Steph Smith
Creator, Internet Pipes · 6 appearances on the record.
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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.
43statements → 27claims → 22claims resolved → 73%fully supported → 3.77/5average certainty → 1.58/5average debate potential → ≈4.5/5argument clarity, estimated → 44said about them ↓
16 supported 5 partly supported 1 contradicted 5 not checkable as stated how the 27 claims stand · each chip opens the sources
2 predictions · 25 assertions · 2 opinions · 11 insights · 3 disclosures · every statement was checked. The predictions and assertions are the 27 claims: statements the public record can support or contradict. 22 are resolved, and 5 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
Smith: eVTOL is the first new FAA aircraft category in nearly 80 years
“They started approving these electric Vertical takeoff and landing companies, the EV tool companies, and again, that was in the news, but what wasn't covered as much was the fact that this was the first new category of aircraft in nearly 80 years”
Their most notable contradicted claim
Smith: US Longevity Gap with G7 Is Driven Primarily by Diseases of Despair
“America is falling behind some of the other, like, G-seven nations around longevity, but I thought it was because generally people were dying earlier but it's actually due to these things called diseases of despair. So just like alcoholism drugs, etc. But if y…”
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
How they sound: not measured why? →
We measure speaking style by listening to the audio itself, and a fair number needs at least 2,000 words from one person on tape we have measured. There is too little of Steph Smith on measured tape to publish a rate. This says nothing about how they speak.
Everything Steph Smith said on My First Million that made the record, most notable first. Filter by type, assessment or year in the ledger →
Smith: US Longevity Gap with G7 Is Driven Primarily by Diseases of Despair
“America is falling behind some of the other, like, G-seven nations around longevity, but I thought it was because generally people were dying earlier but it's actually due to these things called diseases of despair. So just like alcoholism drugs, etc. But if y…”
Smith: Half of for-profit US assisted living facilities generate 20%+ returns
“There are 31,000 assisted living facilities in the United States. Four out of every five are run as for profits and half of all the operators in the industry are clearing annual returns of 20% or more.”
Smith: eVTOL is the first new FAA aircraft category in nearly 80 years
“They started approving these electric Vertical takeoff and landing companies, the EV tool companies, and again, that was in the news, but what wasn't covered as much was the fact that this was the first new category of aircraft in nearly 80 years”
Smith: Waymo already accounts for 20% of Austin Uber rides
“Waymo's are already taking up 20% of Uber rides in Austin”
Smith: Target AI software at labor-starved industries to ease sales friction
“Those are exactly the industries that people should be looking at for building AI products, right? If you think about even just the selling motion that you need to do for any new product, if you're going to a company and they have ample demand, and there's lik…”
Smith: RPA Software Cannot Replace In-Person Human Workflow Shadowing
“There's always going to be things that a human can spot more easily by just like literally shadowing someone, like sitting next to them for a day on zoom or in person. That I think there still is this gap that RPA, there's always going to be a delta between wh…”
Smith: Keeping a day job enables better creative risk-taking
“I actually think that the hybrid approach is possibly the best approach because you have the complete financial stability through your job. Right. And so you don't need to worry about that, which means you can go and be really risky, really creative and really…”
Smith: Tech giants build kid apps for decades-long user retention
“Why do you think YouTube and Instagram want to create versions for kids? I mean, it's so that they can acquire users easily and then kind of stick with those users for the next five, 10, 2050 years.”
Smith: US spends 0.8% of federal budget and $50B+ on kidney dialysis
“It was basically that .8% of the US budget is spent on kidney dialysis, which was basically three times NASA. So all these people need dialysis. It's like, I think Medicare spends over fifty billion dollars annually on dialysis and other related treatments, wh…”
Smith: Founders ignore eldercare because they have never experienced aging
“Problems that people face at this point in their life most entrepreneurs have not experienced, right? So, like, they are not thinking about what an eighty-year-old might need because they've never been 80, right?”
Steph Smith: Socialization and Strava-like features will emerge for CGMs
“I think there should be a Strava for CGMs. Now that more people are using it, even during just that trial period of a month of learning, like, I think being able to kind of socialize what you're learning, but also compete in a way that's what Strava is. Like, …”
Smith: Niche sports succeed by being either radically accessible or extremely difficult
“If you take an existing sport and you make it more, make it less agile so more people can participate, that's one direction. And then techball is the opposite. The same way that in, like, fashion. You have fast fashion, and then you have the premium brands, an…”
Smith: Human happiness follows a U-shaped smile curve across age
“People tend to be happy early in life. And then in mid, mid years, there's this like, they call it the smile curve. Cause like generally they become a little less happy. And then that curve goes like up and up and up as people get older, which is really intere…”
Smith: Scraping public job postings can usurp Glassdoor's salary database
“All, every time a company is posting a job posting, they are saying how much they pay. And I have not seen anyone aggregate this information in a meaningful way, where if I'm again, if I'm trying to join a new company or if I'm trying to negotiate, I'm still g…”
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.”
The other half of the tape: Steph Smith's own voice is left out of every number here. Other people bring the name up 42 times in 19 episodes on My First Million. 2 statements on the record name them. every mention, with the transcript →
Who brings them up most Sam Parr 28Shaan Puri 12Andrew Wilkinson 2
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
2025 4 mentions in 3 episodes 1 per episode
2024 11 mentions in 3 episodes 4 per episode
2023 3 mentions in 3 episodes 1 per episode
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 →
Appearances (6)
| Episode | Date | Speaking time |
|---|---|---|
| Steph Smith: “This opportunity is totally overlooked” | Apr 14, 2026 | 32m |
| 5 under-the-radar trends (+ our business ideas) | Apr 24, 2025 | 28m |
| 5 Internet Goldmines To Spot The Next $1B Trend | Steph Smith (#529) | Dec 11, 2023 | 20m |
| 5 Business Ideas With High Demand & Low Supply | Start These In 2022 (#374) | Oct 13, 2022 | 21m |
| 3 Profitable Business Ideas You Should Start in 2022 | Mar 10, 2022 | 15m |
| Why You Need a Chief Automation Officer | My First Million #208 with Steph Smith | Aug 12, 2021 | 24m |