Licensing records when a company winds down
Labs pay for the full operating record of a company, and a company that is closing can still license it. We line up the approvals, compare the wind-down buyers and run the deal before the systems are shut off.
Last verified Oct 16, 2026
Deal summary · Confidential- Industry
- Companies winding down
- Headcount
- 10–24
- Years of records
- 5–9 years
- What sells
- Email and chat archives
- Tools
- Gmail, Slack, Teams, GitHub, GitLab
- Published AI lab range
- $50K–$250K per license
- Next step
- 20-minute confidential call
Example with placeholder values. Range from AI labs' published price tiers; not an offer.
The whole process, in less than 2 minutes.
What AI labs pay for and how personal details come out.
The records buyers ask companies winding down for
Email and chat archives
Years of decisions, handoffs and arguments, de-identified by the buyer.
- Gmail
- Slack
- Teams
Codebase and git history
Worth more with its tickets and reviews attached.
- GitHub
- GitLab
Tickets and project history
What was planned, built, shipped and dropped.
- Jira
- Linear
- Asana
Documents and wikis
Runbooks, specs and the company's own playbooks.
- Google Drive
- Notion
Sales and finance workflow
Pipeline stages, deal notes and close processes. Customer lists stay out.
- HubSpot
- QuickBooks
Who buys from this industry
Public terms| Buyer | Published terms | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Turing, Project Lazarus | For operating and winding-down companies. One payment of up to $1M, valued after sampling, usually within a week. | Turing, Project Lazarus · Read Oct 16, 2026 |
| SimpleClosure, AssetHub | Success fee, percentage not published; past deals in the tens to hundreds of thousands. Free for its dissolution customers (Sep 3, 2026). Excludes sensitive employee data. | Who Sells Data, buying programs · Observed Oct 14, 2026 |
| Ooak Data | Ceiling $300K; its smallest closed deal was $20K. Takes operating, winding-down and closed companies and pays the company entity. | Who Sells Data, buying programs · Observed Oct 14, 2026 |
| Appen | Quotes per partnership with no amounts published. Offers winding-down companies a faster path and pays on acceptance. | Who Sells Data, buying programs · Observed Oct 14, 2026 |
Marin Data is not an agent of any buyer listed. See every buyer program or the price index.
The board, creditors and sometimes a court sign off
In bankruptcy, a sale of company assets needs court approval, and selling personally identifiable information can require a consumer privacy ombudsman (11 U.S.C. 363(b)(1)). Spirit Airlines is the public example: Google bid $10M for its internal data, and the court-appointed ombudsman's Oct 5, 2026 report backed the sale of de-identified data with booking and transaction records excluded. Outside bankruptcy, we get the board's written approval and check lender and creditor terms before any buyer is approached.
11 U.S.C. 363 · TNW, Spirit's privacy ombudsman backs Google's $10m data deal, Oct 9, 2026 · iTnews, Google to buy Spirit Airlines business data, Aug 19, 2026
We never license, in this industry
- Customer lists and customer databases
- HR, payroll and benefits files
- Anything identifying a person, former employees included
- Assets pledged to a lender, until the lender consents
A worked example
An illustrative case: a 15-person startup closing after 6 years, with its code in GitHub and its record in Slack, Google Drive and HubSpot. AI labs' published price tiers put a firm like this at an Estimated License Value of $50K–$250K per license. The AI lab pays that to the firm directly; Marin Data costs it nothing.
Illustrative. Range from AI labs' published price tiers; not an offer.
Questions companies winding down ask us
We already shut down. Is it too late?
Not while the records exist. Ooak takes closed companies and pays the company entity (Who Sells Data, observed Oct 14, 2026). Export the workspace and repos, and keep the paid plans running until we have talked.
Our wind-down provider handles data for free. Why use you?
SimpleClosure's AssetHub is free for its dissolution customers and takes a success fee it does not publish. We cost you nothing, and we take your records to the buyers that fit and review every offer net of fees.
What does it cost us?
Nothing up front, and nothing at all if no deal closes. Marin Data is paid by the AI lab, never out of your payment.
Find out what your records could be worth to AI companies.
Find out what your records could be worth to AI companies.
It costs you nothing.