Straight Answers
An LLM assessed 168 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 →
Nobody here carries a rate, and that is deliberate: rates are not published without enough raw tape, which means 8 or more assessed questions on raw, unedited recordings, and every the Y Combinator Startup Podcast episode we hold is the produced feed. So this page counts instead of rating. Every one of the 229 people on the record is accounted for: 38 have their questions counted (8 of them with at least one not answered directly), and the remaining 191 never took a direct question in any tape we hold: compilations, panels and cameo appearances leave nothing to assess.
No needle for Bob McGrew: fewer than 8 assessed questions on raw tape, and a percentage on a sample that small would mislead. Their counts are real: 0 not answered directly in 6 assessed questions.
Bob McGrew: every exchange, playable
The question 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.
No redirected or unaddressed exchanges identified for this person.
All speakers
All 38 people with assessed questions on the record, ranked by how many were not answered directly. Every count comes from the produced feed. Click a name to see their exchanges.
| Person | Redirected + not addressed | Questions | Tape | Argument clarity /5 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sam Altman CEO, OpenAI | 2 | 6 | raw | ≈4.0 |
| Michael Seibel Partner Emeritus & General Partner, Y Combinator | 1 | 12 | mixed | ≈4.5 |
| Juan Benet Founder & CEO, Protocol Labs | 1 | 9 | produced | ≈4.0 |
| Alexandr Wang Chief AI Officer, Meta Platforms | 1 | 6 | raw | ≈4.0 |
| Boris Cherny Head of Claude Code, Anthropic | 1 | 6 | raw | ≈4.0 |
| Harj Taggar Managing Partner, Y Combinator | 1 | 6 | raw | ≈4.5 |
| Jared Friedman Managing Partner, Y Combinator | 1 | 5 | produced | ≈4.5 |
| Garry Tan President & CEO, Y Combinator | 1 | 1 | raw | — |
| Jeff Dean Co-founder & CEO, Discovery Loop | 0 | 6 | raw | ≈4.5 |
| Quan Vuong Co-founder, Physical Intelligence | 0 | 6 | raw | ≈4.5 |
| Karine Malata Co-Founder & CEO, Variance | 0 | 6 | raw | ≈4.5 |
| Max Hodak Co-founder & CEO, Science Corporation | 0 | 6 | raw | ≈4.5 |
| Elon Musk CEO, Tesla and SpaceX | 0 | 6 | raw | ≈4.5 |
| Michael Truell Co-founder & CEO, Anysphere | 0 | 6 | raw | ≈4.5 |
| Tony Xu Co-Founder and CEO, DoorDash | 0 | 6 | raw | ≈4.5 |
| David Paffenholz Co-founder & CEO, Juicebox | 0 | 6 | raw | ≈4.5 |
| Jesse Pollak Creator and Lead, Base | 0 | 6 | raw | ≈4.5 |
| Bob McGrew Co-founder, Arda | 0 | 6 | raw | ≈4.5 |
| Jared Kaplan Co-founder & Chief Science Officer, Anthropic | 0 | 6 | raw | ≈4.5 |
| Rujul Zaparde Co-founder & CEO, Zip | 0 | 6 | raw | ≈4.5 |
| Jensen Huang Founder and CEO, NVIDIA | 0 | 4 | raw | ≈4.5 |
| Calvin French-Owen Co-Founder & Former CTO, Segment | 0 | 4 | raw | ≈4.5 |
| Spencer Skates CEO & Co-Founder, Amplitude | 0 | 4 | raw | ≈4.5 |
| Diana Hu Managing Partner, Y Combinator | 0 | 3 | produced | ≈4.5 |
| Pedro Franceschi Co-Founder and CEO, Brex | 0 | 2 | raw | — |
| Eric Ries Founder & CEO, Long-Term Stock Exchange | 0 | 2 | raw | — |
| François Chollet Co-Founder, Ndea | 0 | 2 | raw | — |
| Bryant Chou Cofounder, Webflow and Ploy | 0 | 1 | raw | — |
| Pete Koomen General Partner, Y Combinator | 0 | 1 | raw | — |
| Ozan Bilgen | 0 | 1 | raw | — |
| Brad Flora Group Partner, Y Combinator | 0 | 1 | raw | — |
| Derek Thompson Contributing Writer, The Atlantic | 0 | 1 | raw | — |
| Carl Pei Founder & CEO, Nothing | 0 | 1 | raw | — |
| Geoff Ralston Founder, Safe AI Fund | 0 | 1 | produced | — |
| Ryan Hoover Founder and General Partner, Weekend Fund | 0 | 1 | produced | — |
| Lillian Chou Co-Founder, Turnstile | 0 | 1 | produced | — |
| Ralph Goody Co-founder & CTO, TigerEye | 0 | 1 | produced | — |
| Jeff Bussgang General Partner, Flybridge Capital Partners | 0 | 1 | produced | — |
Every count on this page comes from the produced feed: no raw unedited tape of the Y Combinator Startup Podcast exists in our library. Rates are not published without enough raw tape, so this page counts and shows no percentage. 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).