The $1.5T AI Roll-Up General Catalyst Playbook

The AI Roll-Up Playbook: Buy Distribution, Automate 30–70% of the Work, and Scale step by step

Dec 21, 2025

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Hey everyone,

Over the past few months, a massive shift has been taking place inside Silicon Valley.

Some of the biggest venture firms (General Catalyst, Lightspeed, 8VC…) have started doing something that looks a lot more like private equity than traditional venture:

rolling up old-school service businesses and optimizing / rebuilding them with AI.

A few weeks ago, we touched on this from one angle when we looked at Thrive’s partnership with OpenAI, a deal that hinted at how seriously top firms are taking AI-driven services.

Since then, it’s become clear that this is becoming the broader playbook, which could very likely shift what venture looks like for the next decade.

In this piece, I’ll break down:

1. The shift: VC ≠ venture anymore

2. What an AI roll-up actually is

3. The General Catalyst playbook, in the open

4. General Catalyst’s roll-up math

5. What an AI roll-up actually looks like in practice

6. Will these have VC or PE returns?

Let’s get into it 🚀

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