In this engaging interview, New York-based Victor Varnado – creative technologist, CEO & Founder of Supreme Robot (aka King Supernuts – ‘The Greatest Rapper in the World’) – offers a compelling vision for how creatives can merge artistic passion with business acumen, powered by technology & a commitment to social impact.
Merging Creativity & Technology
Victor’s company, Supreme Robot, is dedicated to building IP, experimental media & digital tools with a positive social impact. He highlights his current focus, the High Score Game Arcade & High Score Host, a competitive video game system centred on tic-tac-toe.
- High Score Game Arcade: A website featuring fun, weird games that score players against each other daily, often for small prizes.
- High Score Host: A software system used for live events & parties, like at the recent SXSW (South by Southwest) festival, where attendees can scan a QR code to play on their phones & compete with others in the room.
Victor champions the use of simple, fun technology that is often overlooked in favour of overly complex solutions.
The Journey from Artist to Entrepreneur
Varnado shared his 9yr transition from working as a comedian, actor & producer (including a stint making reality TV shows like ‘Leave It to Stevie‘, which he humorously called “trash TV”) to becoming an entrepreneur. This shift was motivated by a desire to pursue work with a positive impact.
He credits his background as a television producer – a role that demands constant problem-solving & meeting hard deadlines – as an “excellent training ground” for entrepreneurship. He emphasised the critical importance for creatives to value their work & understand its application in business.
Innovation & Social Impact
Victor is currently developing BrightWrite, a system designed to help neuro-divergent individuals focus & write. The core of this project is an application called Magic Bookifier which uses AI to interview the user on a topic, generating a complete rough draft of their writing by the end of the conversation.
- He is collaborating with Dr. Julie Loppacher (Founder & CEO, Rising Tide Educators) to develop the tool for neurodivergent students.
- He is seeking a U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) grant, having successfully obtained a previous NSF grant with the help of the UK-based grant-matching platform, Grantify.
Monetisation & the Hybrid Newsletter
A key takeaway from Victor’s experience is the importance of strategic monetisation, even for artists. For example, he detailed his successful Hybrid Newsletter model:
- A valuable core business (e.g. an app or service) sits at the top.
- A highly niche & engaged newsletter is attached, capturing both paying & free users.
- The newsletter is monetised through ads, product sales & up-selling, with a target of making roughly $1 per person per month.
This method allows a business to generate revenue streams separate from the main product & leverage an existing audience, proving that great ideas & a concentrated, engaged audience are incredibly valuable.
Victor’s current focus is scaling the High Score Game Arcade & his suite of AI-powered creative writing tools; Magic Bookifier Studio, Magic Fiction Writer & Magic Screenplay Writer. For any creatives & entrepreneurs who are watching / listening / reading this interview, he encourages them to focus on delivering an offer “so good it feels stupid to say no,” & building a reputation for being excellent at what they do.
Want to know more?
You can learn more about Victor’s work at https://supremerobot.com, Follow him on Instagram @robotosupremo & play the Worldwide Tic-Tac-Toe Championship (& other games) for free at https://play.highscoregamearcade.com
ps You can also listen to this interview (& more) on Paul’s ‘SuperConnector Show’ podcast which is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, Audible or Spreaker via our ‘Podcasts‘ page.
