Sources: at least three prominent investors have decided not to fund HQ Trivia after finding troubling conduct on part of the founders, particularly Colin Kroll
When the New New Thing Is an Old Thing: Bicycles Madison Malone Kircher / New York Magazine : HQ Founder Accused of ‘Creepy’ Behavior Toward Women Steve Kovach / Business Insider : HQ Trivia was getting ready to raise money at a $100 million valuation, but some investors … Bryan Clark / The Next Web : HQ Trivia faces fundraising hurdles because its founders are douchebags Tweets: Brianna Wu / @spacekatgal : This is really big industry news. Successful startup has trouble raising funds after due diligence finds pattern of workplace abuse and sexism by founder. A year ago, our industry wouldn't have cared. http://twitter.com/... Shira Ovide / @shiraovide : The most surprising thing about this story is venture investors did solid due diligence. https://www.recode.net/... Tracy Chou / @triketora : HQ Trivia's founders are facing fundraising roadblocks after investors learned of alleged bad behavior http://www.recode.net/... is that the sound of... repercussions Sarah Frier / @sarahfrier : HQ Trivia: A super hot startup that didn't get money because venture capitalists looked into the founder's behavior toward women. Silicon Valley is changing: https://www.recode.net/... Sasha Aickin / @xander76 : This story is huge. It's one of the first public cases I've seen of Silicon Valley VCs taking culture and sexual misconduct seriously and voting with their checkbooks. Here's hoping it's a turning point and a trend. http://www.recode.net/... Farhad Manjoo / @fmanjoo : What does it mean if you're “in the process of implementing a zero-tolerance policy?” That the current policy allows some level of tolerance just above zero, right? http://www.recode.net/... http://twitter.com/... Jake Chapman / @runvc : Silicon Valley hasn't grown a new conscience in a scant couple months. However, many used to treat misconduct like pollution; an unfortunate externality but not something that needed to be priced in. That seems to be changing which is a great 1st step http://www.recode.net/... Heidi N Moore / @moorehn : It's progress if “creepy” sexist behavior hurts a company's funding. Financial penalties for social crimes are impt. http://www.recode.net/... Alyson Shontell / @ajs : HQ, one of the hottest apps in years — which had 680,000 people concurrently using it last night — is apparently struggling to close a big round of financing b/c one of its founders is said to be “creepy” http://www.recode.net/... John S. Wilson / @johnwilson : Hit piece with little to no facts. http://twitter.com/... Drew Olanoff / @yoda : if you invest money, it's because you want to make money. if you invest money in a company with disgusting behavior....you are rewarding and condoning said behavior. period. Jillian D'Onfro / @jillianiles : HQ trivia is having trouble finding investors — in part because of its founder's creepy behavior when he worked at Vine https://www.recode.net/... Drew Olanoff / @yoda : stop rewarding bad behavior and then perhaps we won't have these problems. nobody is missing out. it's a trivia app. life is more important. https://www.recode.net/... pic.twitter.com/xZE4rqXPol Peter Pham / @peterpham : Tiny progress that investors are now asking. Bravo to those who took pause to at least research if true. There's hope that greed isn't everything. http://twitter.com/... See also Mediagazer
Context & Ripple Effects
HQ Trivia entered this fundraising process as one of the most hyped consumer apps of 2017, reportedly preparing a round at a $100 million valuation. Instead, Recode reports that at least three prominent investors walked away after diligence surfaced troubling conduct by the founders, particularly Colin Kroll — a rare case of behavioral red flags, not metrics, killing a hot deal.
The arc that follows is grim: Bloomberg later documented the company's final days, where an acquisition offer from Whistle died abruptly amid extreme animosity between founders, staff, and management, and the Wall Street Journal's account of Colin Kroll's rise and death drew on police records and interviews about his conduct. This 2017 report is the moment the industry's tolerance for founder misbehavior first visibly collided with HQ's trajectory.
First-order effects
- At least three prominent investors have decided not to fund HQ Trivia, stalling a raise that Business Insider reported was being prepared at a $100 million valuation and leaving the company's runway dependent on finding less diligent capital.
- Colin Kroll's reputation becomes a named liability in the deal market: the specific findings about his conduct toward women are now circulating among the same investor pool HQ needs to close the round.
Second-order effects
- Other startups with founder-conduct exposure face harder diligence, as investors who passed on HQ for behavioral reasons apply the same screen elsewhere — a pattern Vox later documented at Launch House, where concerns for women surfaced at an a16z-backed community startup.
- Brianna Wu's public framing — that a year earlier the industry would not have punished a successful startup for a founder's workplace abuse — signals that founders' leverage over VCs in hot deals is weakening when conduct evidence exists.
Third-order effects
- Founder background and conduct checks harden into a standard part of venture diligence rather than an optional courtesy, alongside the financial reviews that later forced outcomes like HeadSpin returning roughly $95M to investors and replacing its CEO.
- If the pattern holds, governance risk becomes priced into consumer-social deals specifically, where small founding teams control culture — shifting bargaining power toward institutionalized teams and away from charismatic founders.
The trend: Venture due diligence is expanding from financials and traction to founder conduct itself, with investors increasingly willing to walk away from hyped deals over behavioral red flags.