Colin Kroll, Co-Founder of Vine and HQ Trivia Found Dead in New York Apartment

Published on December 17, 2018
Written by:
Bill Toulas
Bill Toulas
Infosec Writer

Colin Kroll, co-founder of the smartphone trivia game HQ Trivia, and co-founder of the video looping app Vine was found dead in his New York apartment. The 34-old American entrepreneur has probably died due to a drug overdose, as heroin was found near his body by the police, while an envelope containing cocaine was also recovered.

Kroll was a successful tech entrepreneur, having co-founded Vine which was purchased by Twitter for $30 million, almost immediately after its initial launch. He also co-founded the HQ Trivia app that enjoyed amazing hype in 2017, winning the “App of the year” award of Time Magazine in the same year, as well as the A-Train Award for Best Mobile Game at the New York Game Awards in 2018. However, Vine was discontinued in 2017 by Twitter, while the HQ Trivia funding faced investing issues that caused a stir. While in Twitter, Kroll faced accusations of inappropriate behavior towards women, resulting in a stint. It is possible that work stress combined with the bad aspects of New York lifestyle got the better of Kroll.

As his father stated: “He worked too many hours and too hard. You need to have great constraint to have a disciplined life there (New York). All of that leads to getting too much drugs or bad drugs and overdosing. He had so much talent and had accomplished so much at such a young age. It truly is a waste.”

Kroll was paying a monthly rent of $7450 for his luxurious two-bedroom apartment in New York and has recently told a neighbor that he was planning to move elsewhere because the rent was a little too expensive for him. This possibly indicates a financial problem for the entrepreneur that made him more vulnerable to drug substance abuse.

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