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 Boris Cherny: fewer than 8 assessed questions on raw tape, and a percentage on a sample that small would mislead. Their counts are real: 1 not answered directly in 6 assessed questions.
Boris Cherny: 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.
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).