Founder @ Valubyl | Product-Led Growth Advisor

Currently building Valubyl: The leading PLG agency for B2B SaaS onboarding and activation.

We’ve helped 30+ B2B SaaS companies turn free signups into paying customers by upgrading their self-serve onboarding experience.

We’ve partnered with world-class PLG teams like Instantly, Signwell, Freckle, Gymdesk, PromptLayer, Rosie... and delivered insane results like:

👉 Databox: activation up from 30% → 48%
👉 Stockpress: free-to-paid conversion up from 10% → 31%

If you want more paying customers from your freemium or free trial, let’s chat.

Feel free to send me a DM, email at yaakov@valubyl.com, or book an intro call with the link above.

Yaakov Carno

Woah, I just went to cancel my Lovable subscription and this blew my mind 🤯 Check out this new plan they surface in their downgrade flow:

For the last few days, I've been debating if I should downgrade. 

It's not that I don't love the product, I do, it's just that a couple of my projects are already live and I don't expect to make big changes for the next few months. 

Paying for a tool that’s just sitting there didn’t feel great.

The only problem is that I didn't want to my live sites to get that "made with Lovable" badge again...

But I decided I'd just downgrade and deal with it.

Then this happened 💸 They hit me with a "Lite" option... 
(and no, you won't find it on their pricing page)

Same 5 credits/day as their free plan, giving you just enough room to make small tweaks... BUT they also allow you to keep all your custom domains and remove Lovable branding.

In so many products, these are the exact levers used to block downgrades and force users to stay on higher plans.

But here... it actually felt like a really thoughtful gesture.

Not sneaky. Not manipulative. Not a 27-step downgrade maze.

AI credits are still new for consumers. This felt like Lovable was saying: 
"Hey there, I totally get that you're still figuring out how to use and budget a tool like this, so here's the perfect way we can keep building together."

And it was actually exactly what I needed.

Whatever happens with these monetization experiments, one thing is clear:

This is a company that's obsessed over what their users want and need, and it shows in every part of their product.

Founder @ Valubyl | PLG activation systems for self-serve B2B SaaS

20 hour journey ahead with our 2 year and 7 month old kiddies. Wish us luck 😬✈️

Goodbye Australia 🇦🇺

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This is what happens when you prioritize removing friction over creating context:

Teams obsess over reducing friction and removing steps, but most of product design challenges are actually about helping people understand.

Users arrive mildly interested and slightly confused about what your product does. If they don't quickly understand what they're looking at or why it matters, they'll just leave.

Making it easier to do confusing things just gets people to leave quicker.

Your goal is to make it to make it obvious why each step matters and how it gets them closer to solving the problem they came for.

That's the best way to speed up time-to-value.

One of the things I love most about what I do is working with incredible teams around the world. The flip side is that most of it ends up being virtual.

Nothing beats working with great people in person.

So good to spend time with the klaro team in Sydney.

Thanks for having me over Niklas Olsson, Kogulan Baskaran, Farley Schaefer!

2026 marks our 4th year building Valubyl. It's been an epic journey working closely with 30+ B2B SaaS companies on PLG, and a real privilege partnering with industry leaders like Instantly, Databox, Signwell, Freckle, and many more.

In theory, self-serve onboarding should be easier than ever. AI can guide, generate, explain...
But in reality, activation has become even more fragile.

Products are more powerful. AI started showing up everywhere.

And yet most onboarding experiences still struggle to make that power feel concrete. We’re in an abstract phase of AI adoption where capability has moved faster than understanding.

Teams are struggling to onboard people into AI-powered products, and the old playbooks aren’t holding up.

What’s interesting is that our niche hasn’t changed at all.

We’re still focused on product-led, self-serve SaaS. Still obsessed with onboarding, activation, and getting people to real value.

But how we work, and how much of the outcome we’re able to own, has changed a lot.

Over the last few years, it’s become obvious that activation is a real and painful challenge for teams, from super early-stage companies to PLG leaders at scale.

We see the same outcomes again and again: users signing up with intent but never reaching value, onboarding that’s missing or vague, and teams left guessing where momentum actually breaks.

So heading into year four, we’re evolving in a very intentional way. Same hyper-niche, just much deeper execution.

We’re taking ownership of activation systems across onboarding, lifecycle, and monetization. Not just advising, but helping teams actually build, connect, and run them.

And alongside that, we’re going to start sharing a lot more of the work itself.

Not so much polished thought leadership. No hot takes.

Real, practical assets pulled straight from client work. The stuff teams are actually struggling with right now: making value obvious, shortening time-to-value, fixing quiet drop-offs, and turning self-serve usage into something that sustains a business.

Same core belief as always: product value is the growth strategy.

Value first, revenue follows.

If you’ve followed along so far, thank you! 😁
If you’re new here, welcome 👋

Happy 2026!

User activation is completely different for AI products. 

In traditional PLG, activation followed a familiar path: 

Setup → Aha → Habit. 

You helped the user get started, reach their first moment of value, and eventually form a repeatable pattern of success. 

Today, activation happens inside a continuous conversational cycle: 

Prompt → Context → Output → Action → Habit. 

Each stage feeds the next. Each interaction teaches the system, and the user, what to expect. 

What used to be setup and “aha” moments now happen almost simultaneously, the second a user starts typing. 

Let's break it down: 

👉 Prompt: The new “signup” 
This is where users declare intent. A great prompt experience helps them express what they want without friction or doubt. 

👉 Context: The hidden setup. 
Some products infer it from behavior or connected data; others still ask explicit onboarding questions to better personalize results. Both paths work if they make the outcome more relevant. 

👉 Output: The moment of truth. 
The first result must be both impressive and useful. “Wow” gets attention, but relevance drives retention. 

👉 Action: The bridge. 
The most important first step in the actual product. Real activation happens when users apply what they got: editing, publishing, sharing, or integrating it into their workflow. 

👉 Habit: The loop compounds. 
Each prompt teaches the system and the user, tightening trust and shortening time-to-value. 

The first principles of activation haven't changed. 
Time-to-value and retention are still the critical metrics.

✅ And the goal remains: help users reach value, quickly and repeatedly, in a meaningful way that keeps them coming back.

What's changed is how that value is delivered. 

And AI products need to adapt.

Tiledesk

Tiledesk vision is to become the WordPress of Conversation Design.
Tiledesk breaks barriers between traditional chat, live chat, chatbots, conversational and third-party apps.
It is an open source project, made with passion in Southern Italy.

Co-Founder

Softlab Group

As Group COO direct report, I handled successfully Strategic Projects in the following areas:
- rationalization of the Group structure in terms of subsidiaries and business lines;
- implementation of a new management control system and streamlining of business support processes;
- business planning, M&A, business valuation and extraordinary finance.

COO Office - Strategic Projects

D-go

Led the Company turnaround. Reported directly to Company CEO and coordinated up to 30 FTEs. 
My main responsibilities have been:
- design the Company’s strategy and execute business plans;
- manage all the business operations, including P&L budgeting, forecasting, business modeling, pitch deck creation, contracts execution and project management;
- engage stakeholders for innovation management and startup scouting (M&A and/or partnerships) to enrich D-go offering and value proposition.

Head of Strategy & Operations

Neomobile

Neomobile is the expert in digital advertising, customer acquisition, apps, mobile products and traffic monetization through subscription business model, operating globally.

As Regional Head I oversaw:
- the entire business strategy of Neomobile in EMEA to execute business plans, drive top-line sales (€ 10+ million per year) to ensure fulfillment financial goals and sales budget;
- business development and management of Clients as TIM, Turkcell, MTS, Vodafone and Orange;
- budget allocation (up to € 10 million per year) and performance of digital ADV campaigns;
- active participation in Neomobile Lean/Agile transition as Product Owner of a dual-track agile team in 2016.

Head of EMEA

- Managed, coached, developed and inspired teams of up to 20 people
- In charge of business prioritization, business development, profitability control and investments to accomplish with desired Turnover (20 million per year), Gross Profit and EBITDA (> 25%) targets. 
- Appointed as Member of Board of Directors for Neomobile México S. de R.L. de C.V. and with full Power Of Attorney for Neomobile Guatemala y CIA. LTDA.
- Selected as Member of the Company's Recruitment Committee to help Neomobile choosing the best candidates to hire worldwide

Country Manager

- Worked directly with LatAm Regional Director. Boosted Revenues, from 10 to 30+ million per year;
- Managed the entire launch activities for 8 new markets in LatAm (Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica), coordinating cross-functional teams geographically dispersed (Marketing, Finance, Legal, Product, Technology, Sales);
- Lift-off of all the marketing activities, both online (Mobile and Web) and offline (TV and SMS).

Growth Project Manager 

Banco Santander

- Management, implementation and administration of projects related to the creation of a risk control function of the Italian consumer finance division of Banco Santander and the integration of Unifin S.p.A. in the Group risk perimeter;
- Performance and fraud analysis of the different product portfolios; 
- Risk forecasting and provisions calculation to cover bad debt.

Risk Controller

Osservatori Digital Innovation

- Value chain mapping of Spanish mobile content market from Telco to Technology providers;
- Positioning analysis of mobile content & service providers;
- Monitoring of ADV budget allocation for the main players of the market.

Market Research Analyst

🚀 With over a decade of expertise in ICT & Digital, I specialize in transforming data-driven concepts into tangible achievements through a strategic yet hands-on approach.

🤝 Co-founder of Tiledesk, an innovative open-source AI conversational platform. Passionate about Businesses of every size and Automation Designers to enhance customer engagement in the digital realm.

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