“I can run this huge operation without the need for a complex set of employees.”
– Mike Madrid, Comfortable Club
The Challenge
After a successful $142,000 crowd-funding campaign on Kickstarter, followed by a second $219,000 launch, Mike Madrid needed to find a way to manage his new found growth for his premium underwear business, Comfortable Club, and fast.
His success with Kickstarter meant he had to source, make and fulfill shipping orders for 30,000 pairs of underwear in less than a month. It also meant he had to keep track of it all – vendors, inventory, and invoices. He had some experience with software systems, but the accounting software he tried – Fresh, Zero, and NetSuite – weren’t providing him with the features, applications, and automation he needed.
He delivered those initial Kickstarter orders, but the process was difficult and inefficient. Mike had plans for further growth with Comfortable Club, and he wasn’t about to be stopped by software limitations.
The Solution
The first part of Mike’s problem was to get his accounting platform sorted out. He discovered QuickBooks Online. The mobile accessibility was ideal, and he loved that it connected with other applications that could help automate the back end of his business. He tried it, and the software worked for him.
“QuickBooks Online is up to date, every hour of the day.”
Since he wanted to concentrate on developing new products and expanding into new sales channels, Mike needed an efficient way to track and manage his inventory across multiple channels and warehouse locations. He started using Stitch Labs, a centralized inventory management solution, to automate and streamline Comfortable Club’s omnichannel operations. Stitch Labs connects directly with QuickBooks Online and is available in the QuickBooks App Center.
Stitch Labs’s cloud-based application syncs inventory across multiple sales channels — like eBay, Amazon, and Shopify — into a single dashboard, while enabling retailers to build purchase orders and manage vendor lists in QuickBooks Online. When inventory ships out, it’s noted automatically, so Comfortable Club’s profit and loss numbers are always up-to-date. Mike can also tell how profitable particular products are.
Comfortable Club now has thousands of items coming into multiple fulfillment centers, and more than 180 different SKUs in multiple warehouses. Stitch Labs pulls all of those orders into a single platform, assigns a sale and creates an invoice. The invoice is automatically fed into QuickBooks Online.
“Every single invoice, every sale through multiple channels is sent to QuickBooks Online from Stitch, it takes about thirty minutes to do my accounting and then we have a party.”
Stitch Labs and QuickBooks Online worked so well together that Mike recently started using other connected apps. Now he’s using Shopify, QuickBooks Online Payroll and Sync with PayPal.
Mike hasn’t stopped pushing for growth. Late last year, Comfortable Club launched a line of women’s underwear. They continue to uphold their commitment to using sustainable and eco-friendly fabric made from Beachwood trees. And they just launched another Kickstarter campaign for both their men’s and women’s lines.
You could say that all of Mike’s technology problems are now behind him.
