Episode
Customer Due Diligence in Action: Ivy Millman on Revenue Sustainability, Customer Stickiness, Anonymous Feedback, and Better B2B Acquisitions
- Published
- Mar 24, 2026
- Duration seconds
- 2515
- Processing state
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- https://jaredwjohnson.com
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Summary
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 found…