Updated November 2026
Polyshares vs Labelbox Prism: which should license your company's data?
Both start from an exclusive deal, so read that line first whichever you choose. Polyshares says it charges you no fee and promises an offer in 1-2 weeks with payment net 30-60. Labelbox Prism is the bigger company, with a smaller entry point of about $50K, paying you an upfront fee at signing plus a revenue share, and it says you can pull the data back under set conditions.1,2,3,4,5,6,7
Side by side
Polyshares and Labelbox Prism, row by row
| Topic | Polyshares | Labelbox Prism |
|---|---|---|
| What it takes | Slack, email, Drive, CRM, tickets, design files, calls and ERP8 | Work documents and systems such as Salesforce, Jira, Slack, SAP, CAD and financial workbooks9 |
| Who it wants | 50+ employees (100+ preferred), 3+ years, and five core systems10 | Most urgently, financial and scientific reasoning records; support logs, medical records and code also in high demand11 |
| Stated price | $100K-$2M+12 | From about $50K to $1M+, and more for specialized data6 |
| How you are paid | Net 30-60 once the data is approved, anonymized and delivered13 | Upfront fee at signing plus a revenue share at an unpublished rate6 |
| Time to an offer | 1-2 weeks after intake4 | Written quote in 48 hours; preliminary valuation in one business day14 |
| Exclusivity | Exclusive by default; each listed deal is a perpetual exclusive license1,15 | Exclusive by default; single-buyer access, category limits or time windows as alternatives2 |
| Pulling the data back | Not published | Kill clause with deletion in 30 days on one page; 90-day notice on another7 |
| Fees you pay | None, Polyshares says3 | Scoping is free, Prism says; ask about fees on a deal16 |
| Who you are dealing with | Polyshares, Inc., partners Nathan Mathews and Ryan Lock; no address or terms17 | Labelbox, Inc., San Francisco, CEO Manu Sharma; valued at $1.25B before its last round18,19,5 |
Read this first
Exclusive means no one else can license this data while the deal runs
An exclusive deal stops you licensing the same records to anyone else for as long as it runs, so the term matters as much as the price. All four deals Polyshares lists are described as a perpetual exclusive license, among them a $300,000 general contractor and a $275,000 solar company, while its standard wording says defined systems for a defined term. It names no company in those deals, and its current site was first archived in September 2026.15,20,1,21
Prism says more about the ways out, and says you keep full ownership and use of the data. It offers single-buyer access, category limits and time windows, and it prices extra exclusivity to the buyer, so ask what a non-exclusive deal would pay. Its own pages disagree on revocation, with 30-day deletion for set triggers in one place and 90-day notice in another, and it says models already trained cannot be unlearned.22,2,7,23
Choosing
Which fits which company
Polyshares looks for 50 or more staff, three or more years, and the five core systems: email, file storage, internal chat, CRM and accounting. Firms in law, accounting, finance, manufacturing, game studios, architecture and construction are what it says it wants most. If that is you, its stated 1-2 week offer and net 30-60 payment are what to hold it to.10,24,4
Prism fits a company with narrow, deep records, since small targeted datasets start around $50K, or one that wants ongoing income from a revenue share, as long as the rate is in writing. It states $100M+ distributed and under 21 days from first call to first wire, but Labelbox's own Series E post does not repeat those numbers, and we found no independent press on the program.6,25,5
FAQ
Questions, answered with sources
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
- If a license is exclusive and perpetual, what does that do to a later sale of the company?
- 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?