A firm that lives on federal and state work writes more than almost anyone: capture plans, proposal volumes, past performance write-ups, pricing narratives, monthly status reports, transition plans and years of email with teaming partners. AI companies license copies of company records to teach models how professional work gets scoped, written and delivered, and a contractor's proposal library is a dense example of persuasive writing produced to strict instructions under deadline.
Polyshares lists government contracting as an intake industry. As policy context, not evidence of what data buyers want, the federal government aims to send at least 23% of contract dollars to small businesses, which by our reading keeps many smaller firms writing proposals every week. Published ranges across buyers mostly run $100K to $2M, as their own claims, and none prices government work on its own.
Contract deliverables and anything an agency handed you are a separate matter. Lead with what your staff wrote to win and run work, such as proposal templates, boilerplate, capture playbooks, PM handbooks and internal training, and keep agency-provided material, program shares and deliverables off the table until you have walked through them with the buyer. The quiz shows which buyers take a firm your size.
Worth
What a firm's data may be worth
Set for a typical firm, 60 staff and 12 years of records. Move the sliders to match yours. Our estimate, not an offer.
Buyers
Which buyers want this data
Buyers whose own published rules fit government contracting firms. We can introduce you to the ones we work with.
micro1
Names consulting and professional services and asks for SOPs, playbooks and templates, the core of a capture and proposal shop.2,15
- $100K to $2M+, micro1 says5
Watch out for: Says it removes personal details only "when relevant", so ask exactly how.16
Polyshares
Lists government contracting as an intake industry and licenses defined systems for a defined term, so a proposal drive can be scoped on its own.1,17
- $100K to $2M+, Polyshares says6
- None, Polyshares says18
- An offer in 1 to 2 weeks, then paid in 30 to 60 days19
Watch out for: Exclusive by default, and every deal it lists is exclusive with no end date.17,20
Mode
Agrees systems and date ranges before export, and staff sign in to approved systems without handing over passwords, from US offices with 20+ staff.21,8
Watch out for: The program launched in October 2026 and has no deal record yet.25
Grepped
Gets read-only access to approved sources only, and any system, folder or record type can stay out, which matters when program shares sit next to proposal shares.26
Watch out for: Its own site code calls its estimator "deliberately optimistic", so treat any estimate as an indication.27,28
Ventra
Takes US companies with 30+ employees and 3+ years of records and says offers come in 3 to 7 days; government work is not on its list of industries it cannot take.10,7,29
- $100K to $2M as potential deals, Ventra says7
- None today, though it may add fees with notice30
- An offer in 3 to 7 days, then paid on net 30 or 607
Watch out for: Its terms say delivered data may not be deletable.31
Who wants this
Do buyers want government contracting firms?
No buyer publishes prices by industry, but their own intake forms show which industries they rate higher.
- Troveo puts consulting or advisory (our closest match) in its second of four demand tiers: "Your industry carries above-average buyer demand."32
- Polyshares takes government contracting, without marking it premium.33
- VMS, a broker, gives professional services (our closest match) standard weight when it estimates value.34
Which buyers take a firm your size
Shown for 60 staff, a typical firm. Ask whether contractors and part-time staff count.
micro1
Polyshares
No headcount rule; the length and texture of the record matter more36
Mode
20+ full-time US office staff (accounting firms 10+, law firms 6+)8
Pewter
20+ staff and 3+ years; by industry, from 10+ (healthcare) to 50+ (manufacturing, finance)37,38,39
Grepped
No headcount minimum stated11
Ventra
30+ US employees and 3+ years of records10
Mercor
None stated40
Troveo
No minimum stated; its estimator starts at 2041
Nyne
20+ US W-2 employees and 3+ years42
Endless
Roughly 30+ employees43
Supersoniq
50+ employees and 5+ years44
What buyers value
What in a firm's records buyers value
What buyers look for in your records, and what to talk through with your buyer before anything leaves your systems.
| Data | Where it lives | Why a buyer values it | Raise with the buyer |
|---|---|---|---|
| Proposal volumes and the boilerplate library | SharePoint, Word, Loopio or Privia | Technical, management and past performance volumes written to a solicitation's instructions, with every review team's edits. | Teaming partners' sections and all pricing. |
| Capture plans and win/loss debriefs | GovWin or Salesforce, OneNote | Why the firm bid or passed, and what the agency said after each award. | Evaluator comments and competitor names. |
| Program management plans and status reports | Word, Microsoft Project, Teams | How a contract is run month to month, with risks and fixes written up as they happen. | Whether each report was itself a contract deliverable. |
| Past performance write-ups | Shared drive | Short accounts of results backed by evidence, rewritten for each new bid. | Nothing specific |
| Internal SOPs and onboarding guides | Intranet, Deltek or Unanet help pages | How the firm trains new hires on timekeeping, travel and security procedures. | Nothing specific |
| Teaming and subcontract correspondence | Outlook, Teams | Negotiation over workshare and scope between primes and subs. | Partner names and anything shared under a teaming agreement. |
A week of records
A week of data at a firm
- Monday: a red team review tears up the management volume of a recompete, and the writers rebuild the staffing section overnight.
- Tuesday: the capture manager logs a call with a program office in the CRM and updates the win themes.
- Wednesday: the monthly status report on an existing task order goes to the contracting officer's representative.
- Thursday: a teaming partner sends back its past performance write-up, cut down to fit the page limit.
- Friday: the debrief from last month's loss is written up and filed next to the boilerplate it criticized.
Process
How it works with each buyer
In each buyer's own words. Where a buyer publishes nothing, we say so.
micro1
- Internal docs, SOPs and playbooks, knowledge bases, project management workflows, internal comms, templates, CRM and workflow metadata, task histories15
- 30 to 200 employees35
- $100K-$2M+ per data package; over $1M for unique data5
- PII removed "when relevant"16
- The company keeps ownership of its data and reviews samples before release45
- Not published
Selling or closing
Selling or closing your firm? License its data first
If a sale or the founder's retirement is coming, raise the boilerplate, capture playbooks and training material with the buyer you're working with before closing, kept apart from contract deliverables, and ask how a license would be shown to whoever buys the firm. In our reading the proposal library rarely gets its own line in a deal, yet it is the record of how the firm wins work. Buyers already approach companies around acquisitions: Mercor approached Warmly about its archives after HubSpot bought it.3
FAQ
Government contractors: questions, answered
Some list them. Polyshares has government contracting as an intake industry, and micro1 and Mercor both name professional services, where by our mapping most services contractors fall. What they list, such as SOPs, playbooks, templates, SOWs and project files, is writing a firm produces for itself.1,2,49,50
Every business is different, so this one is best talked through with the buyer you're working with. Their team goes over it with you before anything is signed.
Every business is different, so this one is best talked through with the buyer you're working with. Their team goes over it with you before anything is signed.
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
- How is controlled unclassified information (CUI) found and kept out, and who confirms the scan?
- Do FAR or DFARS data rights clauses, or any agency contract terms, reach records we produced while performing?
- How is export-controlled technical data under ITAR or EAR screened out?
- Do teaming agreements or partner NDAs limit their sections of joint proposals?
- Do CMMC requirements or our system security plan limit how data can be exported?
- Do customer, vendor or platform contracts, NDAs or API terms restrict this?
- Could the data include privileged material or trade secrets?
- How does a license affect a sale of the business: reps and warranties, change of control, earnouts, exclusivity?
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?