Straight Answers
An LLM assessed 988 question → answer exchanges, the host's own answers included. Speaker names were hidden during assessment. Each exchange was marked answered, partly, redirected or not addressed, with a quote as its source. Every exchange below is timestamped and plays. How it works →
These readings are observational: the transcript shows whether the question was answered directly, whatever the reason. It is an AI reading of a public exchange, never a claim about intent, and the tape is one tap away on every row. full disclaimer →
Every one of the 186 people on the record is accounted for: 4 carry a full rate (8 or more assessed questions on raw tape), 172 more have their questions counted (50 of them with at least one not answered directly; too few raw questions for a fair percentage, edited feed included), and the remaining 10 never took a direct question in any tape we hold: compilations, panels and cameo appearances leave nothing to assess.
None identified
All 1 people who answered every question put to them, ranked by how many they took, so the ones with the most assessed questions come first. highest rate none identified small samples
| Person | Not answered directly (%) | Redirected + not addressed | Questions | Argument clarity /5 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Michel Del Buono Chief Investment Officer, a16z Perennial | 0% | 0 | 10 | 4.2 |
The moments, on tape
The question Molly asked, then the AI assessment note from the answer. Tap to play the moment. Not addressed = the question was not engaged; redirected = acknowledged, then steered elsewhere.
“Turing builds realistic reinforcement learning environments and data systems based on real operational traces. The kind of infrastructure Frontier Labs need Well, what do you think the unintended consequences of, like, all this access would be?”
answered: “I think it's gonna feed into a lot of the other Elon companies.”
“What'd you think of the pushback on it?”
answered: “There's actually interesting philosophical topic we could talk about here.”
“Speaking of business, you mentioned you want to build a show like Charlie Rose. What does that mean?”
answered: “So let's back up. I think episode number six of the new show was James Dyson.”
“On the research side, how are you evaluating researchers, and how are you recruiting them?”
answered: “On the research side, our focus is on two things.”
“So with all those changes though, how does that actually get put in practice?”
answered: “These are things that can be fixed in the tax code, but none of it matters.”
“You've definitely got some support from the public side and government, but has the public side been overall very supportive to this industry?”
answered: “people are surprised to see, like, BlackRock and Bailey Gifford and people like that”
“Um, do you think this is a Jevons paradox, uh, situation where efficiency gains lead to more consumption? Where, where are you thinking?”
answered: “one of the interesting questions is like, what is AGI, right?”
“So how did you get into that role? And then how did you maneuver that role into the other role?”
answered: “Yeah. So Goldman was amazing. And I had A few twists and turns at Goldman.”
“How do you evaluate people on that? How do you make sure that they're continuously upgrading themselves and upgrading their skills?”
answered: “I want our engineer to sit on top of AI.”
“I can't imagine getting into all these countries is easy. So what is the process for this?”
answered: “the two things we're really known for is you want to hire John”
“Do you think the bubble's gonna burst in twenty-twenty-six?”
answered: “rather than look at it from the sort of extreme notion of what that means”
“What are the biggest lessons that you've learned from Pete Hegseth?”
answered: “Pete Hegsus, I think, is going to be... probably the greatest Secretary of War”
“just extreme growth for these companies. Uh, so, like, what is your current view on where that lands in the next, like, I don't know, by the end of the year, do you think we're starting to, like, kind of see inklings of, like, actual agent adoption and, like, It's definitely banging around a bit, and it's a little bit messy, but like, how do you see this playing out?”
answered: “Can I do something super controversial before we get to this very important topic?”
“So I want to talk about some of the breakthroughs and some of the leading companies that you have been fortunate to invest into. So Chen Li, how many unicorns have you invested into and can you name all of them?”
answered: “I've lost count. Uh, I think that the special stories are the companies”
“What comes after open AI? That's the question for you.”
answered: “the better framing of the question, if I could tweak it, would be”
“We don't really know what the AI business model is yet. Do you have any idea?”
answered: “On your first point about things changing, I mean, that could not be more true.”
“So as we think about the government's involvement in these different sectors, they're also putting dollars to work. So how are these deals one getting structured, whether it's MP materials or Intel, and are you at all concerned about them and whatever happens with TikTok?”
answered: “I don't have like deep thoughts on those things. I haven't spent a lot”
“Are there any kind of instances or examples that you've seen throughout your time as CEO of other companies doing that and focusing on the wrong things like outputs?”
answered: “I see it in other companies... but I'll, I'll speak more to us.”
“Did you ever imagine when you started the company that the son of the sitting president would be a part of it?”
answered: “there's a lot of things I didn't imagine would happen when I started”
“Did you ever imagine when you started the company that the son of the sitting president would be a part of it?”
answered: “there's a lot of things I didn't imagine would happen when I started the company”
“How do you continuously challenge each other internally?”
answered: “Let me, let me cover that, the prior question, too, and then we'll get”
“Since you are the arbiter of compliance, what is the most exciting thing that's going to get launched?”
answered: “I'll let Kaz do the product launches, but I think him taking that same mindset”
“And then Constantine, where have the dollars been following all of that? And where are we gonna go next?”
answered: “I'll step back and, and talk about the investment cycle, but where are we”
“Felix wanted me to ask you about your take on Taiwan. When do you think we're gonna go to war or when do you think Taiwan's gonna get overtaken?”
answered: “my gauge on that potential conflict has to do with what I see the Taiwanese people doing.”
“The stock was up, I think, almost a thousand percent at one point. How do you handle that mentally as a CEO when you know that you are constrained?”
answered: “the question we get all the time... is, is this a bubble?”
“We're in like this transformative time where it's proliferating across the board. I'm curious from your perspective, like how are you thinking about AI integration and potentially AGI within the boat itself?”
answered: “it's almost less about what goes on the boat today and a lot more about”
“I'm sure a lot of people are looking at you and will be looking at you as a playbook for restructuring with AI. Um, in terms of the business units that you went after, how did you start to restructure the business?”
answered: “Well, it wasn't necessarily business units as it was. So the key thing”
“Is Kleiner untouched by the macro turbulence? Where are we at with this and how does the team view the current exit environment?”
answered: “So I cannot comment on either of those things in particular.”
“Can I be a beta user? Like how do I get in on this?”
answered: “I kind of joke to Jameson, like we should just release it.”
“Where do you think the market is shifting categorically?”
answered: “a lot of people, they think about categories, we think about companies”
“There's some quite viral charts about their growth. So when you invested, what were those metrics like?”
answered: “it was definitely materially lowered when we started. I think also the fact is”
“then go full speed ahead, how do you think about all of these other companies that are in Zombieland that need some sort of, like, Hail Mary to get to the next state? What kind of companies do you think are gonna fail, and what do you think I guess to reposition it, what do you think is most critical for companies to accelerate and meet this next innovation cycle?”
answered: “Look, I think for us, or at least from what I've learned”
“I mean, we've seen with Claude Bod, Open Claw, Mold Book, these autonomous agents create their own languages. How, how should we think about stopping those autonomous systems from creating mass destruction and in more of a malignant cancerous way that we've not seen with previous viruses and threats?”
answered: “I'm not sure that I have a clear, a clear answer to that, but”
“Is this a typical process you put everyone through? Test their quantum skills?”
answered: “one of the operating principles is fail-safe privacy, because”
“Every company's AI. Should be.”
answered: “I have seen, like, the ups and downs of different buzzwords go in and out”
“And so given that those were mostly Nvidia, Meta, big, big name stocks, Alphabet, um, some people are pointing to the application layer, some of the categories that you just mentioned. Are there any categories within that that you think are underrated?”
answered: “I think there's, there's still an open question about things like the modes”
“That's B-R-E-X dot com slash sorcery. How do you make something not so polarizing in today's world?”
answered: “Oh, uh, I don't know. I mean, in, uh, yesteryear's world”
“Do you work on a plan? Like, what is the roadmap look like for you?”
answered: “things that only a CEO can do, right? Whether it's spending time on strategy”
“They're all about spending smarter, moving faster for over 30,000 companies, 200 public ones. Um, and I'm curious from your perspective, as we think about companies today in this super cycle, moving super fast, becoming really competitive, what are the key characteristics that you look for in founder performance?”
answered: “While every business is unique, it's, it's hard for me to give you a template”
“Maybe it's been faster than others. What was the process like for you?”
answered: “I think the world sees that and the excitement is coming in”
“So for you, as you've scaled up the company throughout your career, I believe performance kind of comes down to who you surround yourself with, who you're mentored by, who you're surrounded by, like inspired. Who are those people for you?”
answered: “we're surrounded Um, ourselves with, uh, great people, uh, that are incredibly hardworking”
“We're in a ridiculously chaotic, a little bit schizophrenic Era where it is like land grab time, logo grab, talent grab. How are you thinking and like, what are you seeing of the different types of funding and how that's changed?”
answered: “we're incredibly lucky to work at a place like Excel that allows us to prosecute”
“You love intelligent finance. Who is someone that you've learned a lot from and what was the biggest lesson?”
answered: “I try to absorb from everybody. Like, founder, the benefit of working with a lot”
“We are in a kind of wonderful period of progress, and the new administration is definitely helping with that. What other initiatives are you optimistic about right now?”
answered: “I think that patriotism is no longer like some four-letter word”
“So are we seeing more private jets? What's the state of the market?”
answered: “we're seeing, like, not just an insane wealth creation moment”
“What does he mostly cover? Like, what should people be reading?”
answered: “He talks about aviation finance in general. He's a broker.”
“I think most recently publicly stated at thirty nine billion dollars. Do you see capital as a risk or a constraint or the valuation as a risk?”
answered: “This will build like the biggest business in the world.”
“And do you think that's going to just undermine everything in general, or is there going to be a real shakeout where it's nope. We're all, we're all just, we just trust the higher end market versus all the gobbledygook that's being done on the sides.”
answered: “you have to separate the technology of a token being a wrapper for something”
“Would you say that metabolic health is the most important thing that people should watch out for?”
answered: “So the things I personally watch out for is sugar and seed oils.”
“they're split between, but I asked him, because SaaS companies, they used to trade at a premium. There was a whole premium for SaaS companies, but if you look, they're all down, like, I wouldn't say all down, but there's some that are significantly down, And sometimes it has to do with the new Claude release, but what are you seeing with these SaaS companies and how are they vulnerable?”
answered: “I get not to like make our pitch, but like what you want”
“Like what, what comes next for Nucleus? You guys are dropping news like every month, it seems like.”
answered: “We have a lot of exciting stuff coming up. I mean, I do want to say”
“Have you been seeing that? What's your experience with it?”
answered: “It's hard for me to necessarily delineate between tier one and tier two”
“How do you keep your mind clear while you're scaling so rapidly, and so many opportunities pop up, and you just have to be dedicated to the mission?”
answered: “Wander was actually built for that idea. Like, I started Wander after stepping down”
“But like, There was a huge dislocation in late stage capital for these companies, at least in the last year. I feel like it might be shifting, but what do you see?”
answered: “Anderil has had, you know, is in the SpaceX category now where they've also had a very easy time.”
“Um, so there's a lot of movements going on and it's hard to know which signals are going up and going down, but I'm curious from your perspective, what are you most excited about? What are you spending your time on?”
answered: “We don't try to be macro investors. So you really want to be time diversified”
“And I think that's what's led some people to sort of reduce a bit of their allocation. But I wouldn't say at all that people are Abandoning these asset classes, not even by a long stretch, right?”
answered: “so how do you feel about, like, would you take the same advice”
“After doing that. And I wonder, is there a, is there a causal, is there a causal reason there?”
answered: “building something for wealth or building something for meeting. Like there's two different things”
“Every company's AI. Should be.”
answered: “I have seen, like, the ups and downs of different buzzwords go in and out”
“Like this was something seen as sci-fi and many of your announcements always seem like sci-fi, but it is reality, um, now and, and something that people haven't actually considered. And so maybe the education on it might be limited, but I'm just curious, how does Nucleus fit into this broader fertility crisis and how are you educating people that these tools do exist?”
answered: “One of the core pillars we have is, is customer obsession.”
“In terms of the market, uh, the exit markets, what would that new ideal exit market look like? What do you, what do we think is going to be possible or, uh, the opportunity for these, these companies that have been cooking for some time?”
answered: “if we're talking about the, a bit of the macro picture again”
Percentages come from raw unedited recordings only: produced podcast audio has tangents and stumbles cut in the edit, which moves the speaker up by about 12 percentile points. The small-sample counts include the produced feed. This is a reading of a transcript. It is not an accusation of dishonesty, and there are many good reasons not to answer a question directly (confidential numbers, unreleased products, someone else's news to break).