Renewal prep for Shivani — from Feb 19 Brainforge x LMNT
Meeting date: Feb 19, 2026
Participants: Uttam Kumaran, Shivani, Jason, Amber Siru Lin (LMNT); Robert (Brainforge)
Purpose: Assemble what we need for Shivani leading up to the next renewal.
Contract / renewal (directly for Shivani)
- Intent: Shivani: “Contract is definitely go forward.” Not thinking of parting ways; “we got to keep going through every part of the business” — so it’ll be a while.
- Term: “Not definite until December” — effectively rolling through end of year; she wants buffer in timelines so she’s not over-committing externally.
- Brainforge ask: Robert: typically 3-month minimum for renewal; will put 6-month and 1-year options with discounts in front of LMNT. Shivani: “Sounds great.”
- In-house data hire (May-ish): Timeline ~May for bringing in a data person. Candidate from Shivani’s previous company; Phil to reach out (non-solicit), then Jason. Role = head-of-data type who can roll up sleeves (analysis, dashboards, stakeholder convos), not “that’s below my pay grade.” Eventually maybe in-house analyst + Brainforge for ad hoc; for now “contract is definitely go forward,” no change to BF scope.
- Job description: Shivani to start drafting; Uttam to help; Jason and Robert to sharpen. Brainforge has staffed this profile before (someone who can take over what we leave).
Timeline / Gantt and company reporting (for Shivani’s comms)
- Shivani’s high-level timeline (Smartsheet / sprint kickoff):
- Feb: Retail clean tables.
- March: Pilot BI tool; ingestion of marketing data.
- April: E‑commerce modeling begins.
- April–May: E‑commerce (so May isn’t “nothing”).
- June: Omnichannel insights (e.g. “California composition mostly retail”).
- July: Shift to supply side.
- Ask of Brainforge: Validate this sequence and suggest buffer so she’s not over-committing (e.g. omnichannel in July, supply discovery August). Robert to align with Uttam and reflect in Gantt.
- Phil’s note: Don’t put NetSuite in these data rows — that’s separate (NetSuite integration). Data section = analytics side only.
- North stars: (1) Good omnichannel view of revenue; (2) Supply/demand forecasting; milestones month-by-month for each.
Wholesale (Bess / finance / OKRs)
- Churn definition (agreed): Non-cumulative. “Churned” = no order in X period (e.g. 1 year); LMNT will use one definition, may differ by segment (e.g. retail 6 months). “At risk” will come back; Robert to implement change.
- Reconciliation: Jan ~0.1% mismatch; order number with wholesale price but no wholesale tag is with their team. Next: finalize modeling to filter D2C, then sync to Google Sheet for Bess so she can compare monthlies.
- OKR alignment: Additional step = match to OKR numbers (reseller domestic/international, etc.). Uttam understands; possible feedback to Madison to tag in source (e.g. wholesale-international, reseller).
- Socialization: Once sheet is less messy (pivot table / tab cleanup), Shivani will send to leadership with “how to orient to the sheet.”
Retail (Phil’s POS report / Amber)
- Phil’s retail summary: Draft for Phil and Will to review. Formatting: “Sales on latest date” column aligned; extend yellows; consider “everything in thousands” if Phil prefers.
- SDLM: “Sales on latest day” — ensure glossary (e.g. for Jasmine) is clear.
- Product categorization: Shivani has “raw products” tab as source of truth; will confirm with team then update DB. Walmart sparkling may be categorization; hold sending to Phil until Amber gives green light. Then Shivani to send to Wish for categorization update.
- Retail monthlies: Same issue as wholesale (weekly → monthly). Add monthly raw data sheet for retail so monthlies sum correctly. Amber to update; then Shivani to cross-reference with OKRs (as with wholesale).
- QA: No formal comp; gut check (e.g. Dan on Target ~$1.7M) looked good. Ready for Phil/Will review once formatting and categorization are set.
Data pipeline / ingestion
- Done: Gorgeous (Charge) unblocked and ingested.
- In progress: Polytomic — Shopify; connector for Amazon still being built. Uttam sent list: Facebook Ads, Google Ads, etc.; Shivani to work on those connections.
- Pricing: Polytomic ETL pricing estimate received; Uttam reduced ~$5k/month with timing changes. Pricing decision by tomorrow (for Monday send); Jason/Uttam to finalize.
- QuickBooks: Phil wanted to avoid spending calories on QB (moving away). Shivani firm: need connection for manual invoices only to get complete revenue view. Next step: explore connection to QuickBooks for manual invoices.
- Spins: Still blocked; another Brainforge client took ~2 weeks of escalating. Phil on the chain.
- Retail non-Emerson (Vitamin Shop, Costco, etc.): Will to send retailer data request emails (FTP etc.); “forever item” on Will’s plate.
BI / Omni
- Omni: Instance created; Brainforge connecting to Snowflake (retail + wholesale).
- Pilot: Kickoff initiated; pilot should include wholesale + retail data (retail “clean-ish” and socialized first, then play with tool). Uttam and Shivani to collaborate on pilot design; who’s on point for Retail Marts TBD.
NetSuite
- Andy to work on; Uttam’s Loom for tech team. MHI meeting after this call for updates.
Four box (week of Feb 19) — for continuity
- Progress: Wholesale rev rec methodology aligned (Amber); Gorgeous ingestion done; draft of Phil’s retail summary; Omni instance created; Polytomic pricing in progress.
- Next steps: QA and sync wholesale to GSheet for Bess; retail monthly raw + QA; Phil/Will review retail draft; Polytomic pricing decision; QuickBooks exploration; Netsuite/MHI/Andy.
- Dependencies: Spins (blocked); retailer integration (Will); Amazon connector.
Jason — what he asked / said & how to keep him along
What Jason asked / said (from transcript)
- Uttam’s tech Loom: Hadn’t watched yet. Shivani asked him to watch; he said he’d look at the Polytomic message.
- Phil’s retail report: No other thoughts — “requested format that Phil wanted, so I was like, okay.” Validated that zeros (e.g. Walmart sparkling) might be real (“we don’t have sparkling sales at Walmart right now”; “not sure if we launched sparkling”; said he’d ask).
- Retailer integration (Will’s item): Didn’t know what it was when Shivani pointed at the four box — Robert clarified (non-Emerson retail: Vitamin Shop, Costco, FTP asks).
- Progress / risk (four box): Shivani asked if he’d add anything; he was looking at “Dex actions” by mistake; locking Polytomic pricing was the only callout.
- Data hire: Shivani: “I would want you to talk to him” (candidate after Phil); Jason and Robert to sharpen the JD.
- Snowflake: Not newsworthy for four box — continue on-demand until steady state.
- Polytomic: He and Uttam to finalize pricing decision by tomorrow (for Monday send).
How to keep Jason along
- Clear ownership, minimal meetings: He’s the decision-maker on Polytomic pricing (with Uttam) and the data hire (talk to candidate, sharpen JD). Keep his touchpoints to those plus renewal when we send options — avoid pulling him into every data-detail sync.
- Async alignment: He hadn’t watched Uttam’s tech Loom. Send him the link + one-line context (Polytomic setup, Netsuite, what the tech team needs) so he’s aligned without another meeting.
- Renewal: Include him when we put 6‑month / 1‑year options in front of LMNT; he’s leadership and Shivani defers to him on hire and ops.
- No surprises: Brief him before company-wide timeline comms (Smartsheet / sprint kickoff) so the buffer and sequence we suggest don’t land as new to him.
Action items (Brainforge → Shivani / renewal)
| Owner | Action |
|---|---|
| Robert | Implement non-cumulative churn definition; bring back “at risk”; cleanup wholesale sheet before leadership socializing. |
| Robert + Uttam | First pass of Gantt beyond Feb; validate Shivani’s timeline and suggest buffer; translate planning doc into Gantt. |
| Robert | Put 6‑month and 1‑year renewal options with discounts in front of LMNT. |
| Robert | Send Jason Uttam’s tech Loom link + one-line context so he’s aligned on Polytomic/Netsuite. |
| Shivani | Work on additional connections (Facebook Ads, Google Ads, etc.) from Uttam’s list. |
| Shivani + Uttam | Collaborate on pilot design (wholesale + retail); clarify who’s on point for Retail Marts. |
| Shivani | Draft data person JD; loop Uttam, then Jason and Robert to sharpen. |
Source: Meeting transcript Feb 19, 2026 (Brainforge x LMNT). Full transcript retained in vault if needed.