Sam Kulka

About

Hi, I'm Sam Kulka. I'm a Technical Product Manager based in Austin, focused on building data and AI products that solve complex operational problems.

My background combines product strategy with hands-on experience in data systems and software development. I enjoy working on technical products where understanding the underlying systems is critical to making good product decisions. That foundation allows me to collaborate closely with engineers while translating customer needs and business goals into clear product direction.

Force Majeure

I'm currently Co-Founder and Product Manager at Force Majeure, a ticketing platform built for independent promoters and venues.

I define and own the product roadmap for a multi-sided marketplace serving promoters, artists, and customers. Core workflows include event creation, ticket inventory management, checkout flows, and financial settlement systems.

I regularly work with promoters and venue operators to understand their operational needs and translate those insights into product decisions. From those conversations I prioritize features, define workflows, and partner with engineering to build reliable systems that support high-traffic ticket on-sale events.

Funnel Forge

I also worked as a Product & Data Contractor for Funnel Forge, where I helped design and build a territory intelligence engine for medical device sales teams.

The system matches healthcare organizations with compatible manufacturers by combining regulatory data sources, manufacturer catalogs, and enrichment layers. I built a multi-stage pipeline that generates qualified sales targets across more than 700 ZIP code territories, turning fragmented public datasets into a structured product for sales teams.

This project required translating messy real-world data into usable insights and designing workflows that help sales teams identify and prioritize the right opportunities.

Charles Schwab

Before that I worked as a Data Engineer at Charles Schwab, where I built production data products used by analysts and regulatory teams.

One of the largest initiatives I worked on involved leading a data warehouse migration that ultimately saved the firm $180M. I also helped turn a vague regulatory requirement into a production data product used by non-technical teams to make high-stakes business decisions.

Working in that environment reinforced how important it is for product managers to deeply understand both the data and the users who rely on it.


How I Work

Across my work I focus on products that sit at the intersection of data, AI, and operational workflows.

I like working on problems where:

  • the domain is complex
  • the data is messy
  • the product must simplify difficult decisions for users

My approach is to start with the real workflow, understand the decisions users need to make, and design systems that make those decisions easier and more reliable.


Core Areas

Product

Product Strategy, Roadmapping, User Discovery, Workflow Design, Stakeholder Alignment, Agile / Scrum

AI & Data

RAG Architectures, Semantic Search, Data Modeling, Data Warehousing, BigQuery

Technical

SQL, Python, APIs, Distributed Systems, AWS, GCP, Kubernetes


Certifications

  • Google Cloud Platform Associate Engineer
  • Professional Scrum Developer I (PSD I)