HQ Trivia
The business, the turning points, and the decisions behind them.
01 / WHAT IT BUILT
What the company did
HQ Trivia was a live mobile trivia game developed by Intermedia Labs, founded by Vine creators Rus Yusupov and Colin Kroll. Released for iOS in August 2017 (Android December 2017), it ran daily live game shows where players answered multiple-choice questions for a shot at splitting cash prizes. At its peak it drew 2.3 million concurrent players per show, topped the App Store charts, and attracted sponsors including Nike and Warner Bros. It later added games such as HQ Words and HQ Tunes.
02 / HQ Trivia FAILURE REASONS
Failure reasons
The company unraveled in 2020. Co-founder Colin Kroll died of an accidental drug overdose in December 2018, host Scott Rogowsky left, cheaters eroded the player economy, and copycats (including Facebook's Confetti) drained the format's appeal. In February 2020 CEO Rus Yusupov told staff that lead investors were no longer willing to fund the company and that a last-minute acquisition by an established business had fallen through, so HQ ceased operations and moved to dissolution, laying off its 25 full-time employees.
03 / EVENT HISTORY
Events in the structured record
- Liquidation
a pending acquisition collapsed and lead investors would no longer fund; 'effective today, HQ will cease operations and move to dissolution' and all 25 staff/contractors were terminated.
04 / CONTEMPORARY REBUILD ASSESSMENT
Difficulty of rebuilding this project today
Material for this section is being gathered and checked. It will appear here once ready.
Overall assessment: Not completed
05 / CAUSAL CHAIN
How the factors connect
- 01
Do not let production costs outrun per-show ad revenue; HQ's prize-and-production model burned cash faster than sponsors could cover it.
- 02
Build anti-cheating defenses from day one; cheaters destroyed the core promise that legitimate players could win money.
- 03
Secure committed financing before the acquisition runway ends; the company died when the fallback acquisition collapsed and investors walked away.