Co-founder and CEO of the wildly popular app HQ, Rus Yusupov threatened to fire his break-out star host, for some less than normal reasons earlier this week.
HQ, a live-trivia app that allows smartphone users to log in twice a day to play in real time for real cash, has quickly become one of the most popular apps on the market. The Outline, recently referred to it as the “Future of TV.” The success of the app might be due to it’s founder, Rus Yusupov and Colin Kroll, who co-created Vine in 2012. While Yusupov and Kroll are the brains behind the app, the star of the show is Scott Rogowsky, the host of the daily trivia games.
A former stand-up comedian, Rogowsky quickly rose to fame within the tech and start-up world and due to his increase in popularity, The Daily Beast reached out to him directly to request an interview about his success and what his daily life looks like for a pretty standard, light-hearted profile. Rogowsky agreed to the interview, and hours after speaking with a reporter, things got hectic.
The Daily Beast reached out to HQ’s HR department to inform them of the interview they would be running on their star host and according to The Daily Beast, Yusupov responded to their email by saying HQ is, “Not making Scott available to discuss his involvement with HQ with the media/press.” The reporter responded to Yusupov’s concerned email and even offered their cellphone number. Yusupov called the reporter immediately and said they were, “completely unauthorized” to report such a story without going through the proper protocol of reaching out initially through HQ’s press channels.
The reporter ensured Yusupov that Rogowsky stated nothing personal about HQ or released any corporate information, it was strictly a piece that would highlight Rogowsky’s personal life. Yusupov fired back with, “You’re putting Scott’s job in jeopardy. Is that what you want? Scott could lose his job.”
At this point in the conversation, Yusupov demanded to hear or read the entire story that was written. His first issue came with the line, “Scott said that despite the attention, he’s still able to walk down the street and order his favorite salad from Sweetgreen without being accosted.” To which he reportedly fired back with, “He cannot say that! We do not have a brand deal with Sweetgreen! Under no circumstances can he say that.”
The second issue came with the line, “I can make people happy and give them the trivia they so desperately love and want. It’s been so great to build this community,” To which Yusupov told the reporter to “Take that out. He cannot say that people want trivia.” The phone call shortly ended after this strange exchange and The Daily Beast did not run the story on Rogowsky. The Daily Beast did however, reframe the story around Yusupov’s claims of terminating Rogowsky and when they presented this new story line to Yusupov, he claimed, “I don’t want to fire Scott. Scott is our guy.”
Q: Who’s a cliche, stressed out startup founder? A: me. @ScottRogowsky @TaylorLorenz sorry for being a jerk. Lunch some time? @sweetgreen is great pic.twitter.com/Rr4v5GTNaO
— Rus (@rus) November 22, 2017
The altercation was bizarre and certainly unprofessional, but Rogowsky made a public apology by taking to Twitter late Tuesday night with the following tweet. But, needless to say, someone is probably in need of a vacation — and maybe some fun trivia to unwind?