Steph Smith
Creator, Internet Pipes · 45 appearances on the record.
computed by AI from the episodes · how this works → · full disclaimer →
hostauthorfounderexecutiveoperator@stephsmithio ↗LinkedIn ↗stephsmith.io ↗
Steph Smith is a technology commentator, writer, and former host of The a16z Podcast who previously scaled Trends at The Hustle and led HubSpot's creator network. She is widely recognized for dissecting online data and AI trends, creating the data tool directory Internet Pipes, and authoring the guide Doing Content Right.
21 supported 2 partly supported 1 contradicted 2 not yet assessed 8 not checkable as stated how the 34 claims stand · each chip opens the sources
3 predictions · 31 assertions · 1 opinion · 2 insights · every statement was checked. The predictions and assertions are the 34 claims: statements the public record can support or contradict. 24 are resolved, 2 are not yet assessed, and 8 name no date, number or outcome precise enough to check. Everything else (opinions, insights, what ifs, disclosures) can never be settled by the record, so it carries no assessment.
The record, in short
What the tape says about how Steph argues and how the claims held up. Everything they said, and everything said about them, is in the tabs below.
Their most notable supported claim
Expressed certainty vs assessment result
weighted support: a fully supported claim counts one, a partly supported claim counts half. Each filled bar is clickable and opens exactly those claims; "none yet" means nothing said at that certainty level has resolved yet
Argument clarity: do they answer the question? how? →
redirected or did not address 10 of 23 assessed questions (44%). Watch them ▸
This is a score against a rubric. It is not a rank. Every host question → answer exchange is scored with names hidden on directness, coherence, precision and compression, 1–5 each, on meaning alone: disfluencies are ignored, and only raw unedited episodes count. This is the score that measures thought. Every scored exchange, scores shown → · The rubric and its checks →
How they sound: speaking style how? →
262 words/min while actually speaking · 5.3 um and uh per 1k words · 8.7 false starts per 1k · 33.3% of pauses land inside a clause
Um and uh per 1,000 words, year by year. Hover a point for the year's tape.
Measured by listening to the audio itself: 81,036 words across 33 episodes of raw-level tape, transcribed verbatim with every um and uh kept, each one attributed only where the alignment onto our timed stream is unambiguous. These are measurements of speaking style. We do not rank them: across this corpus, fluency and argument quality are nearly uncorrelated (ρ≈0.2), and smooth talking does not signal clear thinking. How it's measured →
Everything Steph Smith said on the a16z Podcast that made the record, most notable first. Filter by type, assessment or year in the ledger →
The other half of the tape: Steph Smith's own voice is left out of every number here. Other people bring the name up 1 time in 1 episode on the a16z Podcast. every mention, with the transcript →
Who brings them up most Julie Yoo 1