Whizdom Review: Customer Due Diligence That Fills the Gap Most Buyers Miss

Whizdom Review: Why Customer Due Diligence Is the Missing Piece in Most Acquisitions

Here’s a hard truth most SBA buyers don’t want to hear: your Quality of Earnings report tells you about the numbers, but it doesn’t tell you about the customers behind those numbers. That’s where Whizdom comes in.

Whizdom is a specialized due diligence firm that focuses exclusively on customer due diligence for business acquisitions. Led by CEO Ivy Millman (Stanford MBA, CPA), Whizdom provides pre-acquisition customer analysis that helps buyers understand the most important asset of any business: its customer base. Listed on VerSquare.com, Whizdom fills a critical gap in the traditional DD process.

About Whizdom

Whizdom (whizdom.co) occupies a unique niche in the due diligence landscape. While most DD firms focus on financial analysis, tax review, or legal compliance, Whizdom has built their entire practice around one question: How healthy is this business’s customer base, and what does that mean for the buyer?

The firm is led by Ivy Millman, who brings a powerful combination of credentials:

• Stanford MBA — Top-tier business education with deep analytical training
• CPA — Certified Public Accountant, providing the financial rigor needed for DD work
• Acquisition-focused expertise — Built Whizdom specifically to serve the M&A community

This combination of elite business education, accounting credentials, and laser focus on customer analysis makes Whizdom’s leadership uniquely qualified for what they do.

What Is Customer Due Diligence?

Before diving into Whizdom’s specific services, it’s worth understanding why customer due diligence matters — and why most buyers skip it to their detriment.

Traditional financial due diligence (QoE reports) answers questions like:

• Are the reported earnings accurate?
• What are the legitimate add-backs?
• What’s the normalized working capital?

Customer due diligence answers fundamentally different — and equally important — questions:

• Why do customers buy from this business? Is it the owner’s relationships, the brand, the location, or the product/service?
• How loyal are the customers? What’s the retention rate, and what drives churn?
• What happens to customer relationships when ownership changes? This is the #1 risk in most small business acquisitions
• How concentrated is the customer base? Is 40% of revenue coming from one customer who has a personal relationship with the current owner?
• What do customers actually think? Are they satisfied, at-risk, or actively looking for alternatives?
• What’s the customer lifetime value? Are you buying a business with high-value, long-term customers or a revolving door?

Whizdom’s Core Services

Pre-Acquisition Customer Analysis

Whizdom’s primary offering is their pre-acquisition customer analysis, which provides buyers with a comprehensive understanding of the target’s customer base before closing. This typically includes:

• Customer concentration analysis — Mapping revenue distribution across the customer base to identify dangerous concentration
• Customer satisfaction assessment — Understanding how customers feel about the business and their likelihood to stay post-acquisition
• Relationship dependency mapping — Identifying which customer relationships are tied to the current owner vs. the business itself
• Churn risk evaluation — Predicting which customers are at risk of leaving and why
• Revenue quality from the customer perspective — Are customers growing, stable, or declining in their spend?
• Competitive positioning — How do customers view the business relative to competitors?

Customer Transition Risk Assessment

Perhaps the most valuable aspect of Whizdom’s work is understanding what happens to the customer base during an ownership transition. Key areas include:

• Owner-dependent relationships: Identifying customers who buy because of the owner’s personal relationships
• Contract analysis: Understanding renewal timelines, auto-renewal provisions, and termination clauses
• Key account stability: Deep-diving into the top 10–20 accounts that drive the majority of revenue
• Employee-customer relationships: Understanding which employees have the customer relationships (and whether they’re staying post-acquisition)

Why Customer Due Diligence Is Critical for SBA Buyers

Let’s be specific about why this matters for SBA acquisition entrepreneurs:

The Owner Transition Risk

In most small business acquisitions, the biggest risk isn’t the financials — it’s the customer transition. Consider this scenario:

You acquire a $2M revenue business. The QoE report looks clean — $600K in adjusted SDE, 3.3x multiple, SBA loan approved. You close the deal. Within 6 months, three major customers leave because they had personal relationships with the previous owner. Revenue drops 25%. Now your debt service coverage ratio is underwater.

This scenario plays out more often than anyone in the industry wants to admit. Customer due diligence from a firm like Whizdom can identify this risk before you close.

Customer Concentration

SBA lenders are increasingly scrutinizing customer concentration, and for good reason. If one customer represents 20%+ of revenue, losing that customer could sink the business. Whizdom’s analysis goes beyond simply identifying concentration — they assess the stability of those concentrated relationships.

Revenue Sustainability

A QoE report tells you what the business earned historically. Customer DD tells you whether those earnings are likely to continue under new ownership. This forward-looking perspective is invaluable.

Strengths of Whizdom

• Unique positioning: There are very few firms that specialize exclusively in customer due diligence. Whizdom fills a genuine gap in the market
• Strong leadership: Ivy Millman’s combination of Stanford MBA and CPA credentials brings both analytical rigor and business acumen
• Complementary to QoE: Whizdom doesn’t replace your QoE provider — they complement them by analyzing the dimension that QoE reports miss
• Risk mitigation: Customer-related risks are among the top causes of post-acquisition value destruction. Identifying them pre-close is immensely valuable
• Actionable insights: Customer DD doesn’t just identify risks — it informs your transition plan, helping you prioritize which relationships to protect and how

Potential Considerations

• Additional cost: Customer DD is typically an addition to your QoE, not a replacement. Budget for both in your deal costs
• Seller cooperation: Customer due diligence may require access to customer contacts, which some sellers are reluctant to provide pre-close. Discuss access requirements upfront
• Not all deals need it: For businesses with highly diversified customer bases and no significant customer concentration, the value of dedicated customer DD may be lower
• Niche focus: Whizdom’s specialization is a strength, but it means you’ll need separate providers for financial DD, legal DD, and other workstreams

Who Is Whizdom Best For?

Whizdom is an excellent choice for:

• SBA buyers acquiring service businesses — where customer relationships are the primary asset
• Deals with customer concentration concerns — when you know or suspect that a few customers drive most of the revenue
• Acquisitions where the owner is the face of the business — and you’re worried about customer retention post-transition
• B2B acquisitions — where individual customer relationships are identifiable and assessable
• Buyers who want a complete DD picture — using Whizdom alongside a QoE provider for comprehensive coverage
• Second-time buyers who learned the hard way that customer relationships don’t always transfer

How GoSBA Loans Works With Due Diligence Firms Like Whizdom

At GoSBA Loans, we’ve funded over $320 million in SBA acquisitions through our 50+ lender network. We’ve seen firsthand how customer-related issues can derail deals — and how good customer due diligence prevents those problems.

The Complete Due Diligence Stack

We recommend SBA buyers think about due diligence in layers:

1. Financial DD (QoE) — Validates the numbers (firms like FGMK, Prosolve CPA, Kroll, Daneel Dynamics)
2. Customer DD — Validates the customer base (firms like Whizdom)
3. Legal DD — Reviews contracts, compliance, and legal risks
4. Operational DD — Assesses operations, employees, and infrastructure

Not every deal needs all four layers, but the more you invest in understanding what you’re buying, the better your outcomes will be.

GoSBA’s Free Services

GoSBA Loans is 100% free for borrowers. Our lender partners compensate us, so there’s zero cost to you. Here’s what we provide:

• Access to 50+ SBA lenders — the right lender for your specific deal
• Free professional business plan — a $2,500–$5,000 value
• Free financial projections — custom-built for your acquisition
• Expert guidance throughout the process — from LOI to closing

Final Verdict on Whizdom

Whizdom is a refreshingly differentiated due diligence provider that addresses what is arguably the most overlooked risk in small business acquisitions: customer stability. Under Ivy Millman’s leadership, the firm brings serious credentials to a critical problem. For SBA buyers acquiring relationship-driven businesses — especially service companies where the owner has been the primary customer-facing person — Whizdom’s customer due diligence can be the difference between a successful acquisition and a painful lesson.

We’d love to see more buyers incorporating customer DD into their process. The cost is modest compared to the risk it mitigates.

Rating: 4.3/5 — Unique and valuable offering that fills a critical gap in the traditional DD process. Highly recommended as a complement to financial due diligence.

Ready to Start Your SBA Acquisition?

GoSBA Loans has helped hundreds of entrepreneurs acquire businesses with SBA financing — completely free of charge. Let us match you with the right lender and guide you through the process.

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