Colin Kroll (May 1984 – December 16, 2018) was an American entrepreneur who co-founded the video hosting service

Vine A vine (Latin ''vīnea'' "grapevine", "vineyard", from ''vīnum'' "wine") is any plant with a growth habit of trailing or scandent (that is, climbing) stems, lianas or runners. The word ''vine'' can also refer to such stems or runners themselv ...

and the trivia game app

HQ Trivia HQ was a mobile trivia game developed by Intermedia Labs for iOS, Android, iPadOS, and tvOS. First released in 2017, the HQ app allowed users to play in daily live trivia games, through which they could win or split prize money. HQ was devel ...

Early life and education

Born in

Rye, New York Rye is a coastal suburb of New York City in Westchester County, New York, United States. It is separate from the Town of Rye, which has more land area than the city. The City of Rye, formerly the Village of Rye, was part of the Town until it r ...

in 1984, Kroll was the son of Alan Kroll. After his parents' divorce when he was 10, Kroll was raised in the suburbs of

Detroit, Michigan Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at ...

, dropping out of community college to work on coding projects for local businesses. Kroll eventually returned to school, attending

Oakland University Oakland University is a public research university in Auburn Hills and Rochester Hills, Michigan. Founded in 1957 through a donation of Matilda Dodge Wilson, it was initially known as Michigan State University-Oakland, operating under the Mi ...

where he studied computer science.

Career

Kroll worked as an engineering manager at

Right Media Right Media, Inc. is an online advertising company that operates the Right Media Exchange (RMX), a marketplace that enables advertisers, publishers, and ad networks to trade digital media. Technology providers develop services for the Exchange v ...

, a subsidiary of

Yahoo! Yahoo! (, styled yahoo''!'' in its logo) is an American web services provider. It is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California and operated by the namesake company Yahoo Inc., which is 90% owned by investment funds managed by Apollo Global Man ...

, from 2007 to 2009 and as chief technology officer at Jetsetter from 2009 to 2013. He met

Rus Yusupov Rus Yusupov (born May 4, 1984) is an American designer and tech entrepreneur. He is best known as the co-founder of Vine (service), Vine and the co-founder and CEO of HQ Trivia. Career Early career Yusupov began his career as a digital prod ...

and

Dom Hofmann Dominik Hofmann (born September 27, 1986) is an American entrepreneurship, entrepreneur and programmer. He is best known for being one of the co-founders of Vine (service), Vine as well as being the creator of Peach (social network), Peach, Byte ...

while working at Jetsetter. Hofmann, Kroll and Yusupov founded the video hosting service

. Kroll worked as general manager of Vine through 2014. Vine was acquired by Twitter in 2012 (though was shut down 4 years later). After working at Twitter following the acquisition, Kroll was dismissed following "bad management" and extensive allegations of workplace sexual harassment of women. Kroll and his business partner Yusupov formed Intermedia Labs, the company behind

. The real-time trivia game app was launched in 2017, climbing to the top of

Apple An apple is an edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus domestica''). Apple fruit tree, trees are agriculture, cultivated worldwide and are the most widely grown species in the genus ''Malus''. The tree originated in Central Asia, wh ...

's free game app chart during the early months of 2018. Kroll and another board member forced Yusupov, who was the CEO of Intermedia Labs, out of his position and Kroll took over as CEO in September 2018.

Death

Police were called to Kroll's apartment in

SoHo, Manhattan SoHo, sometimes written Soho (South of Houston Street), is a neighborhood in Lower Manhattan, New York City. Since the 1970s, the neighborhood has been the location of many artists' lofts and art galleries, and has also been known for its variet ...

shortly after midnight on December 16, 2018, when his girlfriend became concerned after making multiple unsuccessful attempts to contact him by phone throughout the previous day. Kroll was found dead in his bedroom of a

drug overdose A drug overdose (overdose or OD) is the ingestion or application of a drug or other substance in quantities much greater than are recommended.

. Drugs found in his system include

fentanyl Fentanyl, also spelled fentanil, is a very potent synthetic opioid used as a pain medication. Together with other drugs, fentanyl is used for anesthesia. It is also used illicitly as a recreational drug, sometimes mixed with heroin, cocaine ...

4-Fluoroisobutyrfentanyl 4-Fluoroisobutyrylfentanyl (also known as 4-FIBF and p-FIBF) is an opioid analgesic that is an analog of butyrfentanyl and structural isomer of 4-Fluorobutyrfentanyl and has been sold online as a designer drug. It is closely related to 4-fluorof ...

heroin Heroin, also known as diacetylmorphine and diamorphine among other names, is a potent opioid mainly used as a recreational drug for its euphoric effects. Medical grade diamorphine is used as a pure hydrochloride salt. Various white and brow ...

and

cocaine Cocaine (from , from , ultimately from Quechuan languages, Quechua: ''kúka'') is a central nervous system (CNS) stimulant mainly recreational drug use, used recreationally for its euphoria, euphoric effects. It is primarily obtained from t ...

, the New York City medical examiner said, ultimately determining Kroll's cause of death to be "accidental overdose by fentanyl-laced heroin."

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kroll, Colin 1984 births 2018 deaths 21st-century American businesspeople Accidental deaths in New York (state) American technology company founders Businesspeople from Michigan Businesspeople from New York (state) Businesspeople from New York City Deaths by heroin overdose in New York (state) Drug-related deaths in New York City Oakland University alumni People from Rye, New York People from SoHo, Manhattan Twitter, Inc. people