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.

Building India's Largest Student Entrepreneurship Ecosystem @ ATLAS Skilltech University | Professor of Entrepreneurial Studies | Angel Investor | Cross Cultural Psychologist | B2B SaaS Marketeer

Omkar Pandharkame is a growth-minded tech leader who turns cutting-edge ideas into scalable products and learning ecosystems.

Chief Evangelist & Strategy Officer, Supervity AI – Drives SaaS strategy, product roadmap, and go-to-market for no-code AI Agents that lift enterprise productivity.

Founder & former CEO, BHyve – Built an AI knowledge platform adopted by 10+ enterprises; backed by Sequoia Spark, 100X.VC, Accenture Ventures, and Google for Startups.

Founding Director, Venture Labs at ATLAS SkillTech University – Designed 25+ entrepreneurship courses, launched the university incubator, and mentored 2,200+ student founders.

Global Educator & Speaker – Delivered 300+ workshops across the US, Europe, Asia, and Africa on AI, startups, fundraising, and founder resilience.

Startup Advisor & Mentor – Guides emerging AI, EV-mobility, and D2C ventures; mentor to JITO Incubation Network and AIC-RMP. A 2X TedX Speaker and has delivered various keynotes.

To collaborate on speaking, training, or advisory engagements, contact omkar.pandharkame@gmail.com.

Omkar Pandharkame

I landed in Zurich today with my dear friend and colleague Kaustubh Kalyankar  




Jet-lagged. 
Cold air. 
That quiet Swiss efficiency everywhere.

And almost instinctively, I knew I had to stop at the Lindt Home of Chocolate.

Partly, yes, to fulfil a childhood fantasy.
For anyone who grew up with chocolate as a rare reward, this place feels almost mythical.

But once I stood there — staring up at this towering chocolate fountain — something else took over.

This wasn’t just indulgence.
This was engineering.

That river of chocolate isn’t flowing because someone is watching it nervously with a checklist.

It flows because of temperature, viscosity, timing, quality, safety, and scale are all DESIGNED into the system.

I spoke to the staff of what happens when something goes wrong in this 50 feet chocolate tower..

She calmy responded ,
‘Human intervention happens only when something truly deviates.’

And suddenly, the contrast became uncomfortable.

We are here to sign some big deals at #WEFDavos and one thing occurred was - 

Most large institutions today — especially governments — are trying to adopt AI the way tourists consume chocolate here.

In small bites.
As a novelty.
As a side attraction.

Which essentially looks like - 

A chatbot here.
A dashboard there.
A pilot that looks good in a presentation.

But systems at scale don’t work like that.

When complexity crosses a threshold, central orchestration stops being optional.

You don’t decorate operations!!
You redesign them.

That’s the mindset we’re carrying into Davos this week.

For the first time, sovereign Indian states are setting up AI GCCs — not as innovation labs, but as AI Command Centres that actually run procurement, finance, HR, and citizen operations under policy, control, and accountability.

Not AI as a feature.
AI as a core operating infrastructure.

The world will see it for the first time!

I realised looking at this chocolate marvel.

Autonomous systems flows…
Based on Policies
Based on feedback
Based on tight framework.

And when it succeeds,
It delights everyone!


#WEFDavos

Day 1 at WEF Davos 2026!



I kept stopping while walking.
Not because someone famous walked pass by. 
But For the windows!



Every pavilion is saying the same thing, just in different fonts:
“We found the AI ROI.”
“Results, not hype.”
“Autonomous enterprise.”

Big words. Calm faces. Soft lighting.
Everyone looks… very comfortable.

One window has someone sipping coffee like AI just quietly fixed everything.
Another has leaders smiling at a tablet like transformation is a casual meeting.

And honestly, it made me smile.

You can’t window-display your way into agentic AI.

Most of these organisations are still built for headcount, handoffs, committees, approvals.
Agentic AI breaks that model completely.

It needs small, sharp teams.
Clear ownership.
Outcome obsession.

The real shift I’m hearing (off stage, off mic):
Enterprises are no longer asking,
“How many people will you deploy?”

They’re asking,
“What outcomes will your AI own?”

That question is deadly for old people heavy companies!

Me and Kaustubh Kalyankar are representating Supervity at the World Economic Forum in Davos.




And we  have been having the same conversation on repeat.

Not in meeting rooms.
Not on slides.
Just long walks, coffee, and long drives across the swiss alps.


About India, our backoffices and the GCC model!


The GCC model in India is about to be overturned.

Not because of cost.
Not because of talent.
But because software is changing its role.

GCCs were designed to run processes.
What’s coming next is systems that run themselves.

This is where GCCs start transforming into AI Command Centres:
• Autonomous, self-driving applications
• Policy-driven execution, not SOPs
• Exceptions over escalations
• Outcomes over activity

In this world, headcount is no longer the unit of scale.
Autonomy is.

India doesn’t lose in this shift — it wins differently.
By owning how these systems are designed, governed, and scaled.

This isn’t a trend.
It’s a structural reset.

And once you see it, you can’t unsee it.

We are launching something in Davos which will change the GCC game!

Stay tuned!!

We landed in Zurich and, within hours, ended up eating doing most predictable thing


Eat fondue!

Which sounds normal until you realise fondue is not casual here.

First, the name.
Fondue comes from the French fondre — “to melt”.
Which is Swiss efficiency at its finest. No branding. Just instructions.

Historically, it started as winter food — old cheese, stale bread, a bit of wine.
Nothing fancy. 
Just survival with dignity.

Cut to today.

Kaustubh and I, very overconfident, staring into a pot of aggressively melted cheese, pretending we know what we’re doing.

You think it’s simple.
Then your bread wobbles.

Everything stops.

Apparently if your bread falls in, something bad happens.
No one explains what.
They don’t need to.

After that, you relax.
Eat slower. Laugh more. Accept your place in the system.

By the end, it makes complete sense why Switzerland stuck with this for centuries.

Also: melted cheese is undefeated.

A historic day for our company.






Here at the World Economic Forum in Davos,

we signed an MoU with the Government of Maharashtra to build the world’s first AI-led GCC.


This first-of-its-kind AI GCC (Global Capability Centre) is unique in many ways:


• It is statewide, not departmental
• It embeds AI Employees directly into core government operations
• It spans procurement, finance, HR, citizen services, compliance, and audit
• It brings policy-governed, auditable AI into day-to-day administration
• It creates a repeatable blueprint for other states and countries
• It upskills 25,000 youth with AI-first, execution-ready capabilities
• It positions Maharashtra as a global magnet for AI-first GCC investments

Proud moment for Supervity  AI.
Grateful for the trust placed in us.
The real work begins now.


Siva Moduga Vijay Navaluri Kaustubh Kalyankar Ahron Menghani Utsaha Khare  Jaya Sinha

I’m #hiring. Know anyone who might be interested? 👋😊

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