Episode 409: The Due Diligence Layer That Decides Whether a Deal Is Real with Josh Emington
From a childhood dream of becoming an inventor like Louis Pasteur to leading commercial due diligence for private equity funds like KKR and HIG, Josh Emington shares how his team sizes markets, calls real customers, and spots the growth opportunities other investors miss.
In this episode of the DealQuest Podcast, host Corey Kupfer sits down with Josh Emington, a partner at The Martec Group, a boutique strategic consulting and market research firm. Josh leads Martec's value creation team, working with lower middle market and middle market private equity funds including KKR, HIG, Granite, Rotunda Capital, and Everglades Equity.
WHAT YOU'LL LEARN
How commercial due diligence tests whether a deal's growth story actually holds up, why customer concentration can erase a company overnight, and what a free pre-diligence memo can flag before a client spends real money. Josh also explains why his team still picks up the phone to call a target's real customers, and how AI has compressed Martec's research timelines from seven days to two.
JOSH'S JOURNEY
Josh's path into research started at a scholastic book sale, where his parents picked up a chemistry kit and a book about Louis Pasteur. He decided he wanted to be an inventor who saved lives the way Pasteur had. His first real deal came as an Eagle Scout, selling popcorn door to door to earn a trip.
The professional turning point came on a customer journey project for a top manufacturer of toilet seats. When his team learned that customers had no idea who to call when a seat broke, they recommended putting the brand name on the back. Two years later Josh saw the brand on a hotel toilet seat and, as he told Corey, "just making an impact in a business like that doesn't get any better."
Over the past decade Josh has executed hundreds of global research and consulting engagements at Martec, focused on commercial due diligence, M&A funnel support, target identification, and customer due diligence anchored in primary research.
KEY INSIGHTS
Commercial due diligence looks at both the risks that could blow up a deal and the opportunities a buyer might be paying for without realizing it. Josh shared a southern Florida example where his team helped a client acquire a lawn care installation business alongside a separate maintenance company, turning one time jobs into recurring revenue.
Skipping pre-diligence is a common mistake. At least three times a year, Josh's team will deliver a short, free memo that sometimes recommends an investor not proceed at all because a technology is about to obsolesce or a competitor is far more advanced than the marketing suggests.
Customer concentration is the biggest single risk Josh's team flags. As he put it, if 10 customers or even one customer accounts for 70 percent of revenue and that relationship ends, you do not have a company anymore. Corey pushed back from his seller side perspective, arguing buyers should consider structural protections tied to retention rather than discounting valuation outright.
About 10 percent of Josh's M&A work happens on the sell side through exit planning. In one engagement, his team interviewed 2,000 rug buyers for an upper middle market online rug company to give a skeptical buyer the confidence that the brand really commanded its prices. AI has also compressed Martec's research timelines from seven days to two, and Josh's team now applies a triple AI lens to every deal, assessing how AI will affect the target's market, its workforce, and its own customers.
Perfect for private equity investors, business owners preparing for sale, and dealmakers who want to understand what really gets tested before a deal closes.
FOR MORE ON THIS EPISODE: https://www.coreykupfer.com/blog/joshemington
FOR MORE ON JOSH EMINGTON: Website: https://martecgroup.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshemington/
FOR MORE ON COREY KUPFER https://www.linkedin.com/in/coreykupfer/ https://www.coreykupfer.com/
Episode Highlights with Timestamps
[00:00:02] - Introduction and Josh's background at The Martec Group
[00:03:21] - The toilet seat project that made Josh fall in love with research
[00:09:01] - The southern Florida lawn care deal that turned one time jobs into recurring revenue [00:13:39] - The free pre-diligence memo that can stop a bad deal before it starts
[00:16:04] - The last bastion of human value and how customer due diligence really works [00:23:13] - Sizing the prize and spotting customer concentration risk
[00:38:46] - How AI has compressed research timelines from seven days to two
[00:46:56] - What freedom means to Josh
Guest Bio
Josh Emington is a partner at The Martec Group, a boutique strategic consulting and market research firm serving private equity funds and Fortune 1000 leaders. Over the past decade he has led hundreds of global research and consulting engagements focused on commercial due diligence, M&A funnel support, target identification, and customer due diligence anchored in primary research. He leads Martec's value creation team, supporting clients from thesis validation through pre-LOI and into post close growth strategy. Publicly known clients include KKR, HIG, Granite, Rotunda Capital, and Everglades Equity.
Host Bio
Corey Kupfer is an expert strategist, negotiator, and dealmaker with more than 35 years of professional deal-making and negotiating experience. Corey is a successful entrepreneur, attorney, consultant, author, and professional speaker deeply passionate about deal-driven growth. He is the creator and host of the DealQuest Podcast.
Show Description
Do you want your business to grow faster? The DealQuest Podcast with Corey Kupfer reveals how successful entrepreneurs and business leaders use strategic deals to accelerate growth. From large mergers and acquisitions to capital raising, joint ventures, strategic alliances, real estate deals, and more, this show discusses the full spectrum of deal-driven growth strategies. Get the confidence to pursue deals that will help your company scale faster.
Related Episodes
Episode 332 - John Martinka. Financial due diligence and why messy financial statements can kill a deal or cost a seller real money on valuation.
Episode 324 - Sejal Lakhani-Bhatt. Technical and cybersecurity due diligence, and how a company's IT history follows it into a sale.
Episode 351 - Corey Kupfer Solocast. A breakdown of the different types of due diligence that apply across every kind of deal.
Keywords/Tags
commercial due diligence, private equity due diligence, customer due diligence, voice of customer research, market sizing, TAM and SAM analysis, customer concentration risk, exit planning, M&A due diligence, value creation, buy side due diligence, sell side due diligence, AI in market research, deal thesis validation, competitive market mapping, business combination strategy, recurring revenue acquisition, pre-LOI diligence, lower middle market private equity, Martec Group
