As of late January 2026, Doodla's inventory and fulfillment operation has reached a critical failure point. The chaos is directly suppressing sales revenue — and because Asymmetric's compensation is a 4% commission on sales, stockouts hurt both parties. A "come to Jesus" call has been proposed for early the week of Feb 2 to renegotiate the engagement model.
Discussed in: [1]
Jason (Doodla's primary operations person) is simultaneously handling:
- B2C order fulfillment
- B2B order fulfillment
- Amazon FBA shipments
- Physical farming work
- Product cleaning and bagging
He is stretched beyond capacity. Amazon orders are being delayed by weeks — one order couldn't ship until Feb 12, with the next batch pushed two weeks further.
Inventory shortages (bags, clean product, cornmeal, black beans) are recurring and directly halt sales. The most damaging example: a stockout immediately after Thanksgiving caused a sharp revenue dip that persisted through November and December. The pattern is likely to repeat.
Karly's team is absorbing significant uncompensated operational work. A single order recently broke into 10 separate shipments, requiring over an hour of manual sorting, labeling, and folder organization just to hand off to Jason. This is not sustainable at a 4% commission rate.
There is no clear owner of inventory management at Doodla. Decisions aren't made, reorder quantities aren't tracked, and the operation is run out of what amounts to a garage-scale setup that can no longer support the volume.
Karly to schedule for Monday or Tuesday, Feb 2–3. Mark will lead the negotiation.
Asymmetric takes over all fulfillment operations, including:
- Negotiating warehouse space in Edgerton
- Hiring and managing labor (est. 2 workers × $15/hr × 40 hrs/wk = ~$5,000/month in labor alone)
- Receiving product from the farm
- Packing, labeling, and shipping — product never returns to the farm
The current 4% is unsustainable given the expanded scope. The proposed target is 10% commission, which would cover:
- ~$6,000–$7,000/month in incremental operational costs (labor + warehouse)
- The existing $4,000/month marketing retainer remains in place
At projected sales levels, 10% would generate ~$13,800/month — enough to cover costs and make the expanded scope worthwhile.
An alternative framing discussed: Asymmetric sets up a separate entity, buys beans from Doodla at a fixed price (e.g., $2/lb), and keeps the margin between cost and Amazon net proceeds. This was flagged as a more complex option to revisit.