Questions business owners ask us

A de-identified copy of records your company already has, such as email and chat threads, support tickets, CRM history, documents, code or operations records, for an AI lab to train or test its models. You keep the originals, your systems and ownership.

AI labs and model teams building language models, agents and evaluations, companies building AI for one industry, and data companies that license from many businesses and supply the labs. We approach the buyers with a current need for your kind of records.

Licensing. The buyer gets the right to use an agreed copy for agreed purposes. Exclusivity, if any, lasts a fixed term, usually around 24 months. Your company keeps ownership and keeps using its data.

Models have already read most of the public web. To do real work they need examples of real work: how a request came in, what people tried, what they decided and how it ended. Almost none of that is public, which is why it's scarce.

Most buyers want companies with roughly 25 to 30 or more people who work at a computer every day, three or more years on the same main systems, and work that leaves a written record. Smaller companies in rare fields can still qualify, so ask anyway.

No. Buyers want how everyday work gets done, not your strategy or pricing. Client names, prices and confidential items can be removed or banded, people review the result, and you approve a sample. The license can also bar training models for your direct competitors.

It depends on rarity, years of continuous history, recorded outcomes, linked records and clean rights. Ranges buyers publish for approved deals run from about $100K to $2M, with many typical deals around $200K to $300K. Smaller companies start nearer $20K, and large, rare or exclusive data can go higher. The estimator gives a rough range; the valuation gives a real one.

Not for company records. Some public deals are priced per item, such as per document, but buyers usually price a set of company records as a whole after reading a sample. Volume decides whether a buyer looks at all; price follows how hard the data is to find elsewhere and how ready it is to use. Ten years of one specialist workflow can beat a much bigger generic archive.

Nothing upfront. We're paid a success fee only when a deal closes, at a rate agreed in writing before we start. No deal, no fee.

The buyer pays you directly on milestones written into the license, often part on signature and the rest on delivery and acceptance. Refresh deals add payments when new records are delivered.

Often. Non-exclusive licenses can run side by side, and exclusive terms end. We set terms so your archive can earn again: shorter exclusivity, renewal options and refresh fees.

Both exist. Most deals today are a one-time license fee. Operating companies can often add refreshes as new records are created, priced as a separate license. Installments on one archive are still a one-time deal.

No. A license is a commercial contract for a copy of your data. You keep your shares, your company and your data, so it's new revenue without dilution.

We tell you plainly, early, and you owe nothing. Demand changes by industry and by month, so we can also tell you what would make your records more attractive later.

Exclusive usually pays more per deal because one buyer gets the data for the term. Non-exclusive pays less per buyer but can be sold to several. We price both before you choose.

Licensing your own operating data is an ordinary commercial agreement. Three checks decide each dataset: you own it, your customer contracts and privacy policy allow de-identified use, and personal information can be removed. We run those checks before any buyer sees anything, and your counsel signs off.

Expected. Names, emails, phone numbers, account numbers and other identifiers are replaced with consistent placeholders using automated tools, then checked by trained reviewers. Records whose whole value is who the people are can't be licensed.

The usual basis is that identifiers are removed before anyone outside sees the data. Whether notice is also owed depends on your policies, contracts and state law. Ask counsel, and tell your team anyway.

Usually not on your say alone. Client files under a services agreement, a bookkeeper's client ledgers or an agency's client work belong to the client. We separate them out, or approach the client with you.

Transcripts usually come before audio. Some states require every party's consent to record, and a voice can identify a person, so raw audio gets its own review. A notice that calls 'may be recorded for training' may not cover licensing to an outside AI company, so separate consent may be needed. Ask counsel.

Your company isn't named publicly. Buyers first see an anonymous one-page summary under NDA, and your name is shared only after you approve. Most licenses also include a confidentiality clause.

The license sets how deletion requests reach the buyer. Stored copies are deleted; models already trained are usually not retrained, so check this clause before you sign.

A ten-minute valuation, a thirty-minute call, a contract review with your counsel and one export we guide. We handle the rest.

No. The valuation asks for counts and years, not files. Later you export only the agreed data. We never ask for logins to your live systems.

Deals like this typically take 30 to 90 days from first call to signed license, depending on data size, rights review and how much testing the buyer wants. Simple deals can close in a few weeks; regulated data takes longer.

It's named in the contract, deal by deal: automated tools plus human review, by us or a named specialist under contract, never by the buyer, because buyers must not see raw records. You review a sample before anything is accepted. Buyers don't accept homemade redaction because it breaks the links that make data useful.

Raw files stay with you until signing. How they're handled, how long copies are kept and when they're destroyed are written into the license.

No. It shares no files, gives nobody any right to your data and doesn't make us your representative. Any engagement comes later, in a separate written agreement you sign.

Yes, at every step. You approve the buyer, price, scope and use, and you can turn down any offer.

Yes. Time any exclusivity around your exit, since it comes up in due diligence. Ask your accountant how a one-time license fee is treated; it usually isn't recurring revenue.

Records that show reasoning and results: tickets with resolutions, deals with won/lost notes, approvals with comments, expert reports and code with its review history. Linked records across systems beat isolated exports.

Less than most owners expect on its own. It becomes valuable when threads link to tickets, CRM or project records that show what happened next.

Only if it exported cleanly and still links to the rest. Buyers score continuous years on the same tools, so the newest unbroken stretch counts most.

Yes. SOPs, checklists, runbooks and approval chains you already keep can be licensed, especially when they link to the real work they were used for. Nothing new is recorded for a deal.

Often not. Don't cancel software yet: keep the accounts or take full exports first, with dates and threads intact. Who signs depends on how the company is winding down, and in bankruptcy a court or trustee usually has to approve.

Customer and contact lists, data whose value is who the people are, HR and payroll files, health records, card numbers, passwords and keys, and privileged legal files.