Episode Details

Jared Johnson sits down with Ivy Millman, CEO of WHIZDOM, to explore a missing piece in many lower middle market acquisitions: customer due diligence. Ivy shares how her background in accounting, Stanford, Apple, and decades of business-customer research led her to build a firm focused on helping buyers, investors, and operators understand what financial, legal, and technical diligence often miss. The conversation breaks down how independent customer interviews can uncover risks around retention, churn, concentration, loyalty, product issues, and transition vulnerability before a deal closes. Ivy explains her process, why customers often reveal more to a neutral third party than to sellers or buyers, and how these insights can shape valuation, confidence, and post-close growth plans. Jared also shares what he is seeing in SBA acquisition lending, including higher defaults, tighter scrutiny, and the growing need for real diligence before buyers commit to multimillion-dollar deals.

Main Takeaways:

- Customer due diligence fills a major gap left by financial, legal, quality of earnings, and technical diligence

- For B2B acquisitions, revenue sustainability depends heavily on retention, loyalty, stickiness, and switching risk

- Customers are often more candid with an independent third party, especially when they want feedback kept anonymous

- Seller-protected customer relationships do not have to block diligence if the process is structured correctly

- Independent customer calls can uncover hidden risks that materially affect valuation and deal confidence

- Customer insights can help buyers decide whether to move forward, renegotiate price, or build a stronger post-close plan

- High customer concentration becomes even riskier when relationships sit primarily with the founder or seller

- What buyers learn pre-close can become a practical roadmap for post-acquisition growth and retention

- Sellers can use the same kind of customer work before exit to improve enterprise value, loyalty, and retention

- SBA acquisition buyers should not rely on lenders, brokers, or sellers alone to validate a deal

Connect with Jared:

If you have questions for Jared, visit: https://jaredwjohnson.com

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jaredwjohnson/

Connect with Ivy:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/ivymillman/

DISCLAIMER:

The views and opinions expressed in this program are those of the guests and host. They do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of my employer.

Keywords:

customer due diligence, B2B acquisitions, lower middle market, ETA, entrepreneurship through acquisition, SBA loans, quality of earnings, QofE, customer retention, customer stickiness, customer loyalty, customer churn, revenue sustainability, founder dependency, seller transition risk, customer concentration, post-acquisition growth, valuation risk, M&A diligence, independent third party diligence