Overall, the presented study provides important guidelines for the design of carbene species for small molecule activation. The strong dependence of the activation and reaction energy on the nature of the element in α-position to the low-valent main group element allows for a simple and fast estimation of the energy profile and the prediction of new candidate structures. The possible transfer of our model from one element to the other can presumably also be extended to other neutral and even charged carbene-like species, which will be important for evaluating the potential of other main group compounds in bond activation processes.