Is your company's data worth licensing to AI companies? For many small businesses, not yet.
AI companies have started paying to license real business records — emails, tickets, CRM and job history — to train AI that does real work. It's a real market. It's also new, fast-moving, and aimed mostly at companies with 20 or more employees. If you've been approached, or you're curious, I'll give you an honest read on whether it's worth pursuing — and help you through it if it is.
Most buyers set a minimum size.
Buyers want years of connected, digital records. Most publish a headcount floor — and most small local service businesses fall below it today.
Likely worth a look
- Roughly 20+ employees
- 3+ years of digital history
- Several connected systems — email, tickets or CRM, job or dispatch software, accounting
- You clearly own the data and your customer contracts allow it
Probably not yet
- Under about 20 people
- Work runs mostly on texts, phone calls, and one app
- Short or patchy history
- Tools whose terms forbid AI-training use of their data
Published minimums as of October 2026. These programs change often — I check current terms before any conversation.
What's been reported.
This market is new, but it isn't a rumor. Independent reporting on where the demand is coming from — and what deals have actually paid.
AI labs are buying data from dead startups to train their models
A small startup netted about $25,000 for its code plus roughly $15,000 for its workspace data. Google paid $10 million for a bankrupt airline's records.
Read the article → Forbes · Apr 2026AI's new training data: your old work Slacks and emails
A 13-year-old software company licensed its chats, tickets, and email archive as training data — the "operational exhaust" labs now treat as premium.
Read the article → Fortune · Epoch AI studyWhy the demand exists: public data is running out
A peer-reviewed Epoch AI study projects AI companies will exhaust public human-written text between 2026 and 2032 — so they're paying for what isn't public.
Read the article →Licenses US firms' accounting, CRM, ticket, and dispatch records.
Broker that licenses operating companies' records to AI labs.
AI data supplier that extracts and anonymizes records from your tools.
Marketplace that licenses records onward, paid as a share of each sale.
Named for context, not endorsements. Each sets different terms, pays differently, and changes its program often.
Not your customer list. Your know-how, written down.
Buyers pay for records that show experienced people working through real problems over years. Here's roughly how a typical small business's systems look through a buyer's eyes.
Estimates, job notes, photos, change orders, close-outs
Step-by-step expert decisions with a known outcome — exactly what's scarce.
Problems, back-and-forth, resolutions
Clear question-to-answer trails. Easy to clean.
Quotes, negotiations, scheduling, problem-solving
Rich, but full of personal details. The most cleanup — and the most care.
Numbers with a story behind them
Useful with notes and history. If it's your clients' books, the legal bar is much higher.
Often where the real decisions happened
Hard to export, spotty, or not digital at all.
A general picture, not a valuation. It's always a license, not a sale: you keep ownership, the data is stripped of identifying details before a buyer sees it, and it's deleted when the term ends.
Six questions every offer should answer.
None of these are deal-breakers. They're the things the paperwork tends to leave vague — and the first things I check.
1. What exactly am I paid for?
Fees are often priced per system or "workspace." If your email and your accounting count separately, that changes the math.
2. Exclusive to whom?
Exclusive to one buyer is common. Exclusive to everyone means no other offers for the whole term — usually two or three years.
3. How is it cleaned — and tested?
"Industry-standard de-identification" isn't an answer. Ask how names and details are removed and how they test that nobody can be traced back.
4. When do I actually get paid?
Some deals pay part up front and the rest when the buyer "accepts" the data. Know what acceptance means before you deliver.
5. What happens at the end?
The data gets deleted. What the AI learned from it doesn't. That's normal — just know it going in.
6. Do I have the right to license it?
You'll be asked to guarantee it. Client contracts and industry privacy rules decide the answer — which is why your attorney reviews every deal.
On your side of the table. Not the platform's.
The platforms are good at finding buyers. Their job is to close the deal. Mine is to make sure it's a good one for you.
Is it worth a look?
We go through your systems, how many years you have, and whether you actually own the right to license it. If the answer's no, you've spent 20 minutes.
More than one offer
Grepped is the best-known platform; others value data differently. I help you get competing offers and put them side by side, in plain English.
Through to signature
Those six questions, answered. Your attorney briefed. Follow-ups handled so it doesn't stall in your inbox.
Your attorney comes first.
Some businesses carry specific legal duties over their records — tax preparers, law firms, insurance agencies, and anyone holding financial or health information especially. De-identification may not be enough on its own. Every deal I help with includes a review by your own counsel before anything is shared.
What this is — and isn't.
Not every business qualifies
Many don't, and I'll tell you early if yours doesn't — before you've spent time on it.
Ignore the headline numbers
The big payouts you see online come from the platforms' own marketing. Real value depends on your data — the only honest number is an actual offer.
Not every deal closes
Buyers have specific needs. A good fit today may not have a buyer until next year.
It's a project, not passive income
Expect a few weeks of real work on your end — mostly gathering access and making decisions.
Pressure is a warning sign
Some buyers send six-figure offers that expire in 48 hours. A good deal survives a week for you to read it and call your attorney.
Think about your reputation
Your records include your employees' and customers' words. Consider how they'd feel about it — and whether to tell them — before anything is shared.
Prices may not last
This market is months old. What a buyer pays today for a type of record may drop as more companies sell similar data.
Asked on every first call.
Possibly, but most buyers want companies with roughly 20 or more employees and at least three years of digital records across several connected systems. Many small local service businesses don't qualify yet. Whether yours does depends on headcount, years of history, which systems you use, and whether you have the legal right to license the data. A short call answers that before you spend time with any platform.
No — these deals are licenses, not sales. You keep ownership. The data is de-identified before an AI company sees it, used under a contract with a fixed term, and deleted at the end. You approve each deal: which buyer, what scope, what price, how long, and whether it's exclusive.
Values vary widely, and the big numbers you see online come from the platforms' own marketing. The honest answer is: it depends on volume, quality, history, industry, and exclusivity — and the only way to know is to get real offers. I help you get more than one and compare them.
It can be, but don't take a platform's word for it. Reputable platforms remove names and identifying details and contractually ban re-identification. Some industries also carry specific legal duties — tax preparers, lawyers, insurance and financial firms especially. Before anything is shared, you should review the deal with your own attorney. I'll help you know what to ask.
You'll know exactly how I'm paid before any work begins — in writing, before you commit to anything.
Mahoney Advisory provides business advisory services, not legal advice. Nothing on this page is legal advice; consult your own attorney before licensing any data.
Not sure if it applies to you?
Tell me roughly how many people you have, which systems you run, and how many years of history are in them. I'll tell you honestly whether it's worth pursuing. If it isn't, that's the whole conversation — and we can talk about what else would help your business.
Ask if it's a fitryan@mahoneyadvisory.ai · (931) 729-8888 · Middle Tennessee & remote across the US