Remember HQ? ‘Quiz Daddy’ Scott Rogowsky is back with TextSavvy, a daily mobile game show

Scott Rogowsky is simply a comedian – helium knows however to marque amusive of himself. That’s however helium ended up roaming New York City Comic Con with his ain photograph printed retired similar a “Wanted” poster, filming himself asking strangers, “Have you seen this man?”

These passersby showed a flicker of recognition, looking astatine the tall, bearded antheral similar idiosyncratic they had known successful a past life, but couldn’t rather place.

“You look familiar! Where bash I cognize you from?” idiosyncratic asks, arsenic though Rogowsky could beryllium a person of a person they had met astatine a party.

“I cognize your face,” different idiosyncratic says, staring thoughtfully astatine the 41-one-year-old.

A cosplayer dressed arsenic a Ghostbuster yet figures it out.

“Did you utilized to bash that crippled amusement online?” helium asks. “Like, each night?”

Rogowsky was conscionable poking amusive astatine himself, embracing the persona of a washed-up net sensation. “I cognize my place,” helium tells TechCrunch. “I’m not walking astir similar everybody’s expected to cognize who I am.” 

But 7 years ago, everyone did. 

Rogowsky was erstwhile the look of HQ Trivia, an app that exploded into fashionable culture, past faded retired of the nationalist consciousness astir arsenic fast. Between 2017 and 2019, Rogowsky hosted the unrecorded mobile crippled amusement doubly a day. At its peak, it drew much than 2.4 cardinal regular viewers each night. It garnered 20 cardinal beingness downloads.

Now thecomedian is backmost with an app of his ain called Savvy, which shares a batch of the DNA of HQ. Savvy’s archetypal game, TextSavvy, is simply a regular unrecorded crippled amusement wherever players tin gain currency — lone this time, viewers are competing against Rogowsky successful a connection puzzle crippled that’s thing similar a hybrid of The New York Times’ Wordle and Connections, alternatively than trivia. 

“I judge this is my calling successful a weird way,” Rogowsky says. “I get up determination successful beforehand of that camera, there’s thousands of radical watching astatine location – millions, backmost successful the HQ days – and it conscionable flows.”

HQ Trivia was founded by the creators of Vine — the short-video level that predated TikTok — and became a genuine taste sensation. National news channels ran stories astir bureau workers dropping everything successful the mediate of the time to play HQ astatine 3 p.m. It was groundbreaking – assignment amusement successful a caller format for the streaming epoch – until the institution imploded successful a barrage of unfortunate circumstances. 

One founder, Colin Kroll, died of a cause overdose; the different founder, Rus Yusupov, was a divisive person who clashed with his staff. He erstwhile threatened a journalist that helium would occurrence Rogowsky if she published an interrogation with Rogowsky wherever helium mentioned liking Sweetgreen salads (Yusupov seemingly didn’t privation to springiness the fast-food concatenation escaped publicity). Most of all, HQ Trivia fell unfortunate to the aforesaid trap that dooms truthful galore startups. The institution had raised a $15 cardinal backing round astatine a $100 cardinal valuation, but it was – rather virtually – giving distant money, and it ne'er developed a meaningful program to monetize oregon physique a sustainable concern model. The institution yet filed for bankruptcy successful February 2020, with its demise aboriginal becoming fodder for dramatic documentaries and true-crime-adjacent podcasts dissecting however specified a promising app failed truthful spectacularly.

This was, understandably, a existent stroke for Rogowsky. But much atrocious luck followed. A shot superfan, Rogowsky had near HQ Trivia successful 2019 for a occupation hosting a regular MLB Network show. He felt similar helium yet made it – helium inactive lights up recalling moving into Hall of Fame pitcher Pedro Martinez successful the bathroom. But his amusement was cancelled erstwhile the pandemic unopen down baseball. He tried a fistful of times implicit the years to recreate a institution similar HQ, but it was a travel of mendacious starts.

“Crazy s–t happened that I had nary power over, and I felt similar I was being tossed and turned connected this raft successful the ocean, conscionable getting battered by things I can’t control, and that was benignant of my cognition astir beingness successful general,” helium says.

He considered himself retired from amusement concern and opened a vintage store successful California. But helium missed comedy.

“I went done this precise meaningful idiosyncratic translation successful the past mates of years,” helium said. That process culminated successful a seven-day upland retreat called “the Hoffman Process,” a programme that helium describes arsenic a integer detox combining lessons successful science and neuroscience that helped him “take power of [his] beingness again.”

“It gave maine a batch of clarity to say, you cognize what, I person much to bash here,” Rogowsky says. “I got retired of that retreat and I was like, ‘I person thing to say. People find maine comic and entertaining. I find myself comic and entertaining.’”

People tuned into HQ Trivia for the imaginable of winning a currency prize, but the likelihood of winning were slim. Millions of viewers came backmost each nighttime due to the fact that of Rogowsky’s speedy wit and charm, which earned him a cult pursuing of fans who inactive telephone him “Quiz Daddy.” 

“From the psychological, affectional side, I couldn’t truly process what was going on,” Rogowsky says, reflecting connected his viral fame. “And successful the 7 humbling years since, I person a vastly caller perspective… I person my fanbase, I person my halfway followers close here. They’re connected committee with me, and it’s a substance of getting the connection out.”

Image Credits:Savvy

Rogowsky received a batch of messages implicit the years from radical who wanted to assistance him physique the adjacent HQ. But past year, a nonstop connection connected X from European crippled decorator Johan de Jager grabbed his attention. 

“The thought was the big plays against the audience, truthful it’s similar a two-way interaction,” Rogowsky says. “Imagine HQ if I wasn’t conscionable asking the questions but besides answering [them]… That adds different furniture to it that nary 1 had thought of before.”

But successful the property of AI, wherever players tin easy look up answers, Rogowsky was skeptical that a trivia crippled could enactment fairly, truthful Savvy embraced connection puzzles instead.

The astir that Savvy has paid retired successful a azygous crippled is astir $400 — tiny compared to HQ’s occasional six-figure prize pools. That’s due to the fact that Rogowsky and his co-founders are backing the institution themselves.

“Look, I cognize this isn’t the thousands of dollars that you saw connected HQ, the hundreds of thousands that we yet got to,” Rogowsky said connected 1 caller TextSavvy broadcast. “But the quality is HQ was funded by task capital. They had $8 cardinal successful the slope to start. They got different $15 cardinal from different task capitalists. We don’t got that… This is simply a low-budge operashe due to the fact that I’m paying for it!”

Rogwosky says helium has spoken with investors astir Savvy and adjacent gotten immoderate enticing offers. But task backing often comes with unit connected founders to maximize returns arsenic accelerated arsenic they can, a exemplary that tin acceptable a concern up to fail, arsenic HQ demonstrated. 

“People privation to 10x and 100x [their investment]… I’d beryllium precise blessed to get to a constituent of profitability, to wherever we tin conscionable support increasing the company, support hiring much people, support making much games,” Rogowsky says. “I’m not looking for immoderate benignant of eight-figure, nine-figure exit. This is what I privation to do. I’m going to bash this arsenic agelong arsenic I proceed to aftermath up each greeting and say, ‘Goddamn, I’m excited to get up determination successful beforehand of that camera and person fun.’”

TextSavvy is presently moving a “Season 0,” a brushed motorboat that allows the squad to enactment done method kinks earlier formally launching connected March 1. So far, without overmuch promotion, TextSavvy has peaked astatine astir 4,000 viewers successful 1 night. 

That’s not overmuch compared to the HQ days. Then again, erstwhile TechCrunch archetypal wrote astir HQ, the app lone had astir 3,300 concurrent viewers. Who’s to accidental Savvy can’t bash it again?

“We’re not going anyplace this time,” Rogowsky said. “There’s nary 1 to occurrence me. There’s nary drama, there’s nary tension. There’s not going to beryllium a documentary astir Savvy the mode determination was astir HQ.”