BREAKING: Bucky Moore Joins $30B AUM Mega Fund Lightspeed

Trillion-Dollar Outcomes, AI, The Rise & Pushback of Mega Funds

The Rise of Mega Funds Targeting Trillion-Dollar Outcomes

Bucky Moore joins Sourcery to announce his new role as Partner at $30B AUM VC Lightspeed Venture Partners. This was a very fun & really candid conversation where Bucky opens up about his transition from Kleiner Perkins (where he spent the last 7.5 years), the decision to join an established platform versus launching his own fund, the structural and economic elements of changing funds as a Partner (board seats, carry), & what it means to invest at the earliest stages during a generational market cycle.

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We dive deep into the evolution of mega funds, the heat they’re receiving from the “Venture Arrogance Score” to aggregating management fees, the shifting LP landscape, and how venture capital is being reshaped by the rise of targeting trillion-dollar outcomes in companies like OpenAI and SpaceX. Bucky shares his insider take on how to win deals in a hyper-competitive market, the importance of long-term founder relationships, and why early-stage investing is still the soul of great VC firms—even at scale.

From navigating fund transitions and valuation froth, to pricing dynamics between Tier 1 and Tier 2 funds, to unpacking the real impact of AI and what makes a high-stake founder, Bucky brings sharp insights and grounded wisdom. He also reflects on the power of gratitude, this magical thing called “taste” that Marc Andreessen swears by, and working as a team in an increasingly complex venture ecosystem.

P.S. This might be one of our best interviews to date. Bucky is so open and thoughtful about the venture ecosystem, even with the most direct questions that challenge his current fund structure. It’s very interesting to hear how these mega funds are positioning their strategies and think about the long term implications and opportunities of this new set of highly efficient & fast growing companies.

Watch → Great archival clip from All-In discussing whether or not a16z should go public at their scale as they reach PE mega-size.

Highlights

00:00 - Joining Lightspeed

01:48 - Why Lightspeed Over Starting Own Fund? Transition Dynamics

05:01 - Mega Funds & Trillion-Dollar Strategies

09:19 - “Venture Arrogance Score”

18:28 - How to Win Competitive Rounds

22:03 - The Importance of ‘Picking’ as a Lead Investor

26:32 - Valuations & Pricing in Pre-Seed & Seed Rounds

30:46 - The Concept of Taste in Venture Capital

38:02 - Sourcing & Building Relationships with Founders

44:22 - Looking Forward: New Beginnings at Lightspeed

Why Lightspeed?

Lightspeed Venture Partners is a global venture capital firm with over $30B in AUM (assets under management), known for backing category-defining companies from seed to growth. Its portfolio includes standout names like Affirm, Databricks, Wiz, Rubrik, Carta, Glean, Stripe, Base Power, Beehiiv, BetterUp, and Anthropic—most notably, leading Anthropic’s March 2025 $3.5 Billion Series E as the largest investor in the round. With deep roots in enterprise, consumer, and fintech, Lightspeed is also increasingly active in AI, infrastructure, and frontier technologies across the U.S., India, Israel, Southeast Asia, and Europe.

Bucky’s decision to join Lightspeed rather than launching his own fund was influenced by a desire to work collaboratively with top entrepreneurs. "What gets me out of bed in the morning is working with the best entrepreneurs," he stated, emphasizing the importance of being part of a larger platform that can provide the necessary resources and support for ambitious startups. Lightspeed’s established reputation in early-stage ventures, particularly in enterprise technology, resonated with Bucky's vision of partnering with innovative companies that have the potential to become multi-trillion-dollar enterprises, like OpenAI and SpaceX.

He articulated the complexity of leaving his previous role at Kleiner Perkins, explaining, "There are a lot of stakeholders that you have to respect and be very mindful of." However, the opportunity to collaborate with a team at Lightspeed, coupled with the firm’s ambition to support transformative companies, made the decision clear. Bucky believes that the current economic climate presents "some of the most promising vintages of our time," and he wanted to be in “the arena” during this pivotal moment.

A Strong Focus on Enterprise Software and AI

Bucky's investment thesis centers on the transformative potential of AI within enterprise software. He views AI as the most significant technological shift since the internet, capable of automating knowledge work and enhancing productivity across industries. "AI is not just a trend; it represents an economic opportunity of a lifetime," he asserted, indicating that investors must pay close attention to how AI continues to evolve.

His investment philosophy focuses on backing "spiky" founders—those with a unique edge or capability that positions them to succeed in building transformative companies. Particularly, he is drawn to visionary leaders who demonstrate "taste," which he defines as a combination of aesthetic sensibility, product intuition, and the ability to simplify complex ideas. This focus has led him to invest in standout companies such as Together AI, Windsurf, Browserbase and Cartesia, where he has seen firsthand the impact of relentless, driven teams tackling hard problems.

“He’s especially drawn to new applications and infrastructure primitives that are enabled by AI. While he values product and market insight, his primary focus is the people behind the company. “My early training was about frameworks that helped me size a market or evaluate technology,” he says. “But over time, I’ve come to appreciate the team is really all that really matters. The right group of people can shift the entire trajectory of a company, and the wrong group of people will struggle to impact it.” - Lightspeed

At Lightspeed, Bucky is doubling down on his specialization in enterprise software while actively exploring the vast potential of AI. He describes AI as "the most significant technological shift since the internet," and sees it as a force that will fundamentally reshape knowledge work and human productivity. His strategy revolves around identifying companies that leverage AI to deliver transformative value, particularly in areas like reasoning, automation, and problem-solving. By focusing on early-stage investments, Bucky aims to partner with founders at the earliest stages of their journeys, helping them scale into what he hopes will be the next generation of multi-trillion-dollar businesses.

FWIW He acknowledges that the landscape is changing rapidly, with more companies staying private longer, which presents both challenges and opportunities for venture capital. "This double-edged sword creates new avenues for liquidity while complicating early-stage investment returns," Bucky explained.

Mega Funds and Their Impact on Venture Capital

As the venture capital landscape evolves, mega funds like Lightspeed are increasingly transitioning into multi-asset managers, venturing beyond traditional investing into areas such as private equity, secondaries, and credit. Bucky recognizes this shift as a response to the growing scale and complexity of technology companies. "The scope of the technology investing industry is getting much broader," he noted, underscoring the necessity for funds to adapt to the capital-intensive needs of modern startups.

However, there is industry-wide pushback against mega funds in venture capital, which center on several critical concerns about their ability to generate sustainable returns amid increasing capital demands. As funds like Lightspeed, a16z, General Catalyst, Thrive, and Sequoia grow larger, they face scrutiny over whether they can consistently deliver venture-scale returns when managing billions. Josh Kopelman of First Round recently highlighted on Jack Altman’s podcast, Uncapped, the challenges of returning large funds, coining the term "Venture Arrogance Score" to illustrate and calculate the difficulty of achieving outsized returns as fund sizes swell to $7 billion.

As highlighted in Sourcery & quoted below, a recent Carta report indicated that nearly 50% of Limited Partners have stopped allocating to venture capital, reflecting growing skepticism about the long-term viability of large funds. Moreover, there are concerns