Rus Yusupov (born May 4, 1984) is a designer and tech entrepreneur. He is best known as the co-founder of

Vine A vine 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 themselves, for instance, when used in wicker work.Jackson; Benjamin; Da ...

and the co-founder and

CEO A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a chief executive or managing director, is the top-ranking corporate officer charged with the management of an organization, usually a company or a nonprofit organization. CEOs find roles in variou ...

of HQ Trivia.

Early life and education

Yusupov was born in

Dushanbe Dushanbe is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Tajikistan. , Dushanbe had a population of 1,564,700, with this population being largely Tajiks, Tajik. Until 1929, the city was known in Russian as Dyushambe, and from 1929 to 1961 as St ...

Tajik SSR The Tajik Soviet Socialist Republic, also commonly known as Soviet Tajikistan, the Tajik SSR, TaSSR, or simply Tajikistan, was one of the constituent republics of the Soviet Union which existed from 1929 to 1991 in Central Asia. The Tajik Re ...

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

(present-day

Tajikistan Tajikistan, officially the Republic of Tajikistan, is a landlocked country in Central Asia. Dushanbe is the capital city, capital and most populous city. Tajikistan borders Afghanistan to the Afghanistan–Tajikistan border, south, Uzbekistan to ...

), in 1984 to a Bukharan Jewish family. After the

Revolutions of 1989 The revolutions of 1989, also known as the Fall of Communism, were a revolutionary wave of liberal democracy movements that resulted in the collapse of most Communist state, Marxist–Leninist governments in the Eastern Bloc and other parts ...

the family moved to

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

, where Yusupov grew up and graduated from LaGuardia High School of Music and Art and the

School of Visual Arts The School of Visual Arts New York City (SVA NYC) is a private for-profit art school in New York City. It was founded in 1947 and is a member of the Association of Independent Colleges of Art and Design. History This school was started by Silas ...

(SVA) with a BFA in

Graphic Design Graphic design is a profession, academic discipline and applied art that involves creating visual communications intended to transmit specific messages to social groups, with specific objectives. Graphic design is an interdisciplinary branch of ...

Early career

Yusupov began his career as a digital product designer at firms including Razorfish and R/GA, where he worked on projects including as the lead designer on the first version of Hulu.com in 2007.

Vine

In June 2012, Yusupov co-founded Vine, a looping, short-form video service. Vine was sold to

Twitter Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...

in October 2012 for a reported $30 million, shortly before the service's official launch. In 2013, Vine hit number one on the App store for free downloads and become the most used video sharing application in the market at the time. Yusupov left Twitter in late 2015 after Vine was deprioritized by Twitter. Yusupov later tweeted, "Don't sell your company!"

Intermedia Labs

After leaving Twitter, Yusupov co-founded Intermedia Labs, an app studio, in 2015. The first app developed by Intermedia Labs was Hype, a platform wherein users had the ability to share a variety of multimedia content into a live broadcast. Subsequent apps developed by Intermedia Labs include Bounce, an app that allows users to "remix" videos, and HQ Trivia, an appointment-based trivia game that is broadcast live to mobile phones.

HQ Trivia

HQ Trivia, Intermedia's most successful app to-date, was released in August 2017. The game averaged 700,000-1,000,000 viewers for each broadcast. HQ was available worldwide on the

iOS App Store The App Store is an app marketplace developed and maintained by Apple, for mobile apps on its iOS and iPadOS operating systems. The store allows users to browse and download approved apps developed within Apple's iOS SDK. Apps can be download ...

and

Google Play Google Play, also known as the Google Play Store, Play Store, or sometimes the Android Store (and was formerly Android Market), is a digital distribution service operated and developed by Google. It serves as the official app store for certifie ...

, with live shows targeted to North American, Australian, and UK audiences. The app took the form of a live game show, played at 9 PM Eastern Time every day, and occasionally at various other times for special themed programs (focused on specific topics such as sports, music, or word-puzzles). The host of the show asked a series of (usually) twelve multiple choice questions, each with three possible answers. Those players who answered the questions correctly within the 10-second limit moved on, and the rest were eliminated. The players that correctly answered the final question split the prize money. This prize was most recently $5,000 for most games, but it had been as high as $400,000 on one occasion. According to a 2017 ''

Daily Beast ''The Daily Beast'' is an American news website focused on politics, media, and pop culture. Founded in 2008, the website is owned by IAC Inc. It has been characterized as a "high-end tabloid" by Noah Shachtman, the site's editor-in-chief ...

'' article, Yusupov threatened to fire HQ host Scott Rogowsky if the website chose to run a profile on Rogowsky's rise to fame via HQ. Yusupov later claimed the accusations were false. HQ shut down on February 14, 2020 after its primary investors had stopped funding the company and a potential sale of HQ to an "established business" fell through. Six weeks later, on March 29, 2020, Yusupov tweeted that HQ Trivia was returning that evening.

Industry awards and recognition

Yusupov has received industry recognitions including a Tribeca Disruptive Innovation Award (2013), ''Variety'' Magazine Breakthrough of the Year Award (2014), PGA Digital VIP Award (2014), UJA Lydia Vareljan Leadership Award (2015) and the Webby Award's Webby 50 (2015). HQ Trivia won the A-Train Award for Best Mobile Game at the New York Game Awards 2018. It was also nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Interactive Program in 2019. Intermedia Labs is one of Fast Company's World's Most Innovative Companies in 2018. HQ Trivia became a finalist in the Apps and Games category for Fast Company's 2018 Innovation By Design Award.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Yusupov, Rus Living people 1984 births American people of Tajikistani-Jewish descent Bukharan Jews Businesspeople from New York (state) 20th-century American businesspeople 21st-century American businesspeople Soviet emigrants to the United States People from Dushanbe Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School alumni School of Visual Arts alumni