A contingency or retained placement firm is paid for one thing: the right hire. To get there a recruiter writes constantly. The intake call becomes a search brief. Sourcing becomes a long list and a short list, each name with a note. Phone screens become structured write-ups. Submittals go to the client with a pitch for each candidate, and the debrief after a final round, the counteroffer conversation and the start-date confirmation all land in the ATS and the inbox.
Because each search ends in a placement or a loss, a perm firm's archive links reasoning to results more cleanly than most service businesses. It shows which kinds of candidate a client actually hired against the brief, and how long the hire lasted when a guarantee period was tracked. micro1 names recruiting firms among its target industries, and recruiters score 100 on O*NET's email scale.
This page is for perm and direct-hire recruiting firms with ten or more internal staff, across IT, accounting, engineering, sales and other desks. It walks through a week of desk activity, which buyers fit, how candidate data is separated from the know-how the firm built itself, and the questions to raise before licensing.
Worth
What a recruiting firm's data may be worth
Set for a typical recruiting firm, 25 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 recruiting and placement agencies. We can introduce you to the ones we work with.
micro1
Names recruiting firms outright and asks for task histories and CRM metadata; an ATS activity log is a task history by another name.6,3
- $100K to $2M+, micro1 says8
Watch out for: Says it removes personal details only "when relevant", so ask exactly how.11
Polyshares
Buys CRM, email and call recordings, and scrubs personal data through a third-party partner before licensing.12,13
- $100K to $2M+, Polyshares says9
- None, Polyshares says14
- An offer in 1 to 2 weeks, then paid in 30 to 60 days15
Watch out for: Exclusive by default, and every deal it lists is exclusive with no end date.16,17
Pewter
Takes US firms with 20+ full-time staff and 3+ years of records, a fit for established boutique firms.18
Watch out for: Its site was registered in October 2026 and names no people.21,22
Who wants this
Do buyers want recruiting and placement agencies?
No buyer publishes prices by industry, but their own intake forms show which industries they rate higher.
- Troveo puts something else (staffing is not listed) in its third of four demand tiers: "Standard buyer demand for your industry."23
- Polyshares takes staffing and recruiting, without marking it premium.24
- VMS, a broker, gives staffing or bpo standard weight when it estimates value.25
Which buyers take a recruiting firm your size
Shown for 25 staff, a typical recruiting firm. Ask whether contractors and part-time staff count.
micro1
Polyshares
No headcount rule; the length and texture of the record matter more27
Mode
20+ full-time US office staff (accounting firms 10+, law firms 6+)28
Pewter
20+ staff and 3+ years; by industry, from 10+ (healthcare) to 50+ (manufacturing, finance)29,30,31
Grepped
No headcount minimum stated32
Ventra
30+ US employees and 3+ years of records33
Mercor
None stated34
Troveo
No minimum stated; its estimator starts at 2035
Nyne
20+ US W-2 employees and 3+ years36
Endless
Roughly 30+ employees37
Supersoniq
50+ employees and 5+ years38
What buyers value
What in a recruiting 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Search briefs from intake calls | ATS job record, Word | A hiring manager's loose description turned into must-haves, nice-to-haves and a pitch for the role. | Confidential searches where the client is replacing someone. |
| Screening notes and scorecards | ATS notes, interview guides | Structured assessments against the brief, written within minutes of each call. | Candidate names, current employers and salaries. |
| Client submittals and debriefs | Email, ATS submittal records | The recommendation and the client's verdict, so a model can learn what a client meant by fit. | Nothing specific |
| Offer and counteroffer threads | Email, call notes | Negotiation between candidate, client and recruiter, with the final outcome recorded. | Compensation figures tied to identifiable people. |
| Desk playbooks and sourcing guides | Wiki, shared drive | How the firm finds and approaches passive candidates in each specialty: the method its recruiters wrote down, free of candidate data. | Nothing specific |
A week of records
A week of data at a recruiting firm
- Monday: two new searches opened, each with an intake call written up as a one-page brief.
- Tuesday: a long list of 60 names narrowed to 12, with a note on why each made the cut.
- Wednesday: eight phone screens scored against the brief and three submittals sent with pitches.
- Thursday: client feedback on last week's finalists, and a debrief on why the favourite was rejected.
- Friday: an accepted offer after a counteroffer, logged with the start date and guarantee period.
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 histories3
- 30 to 200 employees26
- $100K-$2M+ per data package; over $1M for unique data8
- PII removed "when relevant"11
- The company keeps ownership of its data and reviews samples before release39
- Not published
Selling or closing
Selling or closing your recruiting firm? License its data first
When a recruiting firm is sold to its senior recruiters or folded into a larger staffing group, the desk knowledge often walks out with the people. The firm's playbooks, briefs and placement records are worth raising with a buyer before that happens. Ask each licensing company whether it can take the process record without any candidate files, and whether a license signed now limits what a future owner can do with the ATS.3,4
FAQ
Recruiting and placement agencies: questions, answered
Yes. Playbooks, SOPs and templates lead micro1's list, and a desk's sourcing guides and interview scorecards usually contain no candidate information. It is a clean first package.3
Polyshares lists call recordings among the data it buys. Recorded screens also contain the most personal detail in your systems, so they need the clearest agreement on removal before anything moves.12
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 are candidate identities, employers and salaries removed from notes and email?
- Which client agreements treat searches or feedback as confidential?
- Can we bar use of the data in products that recruit against us?
- How do CCPA, GDPR, UK GDPR and state privacy laws apply, and is de-identified data still personal information?
- Do customer, vendor or platform contracts, NDAs or API terms restrict this?
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?