Updated October 2026
How many employees do you need to sell data to AI?
Buyers
What most buyers ask for
Most buyers want 20 to 30 or more employees, and most also want a few years of records behind them. Some count only full-time office or W-2 staff, and some will count your peak headcount if the company has shrunk or closed.1,2,3,9,10,4,11
Why the floors differ: headcount is a quick check on how much written work a company produces, and buyers weigh it differently. A buyer with a floor of 30 uses it to screen fast. A buyer with no stated minimum says the length and detail of your records matter more than how many people wrote them.5,6,12,13,14,15
| Fact | Value and source |
|---|---|
| Pewter: who qualifies | US firms with 20+ full-time staff now or at peak, 3+ years of records, working mainly in English; operating, downsizing, winding down or closed |
| Who Mode takes | Most businesses or nonprofits need 20+ full-time US office employees; accounting firms 10+ and law firms 6+; several years of records they own |
| Who can sell | Companies with 30+ employees, US first, mostly English data |
| Size micro1 names on its partnership page | 30 to 200 employees |
| Who can sell | 20+ US W-2 employees and 3+ years in business |
| Who can sell | Any company with real operating history |
Brokers in the ads
What the ads in your feed say
Brokers in Meta ads quote floors from 10+ to 50+ employees, and most land on 20 or 30. A higher number in an ad does not mean a better buyer, only a stricter one.16,17,18,19,20,21,22,23,8,7
Our reading: a broker cannot place you below the floor of the buyer behind it, so the number in an ad is only as good as that buyer. Ask any broker which buyer it would send your records to.24
| Fact | Value and source |
|---|---|
| Jottings AI ad | "Run a company with 20+ people?"; "Keep the company. License the record." |
| Goldmined.ai ad | "Sell your company data - $100K-$1M" and "AI labs pay $100K-$4M"; free valuation; for companies with 30+ employees |
| Who Ventra's ads name | US companies with 30+ employees and 3+ years of records, including a furniture store owner ad ("Your sales history has a buyer") |
| Supersoniq terms and audience | "No equity, no loans"; "Written offer before anything leaves"; US companies with 50+ employees and 5+ years |
| Clova Data ads | Names Procore and Buildertrend (construction), Clio, Filevine and MyCase (law) and PSA tools (MSPs); "100% de-identified" |
| License My Data (broker) | Takes companies with 30+ employees and 2+ years, or closed companies with 50+ staff at their peak; shares commission per deal |
Why headcount
Why buyers count heads before anything else
Headcount is a quick stand-in for how much written work your business produces. Price estimators ask for it first, then for years of records, data volume and the tools you use.25,26
Headcount is not everything. Some buyers say the length and texture of the record matter more than headcount or revenue. A 25-person firm with 12 years of email and a busy ticket queue can hold more useful history than a 60-person firm that switched systems last year.6
Where you fall
What to do at 10, 25 or 40 employees
At 10 to 19 employees, ask before you prepare anything, since a few buyers state no minimum. Mode, a buyer we work with, takes accounting firms from 10 employees and law firms from 6. At 20 to 29, many buyers apply, though not those with a floor of 30. At 30 and up, most published offers we found are open to you. The quiz asks your headcount first and only introduces you to buyers we work with whose floor you clear.5,6,2,7,1,4,3,8
Count the way the buyer counts. Some count only full-time US office staff or W-2 employees, so contractors may not count, and some count your peak rather than today. If your numbers have changed, say so on the first call.2,4,1,10
FAQ
Questions, answered with sources
Before you sign
Questions to talk through with your buyer
Every business is different, so these are best talked through with the buyer you're working with. Their team goes over them with you before anything is signed.
Questions for this kind of business
- Does our headcount include contractors whose messages are in the archive, and are their messages handled differently?
- How are employee data, union contracts and NLRA questions handled?
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?