Updated October 2026
Selling a failed startup's assets: domain, code, IP and data
A failed startup still owns things worth selling. A SimpleClosure guide lists five kinds of asset a closing startup can put on the market: domain names, codebases, intellectual property, workspace data and documentation, and software licenses and SaaS accounts. Data is the newest line on that list and the one founders most often forget.1
The inventory
Five kinds of asset, and the buyer each one attracts
Domain names tend to go to whoever wants the name or the traffic. Codebases and IP go to companies that want the product, the technique or, increasingly, training material. Workspace data and documentation, meaning Slack, email, docs and tickets, now attract AI data buyers. Software licenses and SaaS accounts belong on the list too, if only so that nothing holding data lapses by accident.1
Treat each line as its own sale with its own buyer. The person who bids for the domain is rarely the one who wants the Slack history, and bundling them can leave value on the table. Give each asset an owner on the founding team who will see it through.
| Fact | Value and source |
|---|---|
| What a closing startup can sell | Domain names, codebases, intellectual property, workspace data and documentation, and software licenses and SaaS accounts |
| Timing of a wind-down sale | Asset value erodes quickly during a shutdown; start inventory and buyer outreach alongside dissolution filings, when buyer leverage is usually strongest |
| Deals closed | 150+ data deals for wound-down startups, typically $10K-$100K each |
| Turing Project Lazarus | Licenses code, tickets, communications and decision records from operating and winding-down companies; up to $1M in one payment |
Data
The data line, and what it has fetched
For the data itself, SimpleClosure reports 150+ deals with wound-down startups, typically worth $10K-$100K apiece. MIT Technology Review reports that 47% of SimpleClosure's deals now include code or data, so in close to half of its wind-downs, something from the code or data side found a buyer.2,3
Turing's Project Lazarus says it licenses code, tickets, communications and decision records from operating and winding-down companies, paying up to $1M in a single payment. That ceiling is Turing's own figure, and Turing resells to AI labs. Our reading: treat a published ceiling as the top of a range and the SimpleClosure band as the likely middle.4
Timing
Sell while the assets still work
The same SimpleClosure guide warns that asset value erodes quickly once a shutdown starts. It recommends running the inventory and buyer outreach alongside the dissolution filings, the stage at which, it says, leverage is usually strongest.5
Code and workspace data are the hardest assets to recover once accounts close, so put them first. A domain sitting in a registrar account can wait a few weeks. A Slack workspace whose billing has stopped may not.
Before listing
Questions to settle before anything is listed
Some assets come wrapped in other people's terms. Customer agreements, vendor terms, open-source licenses and platform API terms may say something about the data or the code. We do not interpret them. List them, hand the list to the licensing company, and get its answer in writing before a listing goes live.
Check, too, that the company actually holds what it is selling: that founders and contractors assigned their work to it, and that the domain is registered in the company's name rather than a founder's personal account.
FAQ
Questions, answered with sources
A SimpleClosure guide lists domain names, codebases, intellectual property, workspace data and documentation, and software licenses and SaaS accounts.1
Usually five figures: SimpleClosure puts its typical wind-down data deal at $10K-$100K, across 150+ deals.2
Early. A SimpleClosure guide says value erodes quickly during a shutdown and suggests starting inventory and buyer outreach alongside the dissolution filings.5
Turing says it licenses code, tickets, communications and decision records from operating and winding-down companies, paying up to $1M in one payment. The ceiling is Turing's own claim.4
MIT Technology Review reports that 47% of SimpleClosure's deals now include code or data.3
We do not answer legal questions. Ask the licensing company: their team reviews this with you before anything is signed.
We do not answer legal questions. Ask the licensing company: their team reviews this with you before anything is signed.
Before you sign
Legal questions go to the licensing company
We do not answer legal questions. Ask the licensing company before you sign: their team reviews these with you.
Questions for this kind of business
- Do any customer, vendor or API agreements restrict licensing the workspace data or the codebase?
- Is the IP fully assigned to the company, including work by contractors and by founders before incorporation?
- If the domain and the data go to different buyers, does either sale limit the other?
- Who owns this data: the company, an estate, or someone else?
- 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?