Nombase Podcast: Powering Profitable Growth Through Operational Excellence

Melissa Travers [00:05] Hello and thank you for joining us. I am Melissa Travers, director of community here at Bevnet Anosh, and I'm so thrilled to welcome you to the Nombase Podcast. Don't forget to check out nombase.com, BevNet's platform built for the CPG community. That's also where you can catch episodes of the Nombase Podcast. Today we are talking to Brandon Lennox, VP of finance at LemonPerfect, Neha Soi, SVP of operations at BERO, and Vivian Keena, CEO of Luxent, to discuss how fast growing CPG brands can scale more efficiently by putting the right systems in place early. So implementing an ERP like NetSuite might seem daunting or even premature, but it can be a crucial move as distribution grows and velocity increases. Operations need to keep up. Today we're going to talk about how LemonPerfect and BERO approach that challenge, what prompted their decision to invest in an ERP, and why they chose to use a partner like Luxent to help avoid common growing pains. Well, thank you so much, Brandon, Neha, and Vivian for joining today. Let's just start off with a quick round of introductions so our audience gets to know you. Neha, please, please give us an introduction

Neha Soy [01:23] first. Thank you so much for having me. I'm really excited to be here and have this conversation. I'm Neha Soi, SVP of operations at BERO. Um, and really excited to jump in. I have a unique background because I also was SVP of operations at LemonPerfect, so I got to spend some time on both sides, um, and learn a lot through the process and, um, build the supply chain up for BERO, and we made some really unique decisions based on the learnings that we had at LemonPerfect. So excited to jump into that.

Melissa Travers [01:50] Thank you. Uh, Brandon, you are at Lemon Perfect yourself.

Speaker 3 [01:54] Yes, so nice to be here as well. Uh, Brandon Lennox, VP of finance. I've been here 5 years, um, just my 5-year mark. Nea actually interviewed me before that 5 year mark when I, you know, when I, before I even started a long time ago, and even before that I had known Vivian and Luxent when I was at my private previous company at Soylent Nutrition, another beverage brand, so they helped us out there and so yeah, I've known the people on this call quite some time.

Melissa Travers [02:26] Vivian, great to have you here. You're gonna give us some of the nitty gritty details on how to use, um, an ERP like NetSuite and how to implement. Um, thanks for joining us. Yeah,

Vivian Keenan [02:37] thank you. So excited and thank you both for being willing to participate in this. Um, excited to have the opportunity to work with you guys, um, on this podcast and thank you for inviting us. Um, I'm Vivian Keena. I'm the, uh, president and CEO of Luxent.

Melissa Travers [02:52] Excellent. So let's start off this story with you, Neha, because you were at LemonPerfect. You're now at BERO, and we sort of have a tale of two brands here with two different growth stories. Can you set us up and help us understand what was going on at Lemon Perfect when you first joined and when was that?

Neha Soy [03:14] Yeah, so I joined pretty early on. I want to say I was employee number 7. And we really built the team up and built the sales up and when we started, we were doing everything out of Excel. Um, my background is corporate. Lemon Perfect was my first startup. Janni took a chance on me. I was forever grateful. Um, and it was really cool, but I walked in and I was like, we're doing everything on Excel. Is that how we do this? Like it was very different coming from big corporate, um, and as we scale things. Move fast as everyone knows, and Beveridge, we realized very quickly we needed a system. Um, I think at Lemoner we were figuring things out very much so. It was also COVID. It was a really interesting time. So NetSuite and a sophisticated ERP system didn't feel achievable in the early days. And so we went with a much smaller ERP system to help support the operations side of the business. We also didn't link with finance, um. So finance ran on QuickBooks, which Brandon can talk more about, and we kind of had a separate operations business and we did that for a while. It wasn't until we scaled and hit probably year 4 where we certainly felt like, OK, supply chain was getting extremely complicated and complex. Finance was getting complicated. We were starting to do multiple transactions of multiple co-packers, um, a very sophisticated. Raw material supply chain and we needed more and that's when we started to look at what type of ERPs could really support us and we did a robust RFP, etc. and got to NetSuite and we can talk a little bit more about how we got there, but that was kind of the lemon perfect story and how we got to what I would say is the right sophisticated ERP system to support the next growth phase and scale of the business. When I got to BERO, I was really lucky. I was employee number 2 or 3, depending on who you ask. Um, and I had a really unique opportunity to build the supply chain truly from the ground up, and with that opportunity came such a responsibility to make the right decisions. And I had learned so much from LemonPerfect, and I kind of thought to myself, which is very unconventional, but I was like, why don't we just start with NetSuite? Why go through the pain of transitioning all these different systems, and every time we did that, we broke the system. It was so stressful on the supply chain. Why not start from ground zero with that? The only thing holding us back, there were two things. One was the cost, it cost and implementation, how we were going to do that because we couldn't do it ourselves. I knew that we needed a partner. And two was were we going to constrain ourselves too much because when you're on a startup, as we all know, we're just trying to get things going and we're moving as quickly as we can. Um, I called Vivian and I said, Hey, I have this crazy idea. Is this even an option? Could we start with NetSuite? I have a really small budget. Is it something we can do? And she said, Let me think about it. Yeah, I think so. And that's kind of how the conversation started. So what was unique about BERO is we started with a sophisticated ERP from day one, and I think that was a game changing decision for us, and I think if people can do it, it's 100% the right thing to do from a supply chain operations and finance side.

Melissa Travers [06:10] Great background. Um, I want to hear a little bit more about LemonPerfect. So you were, so you went from spreadsheets to then running things off of a small ERP system for ops and then QuickBooks for finance, and those two things didn't talk to each other. What was, what was the scale of LemonPerfect at that time, maybe in, you know, say Doors or, like, can you give us a picture of, of what size LemonPerfect was when you brought on that smaller ERP?

Neha Soy [06:40] Brian, it's about when you started, right? Year 2. Yeah, I mean probably talk revenue more than doors, but yeah,

Speaker 3 [06:47] we, we talk revenue a lot when I, when I first joined that first they were coming off of $300,000 a year, and then that first year of 2020 did about $3 million and that's, that's when you put in that small ERP and QuickBooks was already in place and then, you know, fast, fast forward a little bit, you know, did $12 million that next year, um, we were still on the QuickBooks and ERP and then as we scaled to $27 million the year after that, that's when we were like, OK. Um, we need something else, right? Um. I'm probably jumping ahead a little bit, but I, again, I was coming off of NetSuite from Soylent, and I always knew in the back of my mind because QuickBooks was already in place when I joined LemonPerfect, like, hey, at some point we're going to need NetSuite, right? Like that was always my solution, um, but I just, it was always trying to figure out the right time to implement and like I said, when you get to 27 million on pace for the next year being around 50, we're like, OK, you know, we can't just keep doing. And you know, fulfilling our, our, our orders on our own and at the time also I was a one-man show in finance. Uh, I, I finally hired somebody who who's still here with me today and I wouldn't be, I couldn't do it without her, but um we also couldn't do it without NetSuite, right, because it was just too difficult to literally be fulfilling and invoicing in QuickBooks and then also sending emails to the, you know, customers and it was just getting to be too much, so, um. But yeah, I mean, to answer the question, you know, 3 million is where you need something, and then on our side, and then once we got to like the twenties, we're like, hey, this is just non-sustainable if we're going to keep growing.

Melissa Travers [08:13] So you can, oh sorry,

Neha Soy [08:14] go ahead. I'll I'll say we fumbled a little bit too. We, we had a small ERP and then we tried to do a custom solution, which we thought would be great that we could integrate a demand planning platform and we could really sophisticate our supply chain and like Brandon said, at 27 million, that was the time like there was a lot going on. Um, ultimately, if I could have done it again, I would have gone straight to NetSuite and like he said, like he had already known that we would end up at NetSuite. I think we were. We're trying to understand the cost of what that would look like, um, how we would implement it, and I wish we would have just asked the questions. I think we just felt like it was such a behemoth that we didn't even take a chance. We thought, OK, we'll go to one other middle tier and then we'll get to, you know, where we should be with NetSuite. We know we need to end up there. And I think that's where we kind of broke the mold with the BERO where we were like, you know what, no, we're going to start from it. Why go through all that pain? Um. And so I think to add that is like we stumbled through that that we have since learned and I think both landed in NetSuite and it's been great

Vivian Keenan [09:09] and it was painful, right, because it was hard to get your time because you guys were in growth mode, so it was hard to get you in in a room to set up and configure a system at the same time of, you know, growing the company leaps and bounds, so it was it was just like a real balance, um, yeah.

Melissa Travers [09:26] Brandon, you mentioned that you knew you would go to NetSuite at some point, um, because you had worked with it before. How did you know it was just something you knew that you wanted to implement?

Speaker 3 [09:36] Yeah, I mean, going back even before I was at Soylent, I was at a company called Beachbody where the workout company, they're still around, I still use them, they're great, but they had, when I was there, we'd implemented Oracle and this was kind of before NetSuite was, was really, I think it existed, but it wasn't as big as it was now, so I had seen Oracle and I knew that that was like, you never want to go to somewhere that that big unless you're a huge company and even Beachbody probably didn't need it at that point. They were Um, you know, not, they were big but not massive, right? And so then it's Soylent, it just works so well there and I had such good experience. Of course we did RFP there and I Several times a month I'm even at Soylent, even when we had NetSuite and even early on at, at, at Lemon Perfect, you're getting inbounds from all these different ERPs, right, and it's like there's just so many different ones and they might work, but everyone plugs into NetSuite. It works so, so smoothly. I'd used it before, um, I knew that it, I knew that it worked. We've used Luxent before and we had that. Experience and so I'm like if it works for 90% of other companies our size, like why we should just go that route and it just felt, it just felt right, um, then trying to like, you know, and we did try like Neha said we looked at some other ones, um, but I think in the back of my mind it was just, it just made sense to go with what everyone else is choosing.

Melissa Travers [10:58] Certainly, you know, Vivian from Luxent, you're gonna, um, you're gonna shed a bunch of light on how and why people implement. ERPs like NetSuite, but just for you know maybe for myself and for our audience, when thinking about implementing an ERP like NetSuite, is it almost like you wouldn't install your own engine in a car? Like is it just unheard of. To even try to install, to set it up yourself and implement it yourself,

Vivian Keenan [11:25] I think, I think companies understand their business, right, but they don't understand the technology that's going in, and they just need to rely on a partner that they can trust and that they can really guide them. Um, you know, Luxent's been implementing for the food and beverage industry for 15 years, and we've had hundreds of clients in that industry. So we're, you know, we know, we know their pain points. We can introduce some best practices. We can tell them what other companies are doing from a reporting, from a structural perspective. So it's, it's, it makes that whole process. More efficient and like you know Brandon said, his time was so limited. Neha Neha's time was so limited when they were growing that, you know, you really had to really understand their business, get to know their business, and really just, you know, use your time wisely. So having a partner that can help guide them they could trust was really important.

Neha Soy [12:15] NetSuite has so many options, and I think that's what such an advantage, but navigating through those options is so challenging, and I think in both instances for me, I was in a different place in the business with LP than I am for BERO. I needed someone to help me navigate on like what do I actually need and like with LP, like what do we need at this time and what could we turn on quickly to help support and I think. You know, like we know our supply chain is going to change. How can we set it up now to know that the supply chain is going to change, whereas a BERO is like a blank slate. So how do we keep this as blank as possible? So I think having someone help you guide through that is essential because, you know, I have a team that's experienced in NetSuite and we still needed so much guidance and still do today. We ask questions almost daily.

Vivian Keenan [12:56] And it's important not to overengineer. So I think the big thing companies tend to do is buy too much or, you know, overengineer it. And when you're in startup mode or when you're in the first few years, you just have to be flexible. You just have to be able to change and flex as the company is moving really quickly. Co co-packers are changing. 3P. I mean, everything is changing constantly, so you just got to be able to work with a partner who can support that change for you and kind of have your back. Um, I think that's what we really focus on.

Melissa Travers [13:27] And Vivian Luxent specializes in CPG businesses. Is there, is there a huge difference in how CPG businesses might use it versus other industries?

Vivian Keenan [13:39] Oh, I mean, so NetSuite, the gift of it is it's, you know, able to be used by Many, many industries, the negative is that it has lots of functionality that you have to really be able to know that function, that that industry to be able to tailor it to that industry and get rid of the noise, get rid of the functionality that's not relevant to you and make it simple for those users, so. Not overwhelming for them day to day so that they can streamline their operations and use it effectively. So you really do need a partner that is in that industry to not come out with a system that is just overly complex and not, you know, easy to adopt for the users and the team. I think it's, it's probably the most, I think having the partner is almost more important than the software. It's like having the partner to actually get you and guide you through the through the whole process.

Melissa Travers [14:32] You need to know that it works for your business,

Vivian Keenan [14:34] right? Yeah, yeah, to be able to make it work effectively.

Melissa Travers [14:38] Neha and Brandon, Vivian just mentioned that Luxent can kind of help brands identify their, their pain points and then adjust the way that the software is set up so that they particularly address those issues. What were some of the issues that Lemon Perfect was having when you switched over to NetSuite from that smaller ERP? Like what were Of the things that were going on falling through the cracks. Neha, do you want to start first?

Neha Soy [15:04] Sure, yeah, there was kind of a lot, you know, I think that system was great for the phase that we were in, but we were starting to see like inventory wasn't as accurate, there was like glitches in the system, so transfers weren't, weren't going through accurately or lock codes were getting missed because like the system had some sort of glitch which like. NetSuite doesn't have that, and that's a that's a huge part of what we're doing, especially in food and beverage, and so we started to see a lot of this, and I remember Colin Gates, who was running operations for us at the time on my team, was like this isn't working, like we have to get to NetSuite because we're losing visibility and that was kind of the critical point for us at that point. We also knew that our operations were changing. We had two co-packers at the time. We were moving to a model where we. Going to a singular co-packer, so there was a lot that was happening that needed to reflect in the system. The other piece that we haven't really touched on is kind of automation and EDI. And so we knew we needed to get to a place where we got that, and NetSuite allowed for that. And so I think from an operation standpoint, those were the pieces where we were like, OK, this is the time and these are the things that NetSuite can solve for us, um. And with the help of Luxent we were able to do that. I think me just thinking about it, it was so overwhelming. I was like, I don't know how I'm going to do this all. How are we going to get EDI connected? What is the system going to look like? We're changing the whole model of our co-packers. What is that going to look like? But to have the support of the system and then Luxent helping us every step of the way, that, that really helped. And I don't know, Brandon, I'll let you kind of touch on the finance side of things because there was a lot happening there as well.

Speaker 3 [16:33] Yeah, I mean, no, you, you, you nailed most of it, um, just the fact that the systems weren't talking in between the finance and the ops piece was, was the biggest challenge, and I kind of touched on that in the beginning in terms of having to kind of fulfill our own sales orders then make the invoices because nothing, nothing was talking, um, so that, that was the biggest thing for me, but yeah, I mean I just remember. Tons of brainstorming sessions early on, which is, which is great. Like they spent, Lux and spent so much time, um, understanding the system and also being flexible with us because there's so many times where we had to run the business like, like Dean was saying, putting out fires and having to reschedule last minute. We always felt bad, but it's like, well, if we don't run the business, we're not gonna have a need for NetSuite in the near future, right? So we gotta, we gotta get through this first and so they were, they were great, um, enabled, honestly. The people they were able to look at themselves sometimes and say, OK, well I could, you know, we give them access to our systems, but I'll just take a look at it for you. Don't worry about this meeting. I'll look at awesome questions, but I'll look at how you do in AP right now just by looking at QuickBooks and just understanding all that was, was, was amazing early on to allow us to get through some of those times.

Melissa Travers [17:42] I think one of the other pain points that you mentioned that it addressed was being able to have real-time inventory visibility, which certainly is a huge thing. Can you explain how that works and how it worked before you had a system that could show you versus after?

Neha Soy [18:00] I think the difference, and we're kind of going through this now too, like systems are systems and they're going to be as accurate as as the data that you put into it, I think, right? And so when there was glitches in our old system, that's where we lost visibility um with NetSuite you don't see glitches, it's really the onus is on you to make sure that things are talking and I think. Um, to be able to have that real-time visibility is so critical, often for a meeting, for scenario planning, for cash flow planning. I mean there's just like so many instances where you need to know that inventory. Um, the other piece of it is that. Through NetSuite there are so many automations that you can do and APIs that you can do, and we're exploring this now at BERO because we started with NetSuite. We have the bandwidth to start putting together all these APIs and start getting things more automated into the system, so we have even more real-time inventory than I've ever had because we're able to get it direct from our 3PLs. And so I think NetSuite simplifies that because they typically most places have an interface directly with NetSuite and so you're not starting from the ground up and so that I think is a really key piece to just understanding your supply chain and being able to set up your dashboards and there's a lot of opportunity in NetSuite to be able to use it to your advantage.

Melissa Travers [19:11] This might seem like a little bit of a basic question, but when you can see all of the inventory that you have, how does that change your decision making? Like what decisions does that, what decisions that does that change?

Neha Soy [19:24] I mean, I can take this one, Brandon, and then you can add to it because I think it hits both ops and finance, but obviously if you can see all your inventory for us it changes what's our production look like, what's the forecast, how are we consuming against it, what's our cash flow, right? Why are we seeing this much? Are we not sitting on enough? What does that look like? What's our safety stock? What's the strategy behind that? Are we going to run tight right now because of the seasonality and then we're going to run late, or do we have promos coming up? So it just allows you to have those conversations, and I think it's incredibly critical and I will say I think most ops teams can put that together. I think the difference is that NetSuite allows you to do it so much faster, right? If you're not, you're, you're going to 5 different systems, putting it together, putting this piecemeal spreadsheet together, and in NetSuite, the reporting capability allows you to pull it quickly, and I think that's what's really key.

Vivian Keenan [20:13] I think you bring up such a good point. So the first one is like, it was so daunting to look at getting this implemented and just make, you know, having a partner to help you get that and, and assist you through that process made it less daunting. Um, and specifically when you came to me with a very, very small budget, it was like, you know, we had to figure out how to scale everything back and implement a little bit more creatively, um, to, to meet the budget, but we did it. But I felt like the second thing and just being able to make good decisions really, really fast, it's such an easy way to justify, you know, everybody kind of comes to us and goes, well, how can I justify the system, and it's Really about just all the information that you can get out of it so quickly. I mean, you know, the automation and ability to to be able to automate through your whole process versus doing manual processes really helps in the justification of it early on, early on. I mean, Neha did not have to hire a significantly lot more employees because, because she had that automation early.

Neha Soy [21:20] Yeah, and I think the unique thing about having it early, and I think this was our challenge at LP was that when you have it early, you can build processes around NetSuite and the system so that you're starting from day one around what those processes are and those best practices. At LP because we had different systems in place and then we transitioned. Like Brandon said, we're going from 27 to 50 million, so we're scaling rapidly and we're also trying to break and recreate our processes, and that's really tough. And I think that for me was kind of the largest pain point of like, Oh my gosh, I can't do that again because that was really, really hard to have to re-break and recreate all those processes and get used to the system and then trying to do things outside the system and then replicating the system and etc. So I think one of the advantages of doing it early if you can is that you really start to build the processes around the system and that's a, that's a huge

Vivian Keenan [22:08] win. Yeah, that is a good point, yeah.

Melissa Travers [22:11] It almost seems like the most effective, I mean we're talking about this, but the most effective time to start is when you're early and really as a super early stage brand an ERP like NetSuite is probably the most helpful because you have such limited time and resources that you need to make every second count, not that you don't as a growing brand as a later stage brand, but in those early days every single second counts. Vivian, how do emerging brands, you know, how can they approach using an ERP like NetSuite? Certainly I know cost is one of the issues that I think a lot of brands have in mind as a reason why they put it off, but what's the reality of being a very emerging brand and using a piece of software like NetSuite that you know you all at Luxent would help implement?

Vivian Keenan [23:02] I think the most important thing was, you know, we sat down and laid out a plan that really limited the use. I mean, made it really simple for them to use because the biggest nervousness Neha had was we can't have this be complex. We can't have all this functionality in place, so it's limiting us. To do the job I needed to get done, she really wanted it to like this is all we need now, and we kept it very scaled back and, and she took on, you know, we, we gave her the infrastructure and she let us help her significantly with this the configuration. And then she just took it over. So then it was more of, you know, we didn't have that back and forth um meetings where it's a lot of consulting time to discuss every, every part of the system because really they were very simple, right? They were, they were building it from scratch so they, they could take a best practices approach. They could make it simple. So I think they leaned on us a lot to kind of lay out that. Show configuration based on our expertise and then we were able to go from there so it really made the implementation costs significantly less and then we just worked to get them a hell of a deal on the software so, so

Neha Soy [24:13] and I'd love for it to be the standard. I honestly think if NetSuite and Luxent we can work towards making that the standard so that all emerging brands can do something like this, I think we're changing.

Vivian Keenan [24:24] I agree, truly, yeah, and that's what she said at the beginning. She goes, I think I need to build a model for all brands. I need to build a model of implementing because it can't be complex. It has to be simple. It has to be cost effective. We have to build something that you could take to the market and do this for other brands because this isn't, it doesn't stop with Barrow. It's, you know, this is something you need to move forward with. Um, so, and it worked. So yeah. Here we are. Here we are.

Melissa Travers [24:51] I do just to underline what you both said, so there's certainly the NetSuite that enterprise companies use that is incredibly, you know, certainly costly, but that's not necessarily what emerging brands would be looking at because they're looking at a different version of it. They're going to be using. In it differently, so a startup brand, maybe they have 5, 10 users, they're going to be looking at a much different cost than what you might be thinking about for brands who are way later stage, right?

Vivian Keenan [25:22] Absolutely. You know, NetSuite's packaged for everyone. They're, you know, they have the startup packaging and then they have the enterprise packaging. I think it's a misnomer that it can't hit the enterprise because it can definitely support the enterprise companies just as well as that smart, that small startup. And so I, you know, I, I think there's a model for everyone, but it's really important that the implementation costs sometimes get expensive, and that's where we really, really try to control the implementation and the tailoring so that it works for them.

Neha Soy [25:53] Yeah, it's that upfront cost that's like a one-time lump sum that typically tends to be expensive, and that's where as a startup you really don't have that, and I didn't have that. So I said, how can we figure this out? How do we create a long term agreement because I know I'm going to need help down the line. I know my business is going to scale, so what does that look like? And that's where we were able to really find a good marriage and that.

Melissa Travers [26:17] And Vivian, is that a conversation that other emerging brands could have with the Luxent team as well?

Vivian Keenan [26:22] Welcome that. Yeah, we would welcome that. And you know it's, it's really a partnership, right? So, um, and we, we invested in in Vero and in the long term partnership and growth of them, um, in addition to just working with them to make sure it was working, you know, we put in a package that That worked for them for the size they were. So I think that's just important. I mean, just like LemonPerfect. I mean with LemonPerfect, the biggest piece of them was you didn't have the financial connection. You didn't have all that visibility, so you were at a different scale. And it was so much harder for us because they were so busy and the people you need are the people in this are the people that are the busiest in the company, so and they're limited on their time. So it's, you know, the sooner you can get an ERP in, you know, I would recommend you do it.

Melissa Travers [27:14] And just for any folks listening out there, for any brands who want to get in touch with you or the Luxcent team, is there an email address or a website we should point them to? I just feel

Vivian Keenan [27:24] like.com and definitely reach out to me directly through LinkedIn or you can go vivian Keenan. At Luxyc.com please and we can definitely give you a quote or just pricing even if it's not into the future. I mean sometimes people are looking 2 or 3 years out to take a look from a budgeting perspective and just really want to get an idea. We have demos once a month. You can come and attend one of our demos. They're live. You can come and just take a look at the software and you know see what it can do for you.

Neha Soy [28:00] Even just having a conversation as a thought partner on how complicated would my business be in NetSuite, I think sometimes that helps too, right, with Lemon Perfect. I think some of the initial conversations we had were like how big of a project is this, like how complicated, and then with Bureau, obviously it was a little bit different, but similar thought partnership on how, how could we approach this, and I think that could be a huge just step one for other brands.

Melissa Travers [28:25] Brandon, you as the VP of finance, I'm sure that you have a careful eye on how something like how an ERP like NetSuite balances out headcount and you know sort of creates other cost efficiencies. Can you talk a little bit about sort of the expense of an ERP, because with Luxin it sounds like the implementation and using it is easy, so. The the cost of the software itself is probably the biggest stumbling block. Can you talk, can you talk a little bit about how those things are offset?

Speaker 3 [29:01] Yeah, I mean, candidly, we got, you know, Luxton did a great job with us and the ongoing, the ongoing cost is, I don't, I don't want to say it's minimal, but it's like, it's not even like noticeable on the day to day because we've gotten bigger and um we've kind of kept the scale back, not, I don't want to say it's not scaled back like Borough, but like we, we got exactly what we needed and we haven't had to add anything and so like There's a quarterly cost that just comes out of my bank. I'm like, oh, it's just, it's not, it's not that big is the bottom line. So that, that part is great. There is the upfront cost to implementation, the implementation, of course, but that was a few years ago, so I don't want to say I forgot about it, but it's such a cost at this point that and and it's working great. And then the ongoing support we get from Luxson is also great, and it's been very cost efficient for us as well. So that answers part of the question in terms of the headcount though. I mean, yeah, we've been able to. Get away with myself and one other full-time person in accounting for the last, well, since the start, right? It was just me for a while, then I, I hired Sarah, she's been with me for, I don't know, it's almost 4 years I feel like and uh NetSuite just allows you to keep it lean. That's always been the motto here, it's like, hey, if you need to hire. Another salesperson, another finance person, like what's going to drive the business more, right? Having another person to do invoicing or if we can get away with doing that because it's so efficient now and we can hire two more ASMs like that's, that's the way to go, right? So, um, again. Two people, I, I don't want to say it's strictly two people because it is technically in finance. Now I have support, we have, you know, BI and even the supply chain team. It's like an extension of the finance team we call it, um, but at the end of the day, I have not had to hire more strict accountants to just go through the day to day transactions because NetSuite just makes it so simple.

Melissa Travers [30:46] And on the topic of cost efficiencies, I think you mentioned that using an ERP allows you to plug in systems that help track things like chargebacks, for example.

Speaker 3 [30:56] Chargebacks, you could do that. Um, we, we just got a, a, a, a new chargeback company to help us out there. Credit card has been great. We use Ramp to plug them a little bit and that just plugs right in with NetSuite, you don't have to do anything, it's, it's amazing. Um, we use Bill.com and we've used it forever, um, also great, it's just super seamless. Um, there were, there were some implementation. Uh, things that the Luxton team had to deal with, I remember that was a big challenge upfront, but they were able to get through it, and now it's just, it all works perfect. So, I mean, again, to be able to run a $50 to, you know, hopefully get to $100 million here in the next 12 months with two people and the ARAP is, is pretty incredible with the with the power of NetSuite.

Melissa Travers [31:40] You were also talking a little bit about how having a sightline to all of your pieces of business help with staying nimble, so I think LemonPerfect was going through a bottle resize and being able to see exactly what was happening in every part of your business. Can I help you with that. Can you explain that?

Speaker 3 [32:00] Yeah, we, it was like. The perfect storm when we were trying to implement NetSuite because they, they, you know, Luxton team would be like, well, how's this gonna look? I'm like, Well, do you want, do you want the answer right now or when we go live in 3 months because the answer is gonna be different, um, and so it was a little bit of a challenge to go through and, and look into the future. The good news is we kind of went, uh, we, we went from like having to procure all the ingredients to go into turnkey, and so it was actually, it was an easier flip. If it was going from turnkey to the other way, it would probably would have been more challenging, obviously, um. But yeah, there were, there was a lot of questions that had to be answered. The bottle change was a big challenge, but, like I said, we had to like almost dual purpose a lot of these um. Implementation pieces of NetSuite, so it would work both ways, um, and another example is going from like Amazon 3P to 1P, right? Like we didn't want to spend too much time going down the 3P path because we knew we were going to go to 1P at some point, so we were able to come up with a stopgap solution that got us through the um some up upload template that we still use to this day for the minimal amount that's still going through 3P, but by next month it's going to be gone and now it's all, it's all one piece. So there's a lot of things that um Again, couldn't have done it ourselves, but with the help of an implementation team and ongoing support, we're able to those changes were able to kind of just flow through seamlessly.

Melissa Travers [33:21] Certainly staying nimble can't be possible without the right funding to do it, and this is another example of how an ERP can help prime you for those kinds of deals. They have what's your experience been so far using an ERP like NetSuite and starting to, you know, having and starting to have those conversations with the investment community?

Neha Soy [33:45] You know, I think it sets you apart a little bit. I think it shows that you have a more sophisticated supply chain and finance operation and that you're thinking ahead. And so I will say once we started to talk about NetSuite, we had a path to get there. I think our investor community, who was wonderful at LP, was really supportive of it and excited about that. Next step, and I think at Bureau it was really interesting because I think it definitely set us apart and so I think. You know, at first there were questions of do you really need that and then as we started to navigate and push through and communicate why, I think it really did set us apart and it's been a really unique positioning and has been one of our assets go forward. So I just, yeah, I think it's it's well known across the industry and I think investors respect it and I think that's a huge one.

Melissa Travers [34:30] And does it also kind of help you understand exactly how much you need to raise and win, because if you can raise the right amount of money in the right amount of time, that certainly changes your opportunities and your trajectory to success, right?

Neha Soy [34:45] Yeah, I think it allows for you to have those financial analytics, and Brandon could probably talk a little bit more about that, but I know on our side, we manage all our P&Ls through NetSuite and so it allows us to do a lot of scenario planning, pull things quickly and figure out what that's going to look like, model things out, and so I think for Starting from day one, it actually helped because it allowed us to have more sophisticated conversations around that and help our CEO and co-founder around some of those conversations as he's quickly having to answer questions, etc. as he's raising.

Melissa Travers [35:17] Brandon, when I think about investors, I think about them asking the question of projections, and when you think about projections, I mean, everyone I know, their chest tightens up, and it's like it's just such a difficult thing to be able to predict. Does that get any easier when you're using an ERP like NetSuite?

Speaker 3 [35:39] I mean, The ERP is not going to tell you what your revenue is gonna be next month or next year, so it's, it's from that perspective, uh, that's always gonna be a challenge, and, uh, but, but no, I mean, of course, having the historical financials that, you know, look at the seasonality, you know, looking at, um, the, the, you know, looking at my customer, by, by, um, by channel and all that stuff, um, I have been able to, of course, pull that out of NetSuite, um, and then To be candid, we don't use the projection models in NetSuite as much as we probably should. I still kind of pull it out, but having all that data at your fingertips and be able to pull, you know, by customer by how many bottles or how many cases we sold 3 years ago in, you know, July, then look at it, you know, fast forward is a huge help, no question.

Neha Soy [36:27] I think the models in NetSuite can sometimes be challenging when you're a fast growing brand, and I think it's important to kind of state that that the technology is in there and it's great when we're, you know, you're 15 and there's Consistent historics, but like as Brandon said with LP and their growth story, like we doubled every year and so that if not more, and so to be able to mimic that in the system, it's not likely that they're going to mimic that. You're not going to put a 50% or 70% increase on your sales and so I think being able to use the data that he said like you can pull out, but also having an understanding of the reality of what your business looks like and mirroring those together, I think um is what's really important.

Melissa Travers [37:05] Vivian, it sounds like the hardest thing about using NetSuite is implementing it, but certainly not with a partner like Luxin. What are some of the biggest mistakes that you see brands use when they're implementing something like NetSuite?

Vivian Keenan [37:20] Well, I think, I think they underestimate the task at hand, right? They, food and beverage companies are complex and they're sophisticated and they have a lot of need and it's important to get the quality and the tracking and, you know, I mean all of those pieces in place so that they can run efficiently. I think, I think when they first Start out, they, you know, they're trying to run a lot of this stuff in a manual mode, and I think that's where they underestimate the task at hand. So I think that's one of the biggest mistakes and then in just just planning out when if they're going to implement an ERP, I think the biggest recommendation would be, you know, plan ahead, understand what you want in phase one. You know, keep it simple and just work with a partner that really can, can guide you through, through the process because I think it does make a big difference.

Melissa Travers [38:14] How long does it usually take to implement, or does it totally depend on the business?

Vivian Keenan [38:18] It definitely depends on the business, I think. What did we take? We took. 2 months, 3 months on bureau. I mean, so it just depends on the, the business and the team and the, the availability. Um, uh, Lemon Perfect is a little bit longer, um, because I was pulling at them to get their attention, um, but, um, I think, I think it just depends on the team and, and, you know, their goals and what they need. Sometimes, sometimes they're, you know, it's usually a 3 to 6 month time frame though.

Melissa Travers [38:51] Neha was talking about how she brought on NetSuite early on because of her experience at LemonPerfect and then you know your corporate experience before that, so we know that bringing it on early is the ideal. Is there a point where, I mean there can't be a point where it's too late because enterprise businesses, they, you know, so many of them use NetSuite, but like is there a point where you really should just make the jump if you're at a certain number of dollars in revenue? Like what's that point where if you're a business and you know you're going to need something bigger, like when do you really need to make the transition?

Vivian Keenan [39:28] Well, I think, yeah, we've been saying all along you should make it as early as you can, but, you know, I think you see so many companies out there just struggling with all those manual processes in place and just not having, you know, today, you know, you just know you're not going to be able to keep competitive, right? I mean, you have to stay on a product like a NetSuite product to stay competitive. Competitive and move forward and have the flexibility and platform so you can integrate to all these great other solutions that you want so you can change as AI comes out and new technology is available. So I think every year NetSuite comes out with hundreds and hundreds of new features and functions based on their new release schedule and Um, and these companies get to take advantage of that because they're on the right platform. So I, I don't, I don't know if it's ever that it's too late for sure, but I just think there's a lot of companies out there that, that need a system that could truly benefit from a product like NetSuite.

Neha Soy [40:30] From an op standpoint, I would probably say two things. One would be, as you bring on multiple co-packers, I think that's where you start to truly see complexity, and I think being able to manage that clear, easy fashion, um, is probably where I would say it's kind of essential. Um, the other piece I would say is 15 to 20 million, I think, and Brian, you may or may not agree with me, but I think that's kind of where things start to get complicated and move fast. And having that synergy and that process, I think is really critical.

Speaker 3 [41:01] Yeah, just too many transactions at that point where it's just too, you can't, you can't continue to do manual processes. I think the 2020 million is about right.

Vivian Keenan [41:10] Then there's too many transactions. You got to do it before.

Neha Soy [41:13] I mean, I am a believer of day one. I fully believe that. But if you really did have to push it out, I would say that you have to get there to answer the question. But yeah, I really, you need something though. I don't think doing Excel between now and then is the right way either. So I think that's where that whole comes back to is if you're going to do something anyways, put your time into one thing that you can use for the longevity.

Melissa Travers [41:32] Yeah, well, I think at this point all the brands out there are feeling like this would be an excellent thing to at least explore right now, no matter what their size. In closing, I'd love to hear from each of you. What's the most important thing that brands out there should know before implementing an ERP? Vivian, let's start with you.

Vivian Keenan [41:52] I, I think it's really just finding a partner you can trust, find a partner who understands your industry, who has been in the game for a long time, who has examples of companies that are working with them, and you know, the customers that we have stay with us. They stay with us for the time that they're on NetSuite, so we have that longevity and we, we work with them and grow with them. So just, just find that right partner who you can grow with.

Melissa Travers [42:19] Brandon.

Speaker 3 [42:21] Yeah, I mean, Vivian said it, you've got to find the right partner who for sure knows the industry and who's not going to oversell you on, on something that you don't necessarily need. Um, and then 2, you got to make sure you can make the time to do the implementation. Like you could, you could push it out, you could, you might have moved meeting, but you still at some point you have to make the time to go through it with the team and to really, you know, get into the nitty gritty, to make sure that it's done right.

Melissa Travers [42:49] It'll save you time later on. Neha, how about you?

Neha Soy [42:51] I mean, I echo a lot of what they say. I think one, finding the right partner to be able to find the right model for you, right? And I think I did that in both cases, um, with different situations, but also making sure it's a priority across the organization, right? Everyone has to understand it and buy into it, and I think that's really critical, and I was fortunate in both incidents to have support from the CEOs and understand the importance of it. And so I think if you can sell that across the organization as well as make sure you have the right partner, then you're set up for success.

Melissa Travers [43:20] Excellent advice. Thank you so much, Brandon Lennox, Neha Swah, and Vivian Kina. Thank you so much for joining us. We all learned so much and go to luxent.com if you're thinking about implementing an ERP or you just want to have a discussion to find out what it might look like down the line. So thank you all so much for joining the Non-Base podcast and everybody else who is listening and watching. Thank you for joining. Make sure you go to nonbase.com and we will see you next time. That concludes another episode of the Nombase podcast. Many thanks to Nate Brescia, our recording engineer, Ryan Gilang, our live stream coordinator, and Josh Pratt, our podcast editor. If you enjoyed the show, please leave us a review and follow us on your listening platform of choice. Want to be part of a live recording? In register at nombase.com/podcast to join the conversation. You can also watch and listen to past episodes on Nombase.com. And don't forget to join our Nombase Slack at slack.bevnet.com for company updates, industry networking, and community discussions. See you next time.