.R. complaint filed by a HQ employee over Kroll’s “aggressive management style.”
Kroll was 35.
Our deepest condolences go out to Mr. Kroll’s family and friends during this very painful and difficult time.
