Amanda Schulze
Customer Research and Strategy for Venture Funds

I bring the customer to the table where strategic decisions are being made.

That table is usually full of smart people deciding what customers want by discussing it among themselves.

I've sat there. I co-founded Fabric, an AI claims platform, inside American Family Insurance's startup studio, and Fixle, a homeowner intelligence platform acquired by Spectora in 2025. Before that, nearly a decade at Trek Bicycle in product management.

Everything I built that worked came from something a customer told me. Not always in words. Sometimes it was what they did.

What I do

I work fractionally with venture funds and the organizations around them, bringing outside evidence into decisions that usually get made on instinct.

Whether the product is landing. Whether the story still matches the business. What the market actually thinks.

That work has included the brand launch and founder research for Valency Fund, and positioning for a fund working through a founder transition. Before this, I evaluated new venture opportunities inside a corporate startup studio and took three products to market.

What comes of it

Clients have grown sales 20% in a declining market, exceeded a funding goal by 300%, hit the product milestones that unlocked their next round, and stopped spending on messaging their customers didn't care about.

I take on a small number of focused engagements at a time.