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Updated October 2026

Selling your business? License its data first

Independent and sourced. We feature companies that pay us a referral fee. Our scores and reviews don't change for it. How we earn

Your company's written record of how it works is an asset AI buyers price on its own, and they watch deals for it: Mercor approached Warmly about its archives after HubSpot acquired the company.1

Match my companyWhat is it worth?

Why first

Why the data is worth separating out

Licensors quote an operating company $100K-$2M+ per data package, and micro1 says the seller keeps ownership. Ask each licensing company whether a license that closes before the sale can sit alongside it rather than be folded into the price.2,3,4

Polyshares lists a $110,000 license for a global marketing agency on its track record page, its own claim. At the large end, Spirit Airlines' archive drew a $10M bid from Google.5,6

This applies whether you are selling a book of business, an agency, a practice or a whole firm. The buyer of the business wants clients and staff; a data licensor wants the record of how the work was done. Ask both sides early, so neither deal surprises the other.

How

What to settle, in order

Decide scope first: your own SOPs, templates and project history are the cleanest package, and data held on behalf of clients is often excluded; Polyshares says it excludes it outright. Then ask each licensing company how long its process takes: offers usually come within a few days to two weeks, and most buyers pay within 2-8 weeks of signing, from Mercor's 2-4 weeks to Net 30-60 at Polyshares and Ventra.7,8,9,10,11

What buyers take

What licensors ask for

Licensors want the written record of how your company works. micro1 asks for internal docs, SOPs and playbooks, knowledge bases, project workflows, internal comms, templates, CRM and workflow metadata, and task histories. Mercor lists Slack, Teams, Gmail, Outlook, Salesforce, Drive, Notion and 100+ other tools. Polyshares buys Slack, email, Drive, CRM, tickets, design files, calls and ERP.12,13,14

Floors are set on headcount. micro1 asks for 30+ employees, Nyne for 20+ US W-2 staff and 3+ years, and Polyshares says any company with real operating history. If staff numbers fall ahead of a sale, check the floor against your headcount today, not at your peak.15,16,17

FAQ

Questions, answered with sources

  • Licensors take operating companies: micro1 asks for 30+ employees, Nyne for 20+ US W-2 staff and 3+ years. Whether a license can close before your sale is a question for the licensing company; ask it at the first call.15,16

  • No source we have measures that. micro1 says the seller keeps ownership, so the data is licensed, not sold; ask whether the license is exclusive, since that affects what an acquirer receives.4

  • At least one has. Mercor approached Warmly about its archives after HubSpot acquired the company.1

  • Offers usually come within a few days to two weeks: Ventra says 3-7 days and Polyshares 1-2 weeks after intake. Most buyers pay within 2-8 weeks of signing, from Mercor's 2-4 weeks to Net 30-60 at Polyshares and Ventra and 30-60 days at Your Data Value. Some pay only after they accept the data: micro1 invoices only after written acceptance.11,9,8,18,19

  • Licensors state $100K-$2M+ for operating companies. Use the calculator for a band based on headcount, years and tools; it is our estimate, not a buyer quote.2,3

  • Closed startups typically sell their archives for $10K-$100K through SimpleClosure, which has done 150+ such deals.20

  • We do not answer legal questions. Ask the licensing company: their team reviews this with you before anything is signed.

Before you sign

Legal questions go to the licensing company

We do not answer legal questions. Ask the licensing company before you sign: their team reviews these with you.

Questions for this kind of business

  • Who owns this data: the company, an estate, or someone else?
  • How does a license affect a sale of the business: reps and warranties, change of control, earnouts, exclusivity?

Questions for any buyer

  • Is the license exclusive, and for how long?
  • Can you sublicense the data, and to whom?
  • Which AI labs will receive it, and will you tell us?
  • How long do you keep it, and how is it deleted?
  • What is your liability cap, and who indemnifies whom?
  • Will the contract ban re-identification of people in the data?
  • Who removes personal data, by what method, and do we approve it first?

How this page was made

Every figure comes from a published source listed below, each with the date we checked it. Buyer statements are the buyer's own claims and are marked so in the source list. Firm counts come from the US Census Bureau's Statistics of US Businesses. Anything marked as our estimate is ours, not a buyer quote.

Drafted with AI assistance from our research files, then checked against each source. Reviewed 14 Oct 2026. Last updated 14 Oct 2026.

We feature companies that pay us a referral fee. Our scores and reviews don't change for it. See how we earn and how we rank. This site does not give legal, tax or financial advice.

Sources (20)

  1. 1.AI Weekly, summarising The Information, published 15 Aug 2026. Accessed 14 Oct 2026.
  2. 2.micro1 company referral page. Accessed 14 Oct 2026. Company's own claim.
  3. 3.Polyshares website. Accessed 14 Oct 2026. Company's own claim.
  4. 4.beri.net, published 10 Oct 2026. Accessed 14 Oct 2026.
  5. 5.Polyshares track record page. Accessed 14 Oct 2026. Company's own claim.
  6. 6.Bloomberg Law, published 17 Aug 2026. Accessed 14 Oct 2026.
  7. 7.Polyshares website. Accessed 14 Oct 2026. Company's own claim.
  8. 8.Ventra company data page. Accessed 14 Oct 2026. Company's own claim.
  9. 9.Polyshares website. Accessed 14 Oct 2026. Company's own claim.
  10. 10.Turing Project Lazarus page. Accessed 14 Oct 2026. Company's own claim.
  11. 11.Mercor Data page. Accessed 14 Oct 2026. Company's own claim.
  12. 12.micro1 Enterprise Data Partnership page. Accessed 14 Oct 2026. Company's own claim.
  13. 13.Mercor Data page. Accessed 14 Oct 2026. Company's own claim.
  14. 14.Polyshares website. Accessed 14 Oct 2026. Company's own claim.
  15. 15.micro1 company referral page. Accessed 14 Oct 2026. Company's own claim.
  16. 16.Nyne sell-company-data page. Accessed 14 Oct 2026. Company's own claim.
  17. 17.Polyshares website. Accessed 14 Oct 2026. Company's own claim.
  18. 18.Your Data Value website. Accessed 14 Oct 2026. Company's own claim.
  19. 19.micro1 Data License Master Terms, published 7 Oct 2026. Accessed 14 Oct 2026. Company's own claim.
  20. 20.Forbes, published 16 Apr 2026. Accessed 14 Oct 2026.