Most of these offers are genuine, and few of them are neutral. In 2026 a real market pays companies for their operational records, and it has a lot of middlemen. The Who Sells Data register counted 37 programs at 28 companies that publicly pay organizations for data, or pay bounties for introductions to them, as of Oct 14, 2026. Many of the emails owners receive come from those programs or from people paid by them. The task is to work out who is writing, who pays them and what they are asking you to agree to. If you want a neutral view of what your data is worth before you reply, get a confidential estimate.
Is this market real?
Yes. micro1 committed $1B over 12 months to license company operating data on Oct 9, 2026. Google won the bankruptcy auction for Spirit Airlines’ internal records with a $10M bid in August (iTnews, Aug 19, 2026). Published bands run from about $10K to $5M per license. Our guide on what company data is worth lists them.
Who is actually writing to you?
There are four kinds of sender. Each one is paid differently.
- A buyer. A data company that licenses records and resells or uses them for AI labs, such as micro1, Mercor, Mode or Polyshares. Polyshares says plainly, “We are the buyer” (Polyshares, observed Oct 16, 2026).
- A referrer paid by a buyer. Someone who earns a bounty if you sign with a particular buyer.
- An intermediary paid by the buyer side. Pewter says its fee is paid by the licensing partner when a deal closes (Pewter).
- An intermediary paid by you. A seller-side advisor that charges you a fee and runs your records past several buyers.
Look up the sender in our buyer directory or the Who Sells Data register. If you cannot find them, ask for the legal entity, address and the buyer they represent.
How do referrers get paid?
Buyers publish bounties for introductions. As of October 2026:
- Grepped: 10% of the owner payment, capped at $100K per deal (Grepped referral terms, effective Oct 13, 2026).
- Mode: 6% of the deal or $50K, whichever is greater (Who Sells Data, Oct 8, 2026).
- micro1: up to $50K per referred company, or 7.5% of the license price where none is listed (Who Sells Data, Oct 14, 2026).
- Scale AI and The General Data Company: up to $50K.
- Nyne AI: up to $20K. Handshake AI: $10K. Turing: up to $10K.
These bounties are published and lawful. They also mean the person who emailed you may earn more if you sign with one particular buyer. Grepped’s own terms require referrers to tell owners they may be paid for the introduction (clause 2.3). Ask every sender the same question: who pays you, and how much?
What about the 48-hour deadline?
Business Insider reported in October 2026 that some companies are getting six-figure offers they must decide on within 48 hours. Reclaim The Net cited the report on Oct 14, 2026. A deadline that short gives you no time to check ownership, employee notice or vendor terms. Those checks protect you, and the published timelines in this market are much longer. Mercor typically pays 2–4 weeks after signing (Mercor). Mode expects about three months from first conversation to payment (Mode). Turing confirms its figure after a sample that usually takes a week (Turing). A serious buyer will wait for your lawyer. Ryan Lock, a data broker, said on the NGMI podcast in October 2026 that the first offer for his own company’s data gave him two days to accept, and that his co-founder negotiated it up about four times. His account is unverified, but it shows how much room a first offer can leave. Marin Data will never rush a client to sign.
Red flags
- No legal entity or address. Datapayd’s page, for example, names no entity, address or buyer (Datapayd, observed Oct 16, 2026). That does not make it a scam, but you cannot check who you are dealing with.
- A request for data before an NDA. Nobody needs your raw records to make a first offer. Buyers ask about headcount, years and tools first.
- Raw exports by email. Ask where de-identification happens. Scale AI anonymizes inside your environment before extraction. Nyne AI and Collinear take the data first and anonymize on their side. Know which you are agreeing to.
- A payment you have to make. We found no legitimate buyer that charges the seller upfront. Mode and Polyshares say they charge no fee at all.
- A guaranteed price before review. Mode calls its calculator “not a guaranteed offer.” Grepped’s referral terms forbid referrers from promising a price (clause 5.2).
- Pressure to keep it from your lawyer or board. A license of company records needs officer sign-off and often legal review.
Green flags
- A named company with a published program page and terms.
- An NDA before any detail.
- A written offer that sets out scope, field of use, de-identification, deletion and payment milestones.
- Payment on delivery or acceptance, with the timing written down.
- Willingness to let you compare offers.
What to reply
Thank them and ask five questions in writing. Who is the legal entity buying the license? Who will end up with the data? Who pays you, and how much? Where and by whom is the data de-identified? What is your timeline from sample to payment? A real buyer answers all five.
Getting a second opinion
Marin Data works for the seller and costs you nothing; the AI lab pays us. We are not an agent of any buyer above.
Sources
- NGMI podcast, interview with data broker Ryan Lock, Oct 16, 2026 (his figures are his own and unverified)
- Who Sells Data, buying programs, observed Oct 14, 2026
- micro1, $1B enterprise data commitment, Oct 9, 2026
- iTnews (Reuters), Google to buy Spirit Airlines business data, Aug 19, 2026
- Grepped referral terms, effective Oct 13, 2026
- Reclaim The Net, citing Business Insider, Oct 14, 2026
- Polyshares, Pewter, Mercor, Mode, Turing Project Lazarus, Datapayd, observed Oct 16, 2026