Tech executive, Colin Kroll found dead at 35 of 'apparent drug overdose'

Colin Kroll, a technology executive who co-founded the HQ Trivia app, has been found dead in his New York apartment at the age of 35.



The city’s police department said officers had gone to Kroll’s Manhattan apartment early on Sunday after getting a call asking for a wellbeing check on him. He was found unconscious and unresponsive on his bed. He was pronounced dead at the scene.



Kroll was the chief executive of the trivia app, which livestreams short trivia shows to users and became extremely popular after its release in 2017 before later experiencing a decline in popularity.



Kroll was named CEO of HQ Trivia in 2015. The year before, he was fired from Twitter after he was determined to be a "bad manager." Female employees claimed his behavior made them uncomfortable, however, no sexual harassment claims were ever filed.



HQ Trivia was having problems recently. It was steadily losing audience. In January, HQ was in the top 10 list of most downloaded iPhone games. It's now fluctuating between #250 and 500 in the U.S. Also, Kroll was dealing with an H.R. complaint by an HQ employee for his "aggressive management style."



Kroll was also the co-founder of Vine and was General Manager between 2013 and 2014. And, he was the Chief Technology Officer for Jetsetter. Prior to that, Kroll served as the Engineering Manager at Yahoo between 2007 to 2009.