Steph Smith
Creator, Internet Pipes. On 3 shows, 52 appearances. The Shows tab opens the full record on each.
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.
3shows
52appearances
84statements
46resolved
37supported
2contradicted
80%fully supported
50said about them ↓ Everything Steph Smith said on any show that made the record, most notable first. Each card names its show and opens the statement there.
Steph Smith: Podcasts Are Uniquely Intimate Compared to Written Media
“The listener is with you for an hour every week, maybe more than that. And so it's very different than reading a newsletter for five minutes or stumbling upon a blog post randomly online and spending a couple of minutes where you don't even know who wrote it. …”
Smith: Generative AI value must ladder into practical commercial use cases
“It's fun to play around in these tools, but ultimately there, while there is a market for just interesting art in the world, a lot of this will need to ladder back into, you know, whether it's blog post sharing images, whether it's creating, you know, the next…”
Smith: Highly refined AI art does not guarantee audience resonance
“And so your point just reminded me of this idea where art especially Is subjective and what people like and resonate with is not necessarily the most refined or extravagant, precise type of imagery, which you can generate in some of these text to image tools, …”
Web-based AI avatar tools preceded Lensa using identical underlying APIs
“So there were at least, I'm aware of two or three different web-based applications, ProfilePicture.ai and then Avatar.ai as well, which had come out first with this idea of creating personalized avatars. I believe all, all of these products are based off of th…”
Steph Smith: Social Media Shifted From Social Graphs to Interest Graphs
“Social media is not really social anymore in a way. It's kind of gone from the social graph where you followed your friends and your family, and then now it's an interest graph where you follow just things that this algorithm is serving you.”
Steph Smith: Tangible evidence of work matters far more than projected confidence
“What I think is important, especially in this era where everyone can seem like an expert is evidence. So evidence over confidence. And what do I mean by evidence? It's like, don't tell me you're this business expert, show me the businesses that you've built an…”
Smith: Competitions attract better talent than traditional recruiters
“If they want to develop some new technology, they put out some competition, and that tends to attract more interesting people than, you know, if they hire a bunch of recruiters to go, you know, find the people in theory they're looking for.”
Smith: Hard kombucha will take off nationally in 3 to 5 years
“And I think it's just, it's going to take off. And so someone in like Wyoming, go, go start a hard kombucha brand. I think you're going to kill it in, you know, the next three to five years.”
Smith: Dedicated Automation Specialists Easily Pay for Themselves
“I think you would see the ROI on this role immediately. Right. So, so they would easily pay for themselves and more.”
Smith: Many subscription box startups obtain product inventory for free
“Actually a lot of subscription boxes just get their products for free because these companies want to be in it.”
Smith: Most Common UK Age of Death Shifted from Infancy to 87
“In, in the UK in 1965, the most common age of death was the first year. That's perhaps not surprising, but today the most common age to die is 87.”
Smith: Men's cardiovascular mortality exceeds women's before 55, then reverses post-menopause
“Below the age of 55, cardiovascular illness is a more likely cause of mortality in men. And then after 55, again, around that menopause stage, it basically reverses, because what menopause is, is like, I'm obviously oversimplifying, it's just like a super, sup…”
Smith: 6,000 US women reach menopause every day
“And just due to the nature of, like, you could say, TAM, 6000 women in the U.S. Hit menopause every single day.”
Smith: Japanese nursing homes grew nearly 50% over the past decade
“In Japan, the number of nursing homes has risen nearly 50% over the last decade”
Smith: Over eight million abandoned houses in Japan are given away or sold cheaply
“There's over, there's tons of articles on this, over eight million IKEA's that are being given away by the government or again, sometimes for very cheap.”
Smith: US assisted living median costs rose 31% above inflation from 2004 to 2021
“From 2004 to 20 21, the median annual price of assisted living increased 31% faster than inflation and has hit 54,000 dollars per year.”
Robert Marchand broke cycling records at 101 and competed until 105
“He passed away at a 109, but he at a 101, Was still cycling, and he broke some records at a 101, and he decided that wasn't enough. So he then worked with a bunch of trainers and tried to break his existing record. At a 103, he hit 27 kilometers an hour on a b…”
Steph Smith: Dexcom's Stello is the first OTC FDA-approved CGM
“Their new product, Stello, is the first over-the-counter FDA-approved CGM. This was just as of, like, last month end of August.”
Steph Smith: 30-second podcast mention drove six figures for Internet Pipes
“Off that I'm pretty sure it's hard to tie directly. Like, but for sure, six figures.”
Smith: Unified health AI platforms could command $30 monthly subscriptions
“Maybe I'm more ready to pay than the average person, but I would for sure pay at least 30 dollars per month, especially in instances where I'm trying to solve an issue like what the example I just gave.”
Steph Smith: 2.5 billion people projected to experience hearing loss by 2050
“So the stat or the digit is that nearly 2.5 billion people by 20 50 are expected to experience hearing loss. With over seven hundred million requiring rehabilitation.”
Smith: a16z invested in emergency 911 response drone startups
“Yeah, we, at A-X-Z, invested in a few of these companies”
The other half of the tape: Steph Smith's own voice is left out of every number here. Other people bring the name up 48 times in 24 episodes across the shows. 2 statements on the record name them. every mention, with the transcript →
Who brings them up most Sam Parr 28Shaan Puri 12Greg Isenberg 3Andrew Wilkinson 3Julie Yoo 1April MacLean 1
Statements about Steph Smith, by other people (2)
Shaan Puri: Internet personalities must amplify eccentricities instead of fitting in
“Most people are basically taking their own little volume knob and turning it down all the time because they want to fit in. And so the best thing you could do if you want to be a personality on the internet is like, you can't have that. I'm trying to fit in, t…”
Every mention by year
tap a year for its mentions
My First Million 42
the Startup Ideas Podcast 5
the a16z Podcast 1
2025 5 mentions in 4 episodes 1 per episode
2024 12 mentions in 4 episodes 3 per episode
- How I Went From Intern To CEO In 6 Months (My First Startup Gig)
- 6 startup ideas from the Tech Warren Buffett (make $120k/mo)
- Building A 100+ Year Legacy + Peter Thiel’s Fellowship + Bomb Hiring Questions
- Jesse Pujji on Bootstrapping a +$1B Business + Selling To The Ultra Rich
- every mention in 2024, scene by scene →
2023 7 mentions in 6 episodes 1 per episode
- Trung Phan on The Hustle, ChatGPT, and TikTok
- From $0 to $100 Million In 3 Years Selling Cold Plunges (#527)
- CEO Lessons: Bulls**t Mission Statements, Firing People & Saying ‘NO' (#505)
- Sam Reveals The Company He's Worked On For The Last 8 Month
- 3 Community-Based Products Doing It Right with April MacLean
- 2023 Big Ideas in Technology (Part 2)
- every mention in 2023, scene by scene →
2022 1 mention in 1 episode
2021 23 mentions in 9 episodes 3 per episode
- How Celebrities Have Made Billions off Their Names | My First Million #210
- MFM #162: Why Clubhouse Will Fail
- MFM #163: How Chrome Plugins Are Making Millions & How A Studying App is Going Viral
- Holiday Special: Great Finds (Products, Apps, Media)
- The Milly Awards 2021
- Half-Baked TV Show Ideas, Miss Excel Making Millions, The Adventure Challenge, and More
- Why You Shouldn't Be A Slave to a 40 Hour Work Week | My First Million #212
- Why You Should Spend 5x Your Budget on an Engagement Ring | My First Million #201
- 1 more episode that year, every mention in 2021 →
One line per show, most statements first. The link opens Steph's full record on that show: the calibration, argument clarity, speaking style and every statement made there.
| Show | Role there | Eps | Statements | Record | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| MY FIRST MILLIONLEDGER | Creator, Internet Pipes | 6 | 43 | 73% 16/22 | full record on My First Million → |
| a16zLEDGER | Creator, Internet Pipeshost | 45 | 37 | 88% 21/24 | full record on the a16z Podcast → |
| STARTUP IDEASLEDGER | Creator, Internet Pipes | 1 | 4 | — | full record on the Startup Ideas Podcast → |