Growth continues. But the product no longer sustains it on its own.
Renewals require more conversation. CS comes in earlier. Expansion slows down.
Nothing looks broken, but every growth point is starting to demand more effort to happen.
This is exactly when I step in.
I work with SaaS founders and leaders to fix what's making growth depend more and more on people, processes, and manual effort.
founder of MeuCarrinho (acquired by Buscapé) · ex-Empiricus (+450k subscribers) · 15+ years in product and growth
Do any of these situations sound familiar?
Renewal and expansion still happen.
But they no longer happen on their own.
The product evolved. But value perception didn't keep pace.
CS starts coming in earlier. Discounts become a recurring tool. The upsell the product should generate naturally now depends on a separate sales motion.
Renewal and expansion still happen, but require more and more effort to close.
Result: the product no longer sustains growth on its own.
The product generates more activity
than value.
Activation improved. Usage went up. New features keep getting shipped.
Even so, retention, expansion, and renewal started decoupling from usage growth. The product is busier, but perceived value isn't keeping pace.
Result: activity grows faster than value.
AI improved the experience.
Not necessarily the permanence.
Convenience isn't a moat.
AI improves the experience while reducing training, friction, and switching cost.
Result: the product gets easier to use, and easier to replace.
Growth continues.
The quality of that growth doesn't.
The fastest-growing channel brings the least-fit customers. The commercial promise doesn't match what the product delivers. More recent cohorts perform worse than earlier ones.
ARR goes up. Revenue quality goes down.
The deterioration is already happening. The difference is that it hasn't shown up in the numbers yet.
Result: growth is masking a deterioration already in progress.
If you recognize yourself in any of these situations, the problem probably isn't in acquisition, marketing, or sales.
The problem is in the mechanisms that sustain growth after the customer is in.
I work alongside leadership and stay until the problem is solved.
I don't work as an external advisor or deliver a report full of recommendations for the team to execute on their own. I identify where growth started depending on people, processes, and manual effort, and rebuild what should be sustained by the product itself.
The goal isn't to produce a diagnosis. It's to make growth happen again because the product generates value, not because more people were added to the process.
The problem was rarely a lack of growth. It was what was sustaining it.
–70%
churn: from 30% to 9%
Acquisition was working. The problem happened before the user reached the value moment. I redesigned activation, onboarding, and initial value delivery.
→ retention fixed without increasing operational effort.
+400%
month-3 retention: from 5% to 25%
The product was growing. But the habit wasn't consolidating. I identified the behaviors that differentiated recurring users from those who left and redesigned the usage loops.
→ growth sustained by behavior, not by incentives.
+R$50k
in new MRR in 3 months
The company was growing in customers. But each new contract increased operational dependence. I identified where value was leaking and validated a new growth front.
→ new revenue without increasing operational complexity.
The expertise came from operating products, not from analyzing them from the outside.
Before working on other people's growth problems, I lived this from the inside.
I founded MeuCarrinho, later acquired by Buscapé. Then I led product initiatives at Empiricus through the scale to over 450,000 subscribers.
In both contexts I saw the same pattern emerge repeatedly.
First growth continued. Then the product started needing help to sustain it: more CS, more discounts, more processes, more human effort. For a while, it worked. Until the bill arrived in the form of churn, margin compression, loss of pricing power, or slowdown.
Today I work exactly at that moment. When the numbers still look healthy, but the mechanisms that sustain growth have already started to deteriorate.
Who it's for
SaaS PLG companies and subscription products that already have:
- · a validated product
- · an active customer base
- · real growth
- · concerns about retention, expansion, or growth quality
Not for
- · pre-product-market fit companies
- · those focused only on acquisition
- · those looking for generic growth playbooks
- · teams that only want a diagnosis
Something feels harder than it should? Tell me.
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I'll reach out within 24 hours to schedule a call.