QualifyDataQualifyDataEvery question on this page is one owners actually ask before they start — about money, about privacy, about what happens to the records and who stays in control of them. The answers are the same ones we give on the call, in writing, with nothing held back for later.
The questions are grouped the way owners ask them: money first, then the process, then privacy and control, then the questions that belong to closed companies, and finally fit. If your question is about your own numbers, no page can answer it — your number only exists as a written offer after the intake call. The estimator is where the rough range starts.
Two things are worth saying before the answers. First, the figures on this page are the program's published typical figures — timelines are typical, not promised, and no offer is guaranteed to any company. Second, nothing here is legal or tax advice. Where a question touches the law, the answer you will find is how the process is built; the decision belongs to your own attorney, and we would rather route you there than pretend otherwise.
Five minutes. See if your archive qualifies.No cost. No commitment. No logins, no records handed over — just a few questions about the size of your archive.
Money is where every owner starts, so it goes first. The short version is simple: nobody can quote you a real number before the intake call, and anyone who tries is guessing. What exists before that point is a rough range from the estimator and the published case studies. These are the questions owners ask us about worth, about cost, and about whether anyone has actually been paid. The pattern underneath all four answers is the same: value is set by the archive itself — its sources, its desk staff, its years — and it is settled in a written offer, never in a sales conversation.
It depends on three things: how many different sources the work ran through and what kind of data they hold, how many people worked at desks — now or at peak — and how many years of records you kept. Case studies from AI labs run from $150K to $550K, and higher for large archives. Your own number only exists as a written offer after the intake call. The estimator gives you the rough range first.
You can. Your records are yours, and nothing in the process forces a date. But what an archive is worth depends on how much of your category the AI labs still need. They are buying aggressively right now because their models are being trained right now. As a category fills up over the next 12 to 24 months, each later archive in it is worth less — and eventually a lab may not need another one at all. The owners who move while the window is open are the ones who get the strongest offers.
Yes. Case studies from AI labs show company archives licensed at $550K, $250K and $150K and above. Those are examples of what buyers have paid for company records — not a promise of what your archive is worth. Your number only exists as a written offer after the intake call.
In a written offer, after the intake call and before you sign the license. Nobody quotes you a number before that — anyone who does is guessing.
No. You will never get a call from an AI lab, and your name is never sold or handed to buyers. We run the bidding ourselves, and when it is done you hear from us once — one call, with the best bid in writing. Lead-generation companies sell your name to everyone; that is the opposite of how this works.
Nothing, at any step. Your business never pays anything.
The process is built so that you never hand over a login and never commit to anything before you have seen a written offer. There is one intake call, and it covers counts and sizes only — no records change hands at that stage. After it, your archive goes in front of 15 AI companies and they bid. These questions cover what buyers take, who they are, and how long the whole thing runs.
The records that show how real work got done: email, team chat, documents and spreadsheets, CRM history, support tickets, project files, accounting records, HR and payroll records, and databases. How many different sources the work ran through is what drives the value most.
AI companies that train models on how real businesses operate, and the data companies that supply them. QualifyData works with 15 of them. Instead of taking one buyer's number, your archive is put in front of all of them and they bid.
Typically 90 to 120 days from signing to payment. The steps: a 30-minute intro call, a services agreement, a 60-to-90-minute intake call, the written offer, the license, the export, a review of about 30 days, then payment.
This is the section most owners read twice, and they should. You keep your originals. Identifiers come out before any developer sees a single line. Your attorney reviews every document before you sign anything, and the license you sign sets the term, the purpose and the limits. Control is not a promise in this program — it is written into how each step works.
No. You license a cleaned copy of your records for a set term. Your originals stay yours, you keep using them, and the license has an end date. It is a license, not a sale.
The cleaned data itself carries no names — identifiers are replaced before any developer sees it, and buyers typically agree not to name you publicly. The AI company you sign the license with knows who it signed with, because the agreement is between you and them. Everyone downstream of that sees the work, not the company.
Never. We never touch or access your data — not during the intake, not during the export, not ever. The intake covers counts and sizes only. Your records go straight from your systems to the AI company you sign with.
What a buyer can and cannot do with the cleaned copy is set by the license you sign — the term, the purpose and the limits are in that agreement, and your attorney reviews it before you sign anything. If a term is not one you can live with, that is the time to say so, and nothing moves until the license is right.
That is a decision for your own attorney, and we don't advise on it. What we can tell you is how the process is built: owners license records their own company created, identifiers are removed before any developer sees a line, and your attorney reviews every document before you sign anything.
A closed company's records do not stop being an asset on the day the doors close — but the clock does run. Cloud accounts lapse, storage gets cleared, and custodians destroy records when retention periods run out. A closed archive is measured at its peak, in its final stretch of real operation. These questions cover what still counts, who can sign, and how long an owner has to decide. The closed-companies page goes deeper on all of it, including who holds signing authority in a wind-down and what the records cost to keep while you decide.
The records don't disappear — the duties around them continue. Tax, employment and industry rules require most records to be kept for years, so they sit in storage units, old servers and cloud accounts that somebody is still paying for. Until those accounts lapse or the records are destroyed on schedule, they are an asset the closed company still holds.
Yes — that is exactly the situation this page is for. A closed company's archive is measured as it was at its peak, in its final stretch of real operation: the desk staff it had, the years of records it built, the systems it ran on.
The person or entity that holds authority over the company's records — the owner, the estate, or a trustee, depending on how the company closed. Your attorney confirms who holds it in your case before anything is signed.
While the records still exist and you can still get to them. Cloud accounts lapse, storage gets cleared, and custodians destroy records when retention periods run out. The order that protects you is: license first, then let the accounts go.
Nothing. Your business never pays anything — and for a closed company, a license can end a storage bill instead of adding one.
Fit is about the shape of the work, not the size of the company on paper: people working at desks, years of records, and the ordinary systems the work ran through. Some fields qualify smaller because their records are dense. The AI companies make the final call on fit — and that call starts with the five-minute check, not with anything on this page.
Companies with fewer than about 20 people working at desks, fewer than 3 years of records, or work that left almost nothing in writing. Staffing firms, defense work, cannabis, and franchise locations are also not a fit for this program. Some fields qualify smaller — healthcare and dental, law, accounting and tax, and finance can fit at 10 or more desk staff.
Most owners read the guide next — it walks through the whole program in one place, from what buyers pay for to what stays private, with the fit standards set out in tables. Then they run the estimator for the rough range. Owners of closed companies usually go to the closed-companies page first, because their questions run on a different clock. If the range makes sense, the next step is the 30-minute intro call, where we follow one job through your systems and you ask whatever this page did not answer. Nothing about that call commits you to anything — it is the same conversation as this page, with your own systems in it.
Five minutes. See if your archive qualifies.We never touch or access your data. Not during the intake, not during the export, not ever. Your records go straight from your systems to the AI company you sign with — we are never in that chain.
And your business never pays anything.