Monika Valkauskaite Holland

Fractional CCO | GTM Strategy : SLG, PLG, PLS | Driving Commercial Growth

I’ve spent the last 15+ years helping SaaS companies grow : launching products, opening new markets, and building sales and marketing teams that deliver revenue.

But I kept noticing the same pattern: companies were hiring more salespeople to fix what were really product and process problems. Meanwhile, buyers weren’t asking for more demos or calls.  They just wanted to try before they buy. 

That disconnect is what pulled me deep into Product-Led Growth (PLG). Today I help SaaS founders fix what sales teams can't solve. 

Since 2020, I've partnered with SaaS founders and growth teams to transition from sales-led to product-led models, fix PLG motions that aren't delivering, building ProductLed Sales and Growth systems.

I work as a PLG & PLS specialist / fractional Head of Growth. The scope covers both strategy and execution without the overhead of a full-time hire.​

What I've helped companies achieve (just a few examples) :

Reduce CAC by 20%
Improve activation metrics 
Fix pricing models that increased ARPU by 20–40%
Built self-serve revenue streams from zero to meaningful ARR​


Typical deliverables: 
Onboarding flow redesign that 2x free-to-paid conversion​
Map user journeys
Aligned cross-functional teams so product, sales, CS, and marketing move in the same direction​

I'm PLG-certified and battle-tested and often the missing link that helps SaaS teams make their PLG motion finally click. I don't stop until my clients win. 

Check out what companies say about working with me in the reference section on my profile and
Schedule a chat : https://calendly.com/boldbusinessdecisions/30min

Looking forward to meeting you!

Strategic Advisor and Founder

BOLD Business Decisions provides commercial advisory services to business owners of early stage and growth stage companies. We consult on Go to Market Strategy, Sales Strategy, Sales Playbook, Commercial structure. We help you build a predictable revenue growth machine by selecting the right tools and sharing modern sales practices and tips that convert in 2023 so you can start building pipeline from day one. We have skin in the game and test first hand what drives business and what doesn't. 

Services offered:

GTM Strategy and Execution
Executive Sales Coaching for Founders
International Expansion

Use this link to book a 30 min call and let's have a chat:
https://calendly.com/boldbusinessdecisions/30min

First consultation is always explorative and complimentary

🔥 Hot take 
Most activation problems aren’t UX problems
They’re PM vs Growth problems

Honestly, have you ever seen an in-product checklist work?
Come on, be honest...

I recently worked with an LMS where onboarding looked ''solid''.
PM view:
 “We’ve explained the product.”

Growth view:
 “No one is getting to value.”

Users signed up ✔️
Created a course ✔️
Then… crickets 🦗 🦗 🦗 

PM instinct kicked in:
 “We need to improve the tour.”
 “Maybe the checklist isn’t clear enough.”
 “Let’s iterate on the onboarding copy.”

The product went silent at the exact moment users needed a push
PM did not like the idea at first but instead of rebuilding flows, we used Tandem AI. 

No redesign.
No roadmap trade-offs.
No new UX concepts.

Tandem did something PMs hate and Growth loves:
It enforced action sequencing
AI co-pilot engaged the user at the right moment with the right action 

Ta-da! Activation unlocked 🔥 

Here’s the thing:
✅ PMs optimize for clarity.
✅ Growth teams optimize for outcomes
👍 Both are right.
 But only one gets users to value

If your onboarding ends with “the user understands”…
Congrats! You have built documentation 🫢 
If it ends with “the user did the thing”…
You’ve built a ProductLed motion 🥳 

Growth is a team sport, I will say it over and over again. 

Try Tandem, because your check list is probably useless.
There, I said it.

#growth #activation #saas #checklist

Product-Led Sales | Fractional Head of Growth | PLG Certified | Building a Community of Growth & Product Professionals | 100% human

The other day a founder said: Can you just fix our signup flow?
Another asked:
How do we optimize the paywall?
Both looked genuinely shocked when I said:
Not yet.

Because here’s the part nobody wants to hear:
If your house is on fire, a new paint job won’t help.

Most founders jump straight to PLG tactics when what they actually have is a systems problem, not a funnel problem.

I see it all the time:
Revenue tracking spread across five different tools 
Ops held together by tribal knowledge 
Sales scoring deals on firmographics with zero visibility into product usage
Product roadmaps driven by the loudest customer, 
not the highest leverage problem

“PLG experiments” running without ownership, baselines, or decision rules

So yes, your signup flow might be leaky
Your paywall might be confusing
Your onboarding might be too long

But optimizing those before fixing how decisions are made, how data flows, and who owns outcomes just means you’ll ship faster… 
potentially in the wrong direction.

My job isn’t to sprinkle PLG on top of chaos.
It’s to make the invisible visible:

what’s actually broken
where the real bottlenecks are
and which levers will move revenue without burning out the team.

Only THEN do tactics work.
When you can clearly see what’s broken, you can finally fix it.

But very few founders are willing to wait for long term impact 
and tend to buy into the idea of short term fixes

Is 2026 going to be the year of ProductLed Growth for your company?

#plg #growth #saas #timeforgrowth

Here the first REAL challenge for you :)
Is 2026 going to be the year of Product-Led Growth for your company?

Before you answer yes, ask yourself this:

Are you ready to change how decisions are made?
Most teams say they want PLG in 2026.
What they usually mean is:

☑️ better onboarding
☑️ higher trial-to-paid conversion
☑️ more self-serve revenue

Those are outputs delivered through PLG
Real PLG shows up upstream:

✅ Sales and Product looking at the same usage data
✅ Roadmaps driven by activation and retention bottlenecks, not anecdotes
✅ Clear ownership for growth (not “everyone owns it”)
✅ Experiments tied to revenue, not vanity metrics
✅ Fewer initiatives, executed properly

If PLG in 2026 is just:
a new paywall
another onboarding flow
a freemium tweak
you will get incremental gains at best.

📣 The companies that will win in 2026 are the ones that treat PLG as an operating system, not a growth hack.

So the real question isn’t:
Are we willing to change how we run the business?
Because if the answer is no, 2026 will look a lot like 2025
just with better UI...

Let me know when you are ready to make some BOLD decisions this year
Cheers to a BOLD and Prosperous 2026!

#plg #productled #growth #saas

Mark V. Smetanin

Unlock Success for Airbnb and Short-Term Rental Business. Recently by Improving the Product - Increased Engagement by 42% , conversion rate by 74%, and acquired 2.5M new users.

I am a fan of technology and business process reengineering to drive business growth. My expertise lies in product management, agile coaching, portfolio management, and strategic planning.I have experience in increasing user engagement, optimizing technical processes, and leading high-performance teams.

Payments and fintech product leader with 15+ years across digital product development, operations, and
customer experience (10+ years owning payment and checkout platforms). Known for combining strategic UX
with process reengineering to deliver secure, compliant, high-conversion payment experiences and measurable
growth.
Selected Results:
• Reduced failed transactions 28% and improved checkout reliability via gateway optimization and UX fixes.
• Increased retention 58% and reduced marketing costs ~40% through funnel and lifecycle redesign.
• Reduced chargebacks 37% and implemented fraud controls that reduced fraudulent activity ~40%.
• Led $10M+ partner funds operations; improved controls, reporting, and reconciliation visibility

Key Highlights:

Director of Product Management: Enhanced user engagement by 16% and improved product value description by 14% through strategic market research and collaboration.

Senior Product Portfolio Manager: Managed a $1.2M project, leading to an $8M revenue projection and a 17% increase in Net Promoter Score. 
Risk assessment methods were applied, which reduced project disruptions by 24%.

Head of Product Strategy: Increased customer engagement by 42%, improved conversion rates by 74%, and acquired 2.5M new users—reduced marketing expenses by 28% by addressing critical pain points.

Skills and Expertise:

Product Management/Product Owner: Agile Frameworks, Scrum, Kanban, SAFe
Technical Proficiency: Jira, Asana, Hubspot, Salesforce
Industry Expertise: Fintech, E-commerce, Property Management, Vacation Rentals
Certifications: PMI-ACP, PMI-PMP, CSM, CSPO

Professional Experience:

Nine years in product management, agile transformation, and strategic planning
I have experience in leading cross-functional teams to deliver high-performance products.
Skilled in negotiating and managing key partnerships and stakeholders

Interests:

The God's Flow State, Process re-engineering, Growth,  Coffee, Stand-up comedy, Kite surfing, Skiing, Music, martial arts (2 black belts), Reading, Ski, Shooting, Snowboarding, and Hiking.

Lead Product Manager / Product Owner / Consultant

•     Improved a Product using a customer journey map, understanding and prioritizing the most critical pain points in the most profitable segment. Provided clear concept and design strategy. Collaborated with Dev and UX teams. Increased customer engagement by 226%, Improved conversion rate by 74%, and acquired 2.5M, new users.

•     Planned and facilitated an extraordinary spike for (AI) Artificial Intelligence tools and prompts. Fixed and resolved seven major issues when team members just felt stuck. 

•     Raised team confidence after the last check-in. Positive emotions and gratitude are on our happiness radar. The current sprint is 100% happiness VS 78% at the previous sprint. 

•     Organized the most efficient communication with stakeholders and implemented advanced product backlog refinement, reducing the backlog by 16%.

•    Stepped forward with special coaching from our Unique Coach and very advanced Scum Master. Differentiated workflow steps, business rule variations, variations in data, and interface variations, polished and deepened INVEST criteria. Dramatically improved the slicing of our vertical stories. Delivered value ~20% faster with the smallest increments to our customers. 

•   Implemented automated test script, additional smoke test after the build is released to QA, and code review by peers. Armed new Definition of Done (DOD) for our dev team. Changed Sprint Planning Agenda. Raised team confidence level in delivering the sprint goals to 94%. 

•    Implemented automated test script and code review by peers. Armed new Definition of Done (DOD) for our dev team. 

•     Collected the data via Web-tracking and customer interviews,  tested and validated assumptions with the development team. Provided much precise anatomy of personas. Redesigned current marketing campaign reducing waist by 28%

Spikes:
Sustainable and environmentally conscious business practices
Enterprise Agile: Changing your culture

taplio

The Battle

Monika Valkauskaite Holland

Mark V. Smetanin

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance ScoreMonika Valkauskaite Holland's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

taplio

The Battle

Monika Valkauskaite Holland

Mark V. Smetanin

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Monika Valkauskaite Holland's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

Performance ScoreMonika Valkauskaite Holland's LinkedIn Performance