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AI Data Payout

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Why some buyers want 30+ employees and others take 10

Buyers set different staff minimums because they want different things. A buyer building AI training from repeated office routines, like micro1, wants 30 or more people doing that work. Nyne and Handshake take 20. A few name no floor, and an ad page called Nyne AI says 10. In general, more staff means more records and more kinds of work.1,2,3,4,5,6

By Lead analyst (to be named) · reviewed by Reviewing editor (to be named) · published 14 Oct 2026 · updated 18 Oct 2026

Three reasons buyers set a floor

Our small-business guide lists every buyer's minimum. This post is about why the numbers differ, because that tells you which buyers to call first.2,3,7

  1. More people make more, and more varied, records. Sunset values data by headcount, years in operation, volume and how the team used its tools. SimpleClosure says more employees and more years of operating raise the value.8,9
  2. Some buyers need the same job done many times. micro1 says it looks for well defined workflows that employees carry out again and again, and its partnership page describes companies of 30 to 200 people. Our reading: a team of three may not repeat a process often enough to teach an AI the pattern.1,10
  3. Every deal has a fixed cost. Scoping calls, cleaning, sample review and acceptance take about the same effort whatever the size. Our reading, not a buyer's statement: below a certain size, the price may not cover that work.11,12

Who sets which floor, and why that fits

The higher floors belong to buyers that want large, structured packages. micro1 asks for 30+ and pays its top tier for highly unique data. Supersoniq asks for 50+ staff and 5+ years, and talks about binders of SOPs and manuals: the kind of thing a bigger firm writes down.2,13,14,15

The 20-person floor is the busiest. Handshake, Nyne, Pewter and Cognor Labs all start there, mostly with a 3-year history attached. Nyne's ads aim at operations records like dispatch logs, which a 20-person trucking or service firm has plenty of.4,3,16,7,17

At the bottom are buyers that price case by case. Troveo names no minimum headcount, though its estimator starts at 20. Jottings states no floor. Mercor's data page names none and says the payout depends on volume, tools and depth.5,18,19

Why one company can quote two floors

Floors are not fixed rules, and the same firm sometimes quotes two different floors. A Meta page called Nyne AI advertises to firms with 10+ employees, while Nyne.ai's floor is 20, though whether both pages belong to the same company is not confirmed. Goldmined's site says 20 desk-based staff; its ads say 30+. Supersoniq's own page says 50+ staff in one place and 100+ in its page description.6,20,21

Who counts matters too. Nyne counts US W-2 employees, meaning people on payroll. Handshake counts full-time staff. Goldmined counts desk-based staff. A 30-person roofing company with 25 people in the field may count very differently from a 30-person office.3,4,20

For closed companies, buyers look back to the peak. micro1's closed-company ads ask for 25+ at the peak; Pewter takes 20+ now or at the peak.22,16

Pros and cons

Pros

  • Floors from none to 50+ mean there is usually a buyer to ask, whatever your size.5,14
  • The busiest floor, 20 staff, fits a lot of mid-sized trades and service firms.4,3
  • Closed companies are counted at their peak, not at the end.16

Cons

  • Floors are inconsistent, even within one company's own pages and ads.6,20
  • Field crews and contractors may not count toward a W-2 or desk-based floor.3,20
  • The biggest committed budget, micro1's, sits behind a 30-person floor.23,2

What it means for a business like yours

If you are close to a floor, ask the buyer how it counts before you rule yourself out. A 27-person firm with a busy office and ten years of records may be worth a call to a 30-person buyer, and a firm that dropped from 40 to 15 should mention its peak.2,16

Match the buyer to your records, not just your headcount. Lots of repeated, written routines point to buyers like micro1. Lots of operations and dispatch history point to buyers like Nyne.1,24

Should your business get in now?

Businesses are already licensing their records: micro1 has committed $1B over 12 months to buying company data, and at least 18 firms started advertising for it between September and mid-October 2026.23,25 Our view, not a promise: the money will not be around forever, because prices tend to come down as more businesses sell.23,26 Take the quiz to see which firms fit your business.

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FAQ

Questions, answered with sources

  • Buyers that require 30 employees want many people repeating the same written routines. micro1 says it looks for well defined workflows employees carry out repeatedly, and describes companies of 30 to 200.1,10

  • Handshake, Nyne, Pewter and Cognor Labs all start at 20, mostly with 3+ years in business.4,3,16,7

  • A Meta page called Nyne AI advertises to firms with 10+ employees. Troveo and Jottings name no minimum at all.6,5,18

  • Ads and websites are written at different times. Goldmined's site says 20 desk-based staff while its ads say 30+.20,6

  • Whether field workers count depends on the buyer: Nyne counts US W-2 employees, Handshake full-time staff and Goldmined desk-based staff. Ask each one.3,4,20

  • Headcount is one of the main factors in the price. Sunset values data by headcount, years, volume and tool use, and DataFactor's own tiers rise with employee count.8,27

  • 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

  • Who owns this data: the company, an estate, or someone else?
  • How are employee data, union contracts and NLRA questions handled?

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?

How this page was made: drafted with AI help from the sources below, each checked; a buyer's claims about itself are its own. Updated October 2026. How we rank.

Sources (27)

  1. 1.micro1 Enterprise Data Partnership page. Accessed 14 Oct 2026. Company's own claim.
  2. 2.micro1 company referral page. Accessed 14 Oct 2026. Company's own claim.
  3. 3.Nyne sell-company-data page. Accessed 14 Oct 2026. Company's own claim.
  4. 4.Handshake AI data partnerships referral page. Accessed 14 Oct 2026. Company's own claim.
  5. 5.Troveo business data page. Accessed 14 Oct 2026. Company's own claim.
  6. 6.Meta Ad Library, Nyne AI, published 16 Sep 2026. Accessed 14 Oct 2026. Company's own claim.
  7. 7.Cognor Labs partners page. Accessed 14 Oct 2026. Company's own claim.
  8. 8.MIT Technology Review, published 13 Oct 2026. Accessed 14 Oct 2026.
  9. 9.SimpleClosure, What Your Assets Are Worth, published 3 Sep 2026. Accessed 14 Oct 2026. Company's own claim.
  10. 10.micro1 Enterprise Data Partnership page. Accessed 14 Oct 2026. Company's own claim.
  11. 11.Summary of micro1's video "How to earn up to $2M training AI models with anonymized company data". Accessed 14 Oct 2026. Company's own claim.
  12. 12.micro1 Data License Master Terms, published 7 Oct 2026. Accessed 14 Oct 2026. Company's own claim.
  13. 13.micro1 data partnerships page. Accessed 14 Oct 2026. Company's own claim.
  14. 14.Meta Ad Library, Supersoniq, published 14 Oct 2026. Accessed 14 Oct 2026. Company's own claim.
  15. 15.Meta Ad Library, Supersoniq, published 14 Oct 2026. Accessed 14 Oct 2026. Company's own claim.
  16. 16.Pewter website. Accessed 14 Oct 2026. Company's own claim.
  17. 17.Meta Ad Library, Nyne.ai, published 4 Oct 2026. Accessed 14 Oct 2026. Company's own claim.
  18. 18.Jottings FAQ. Accessed 14 Oct 2026. Company's own claim.
  19. 19.Mercor Data page. Accessed 14 Oct 2026. Company's own claim.
  20. 20.Goldmined.ai check page. Accessed 14 Oct 2026. Company's own claim.
  21. 21.Supersoniq website. Accessed 14 Oct 2026. Company's own claim.
  22. 22.Meta Ad Library, micro1, published 9 Oct 2026. Accessed 14 Oct 2026. Company's own claim.
  23. 23.The Next Web, published 9 Oct 2026. Accessed 14 Oct 2026.
  24. 24.Nyne sell-company-data page. Accessed 14 Oct 2026. Company's own claim.
  25. 25.Meta Ad Library (our review). Accessed 14 Oct 2026.
  26. 26.TechCrunch, published 16 Sep 2025. Accessed 14 Oct 2026.
  27. 27.DataFactor data partner page. Accessed 14 Oct 2026. Company's own claim.