Colin Kroll, HQ Trivia and Vine co-founder dead of cocaine & heroin overdose at his NYC home. Death follows string of employee accusations against him.
Colin Kroll, 35, the CEO and co-founder of HQ Trivia was on Sunday morning found dead in his New York City apartment early Sunday morning- the result of a suspected drug overdose.
TMZ reported the NYPD receiving a call at 12:15am Sunday morning for a welfare check from Kroll’s girlfriend who said she couldn’t get in touch with him.
When police arrived at his apartment on Spring Street they found him unresponsive in his bedroom.
A source adds that drugs believed to be cocaine and heroin were also found in the apartment.
When Twitter purchased Vine, they brought Kroll on board.
However 18 months after being hired with Twitter, Kroll was fired over allegations lodged against him by female colleagues.
His colleagues described him as ‘abrasive and disinterested, and said he could be verbally abusive to colleagues.’
HQ Trivia which had been in the top 10 list of downloaded iPhone games in January but had been sliding to between the top 250 to 500 spot.
HQ Trivia users compete with other players as part of a live game show. Players who are able to answer at 12 trivia questions correctly stand to win prize money.
Kroll was facing a complaint filed with H.R. by an HQ employee for his ‘aggressive management style.’
It wasn’t necessarily clear whether Kroll’s apparent penchant or reliance on narcotics may have contributed to the entreprenuer’s erratic mood-swings.
Kroll had been elevated to become CEO of HQ Trivia in September. There were reports earlier this year that some venture capital firms had passed on investing in HQ because of alleged ‘bad behavior’ by Kroll when he worked at Twitter that included allegations of sexual harassment. He later apologized for what he called ‘poor management.’
Kroll was also a co-founder of Vine and was the Chief Technology Officer for Jetsetter.
From 2007 to 2009 he was the engineering manager at Yahoo.
The Medical Examiner’s office will determine the exact cause of death.
