Date: December 2025 (filed 2026-04-05)
Client: [1]
Attendees: Karly Oykhman (Asymmetric), Gilbert Barrongo (Asymmetric), Avokerie Onorimuo (Asymmetric), Sherry Lucy Doudlah, Mark Doudlah, Jason Doudlah
December planning call covering three major workstreams: (1) review of the WooCommerce B2B wholesale site and its ShipStation integration challenges, (2) launch planning for a new 4.4 oz popped popcorn product targeting late January/early February, and (3) a wholesale lead generation campaign to move 2M+ lbs of existing popcorn inventory.
| Owner | Task | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Karly | Update B2B site bag image | Open |
| Karly | Confirm subscription feature with developer; update Sherry | Open |
| Karly | Send B2B test login to Sherry; Sherry places Outposts test order | Open |
| Karly | Confirm B2B → ShipStation flow; enable DFT/MCF custom carriers; update Sherry | Open |
| Karly | Add popped popcorn "Coming Soon" to January newsletter draft | Open |
| Karly | Pull ~1,000 wholesale leads (grocery, restaurants, hospitals, schools, foodservice) | Open |
| Karly | Draft wholesale outreach email; send to Mark Doudlah for review | Open |
| Karly | Pull list of vending machine operators for Sherry | Open |
| Sherry | Test B2B site using provided login; place Outposts test order | Open |
| Sherry | Begin 0.5 oz vending bag design with Jen (cc Justin) | Open |
| Sherry | Send January newsletter draft to Karly for review | Open |
| All | Follow-up meeting Dec 26 | Open |
Current state: Site is built and ready for testing. Initial test users (Sherry, Vitruvian, Outposts) have not yet placed orders — attributed to holiday season timing, not site issues. Full rollout expected in January.
Feature requests surfaced during demo:
ShipStation carrier problem:
"ShipStation is they think the order is done when it's shipped, but we're delivering. So it's not going UPS. It's going Doudlah Farms." — Sherry
The core issue: ShipStation requires a tracking number to mark an order as shipped. Doudlah Farms has two fulfillment methods that don't generate tracking numbers:
- DFT (Doudlah Farms Transport): Their own trucks, separate LLC, deliver to Madison-area accounts (Willie Street, Epic, Metcalfe's) every Tuesday.
- MCF (Amazon Multi-Channel Fulfillment): Orders placed manually in Amazon Seller Central; tracking not immediately available at time of ShipStation entry.
Interim solution: Select "Other" as carrier in ShipStation → system allows marking as shipped without a tracking number.
Long-term solution: Add custom carriers "DFT" and "MCF" (or "AMZ") to ShipStation account. Karly to investigate with developer/Mark.
Payment tracking:
Wisconsin Food Hub went 7 months without paying — only discovered after manually reconciling bank statements and invoices. The B2B site needs to surface unpaid invoices clearly.
Solution agreed: Use WooCommerce order statuses manually. When Sherry receives a check or ACH notification, she updates the order to "Paid." Blocking future orders on unpaid invoices was considered but rejected — too risky given Net 30 terms, weekly ordering cadence, and potential for Sherry to make a status error that locks out a paying customer.
Product specs:
- Bag size: 10" × 15.2"
- Net weight: 4.4 oz
- Rationale: 25% airspace required by federal weights & measures law for sealing; 4.4 oz (not 5 oz) leaves room for yellow popcorn's larger volume if variety is added later.
- Co-packer: TS Foods
Nutritional testing:
- Lab: Nebraska facility specializing in nutritional fact panels
- Sample: 30 cups / 250–300 grams of popped product
- Cost: $1,050
- Turnaround: 15–20 days
- Goal: Validate a "higher protein" claim — important differentiator given biodynamic/regenerative/organic/tested-clean positioning. Without the test, the claim cannot be made on packaging.
Launch timeline:
- January: "Coming Soon" page on website; popcorn featured in January newsletter (New Year's resolution angle — healthy snack, high fiber, affordable)
- Late January / Early February: Product live on website
- Post-launch: Evaluate sales data; if positive, expand to Amazon
Vending machine opportunity (0.5 oz bag):
Identified as a major strategic opportunity during the call. The organic/clean-label vending market currently lacks popcorn options. Target venues: hospitals, schools, courthouses, rest stops/waysides, large employers.
"I do know if I was in a vending machine business, I would want cleaner snacks. I would be looking for those." — Sherry
Decision: Don't wait for 4.4 oz launch results — begin 0.5 oz bag design work now with Jen (cc Justin at TS Foods) to compress the timeline. Karly to pull a list of vending machine operators via B2B broker.
Note on popped popcorn distribution economics: Per Justin at TS Foods, popcorn is typically popped within ~400 miles of its destination because the volume-to-weight ratio makes long-haul shipping of popped product impractical (50,000 lbs of seeds = 1 truck; 50,000 lbs of popped popcorn = ~5 trucks). Wholesale outreach should be weighted toward regional buyers.
Context: Doudlah Farms has 2M+ lbs of popcorn inventory and a near-term cash need. The B2B site alone won't move this volume fast enough — proactive outbound is required.
Plan:
- Karly pulls ~1,000 leads from B2B broker system, filtered by industry (grocery, restaurants, hospitals, schools, foodservice distributors like Performance Foods / Sysco), geography (Midwest-weighted given 400-mile distribution logic), and job title (purchasing/procurement roles)
- Multi-touch campaign: email sequence → phone follow-up
- Karly drafts outreach email; Mark Doudlah reviews before send