Updated October 2026
How many employees do you need to sell data to AI?
Buyers
What the companies that pay you publish
Nyne: 20+ US W-2 employees and 3+ years in business, and its ads add that you have never licensed or sold data before. micro1: 30+ employees on its referral page, and 30 to 200 on its partnership page. For a company that has closed, micro1's ads ask for 25+ employees at the company's peak.1,6,2,7,8
A few state no minimum at all: Mercor's data page names none, though its advertising targets large enterprises such as Marsh McLennan and Chubb; Troveo's pages name none, though its estimator starts at 20 employees; and Jottings AI's site names none. Polyshares says any company with real operating history. Handshake's referral program asks for 20+ full-time employees and 3+ years.9,10,11,12,3,13,14,15
| Fact | Value and source |
|---|---|
| Who can sell | 20+ US W-2 employees and 3+ years in business |
| Who can sell | Companies with 30+ employees, US first, mostly English data |
| Size micro1 names on its partnership page | 30 to 200 employees |
| Who can sell | Companies with 20+ full-time employees and 3+ years in operation |
| Who can sell | Any company with real operating history |
Brokers in the ads
What the brokers in your feed say
20+: Jottings AI ("Run a company with 20+ people?"), Cognor Labs, Data Value Check and monsterdata.ai. Construction firms with 20+ office staff for Clova Data. 30+: Goldmined.ai, Ventra and Data Specialists, plus Clova for law firms and MSPs. 50+ and 5+ years: Supersoniq. 10+: the Nyne AI page.16,17,18,19,20,21,22,23,5,4
Our reading: brokers who sell to the buyers above cannot place you below the buyer's own floor, so the broker's number is only as good as the buyer behind it. Pewter says 20+ staff and 3+ years. License My Data says 30+ employees and 2+ years, or 50+ at peak for a closed company.24,25
| Fact | Value and source |
|---|---|
| Jottings AI ad | "Run a company with 20+ people?"; "Keep the company. License the record." |
| Goldmined.ai ad | "Sell your company data - $100K-$1M" and "AI labs pay $100K-$4M"; free valuation; for companies with 30+ employees |
| Who Ventra's ads name | US companies with 30+ employees and 3+ years of records, including a furniture store owner ad ("Your sales history has a buyer") |
| Supersoniq terms and audience | "No equity, no loans"; "Written offer before anything leaves"; US companies with 50+ employees and 5+ years |
| Clova Data ads | Names Procore and Buildertrend (construction), Clio, Filevine and MyCase (law) and PSA tools (MSPs); "100% de-identified" |
| License My Data (broker) | Takes companies with 30+ employees and 2+ years, or closed companies with 50+ staff at their peak; shares commission per deal |
Why headcount
Why buyers count heads before anything else
Headcount is a quick stand-in for how much written work your business produces. Sunset, which brokers closed startups' archives, values data by headcount, years, data volume and tools. micro1's estimator puts employee count first of its six questions, ahead of years of data and how many business entities you run.26,27
It is not the whole story. Mercor's ad makes the point that a 200-employee company runs on the same systems as a 5,000-employee enterprise. A 25-person firm with 12 years of email and a busy ticket queue can hold more useful history than a 60-person firm that switched systems last year.28
Where you fall
What to do at 10, 25 or 40 employees
At 10 to 19 employees, ask before you prepare anything: the Nyne AI page says 10+, Polyshares names no number, and Nyne.ai's own site says 20+. At 20 to 29, Nyne, Handshake referrals and the 20+ brokers apply, but micro1 does not yet. At 30 and up, most published offers we found are open to you; Supersoniq asks for 50+.4,12,1,3,2,5
Count the way the buyer counts. Nyne says W-2 employees, so contractors may not count. micro1's closed-company ad counts staff at the company's peak, not today. If your numbers have changed, say so on the first call.1,8
FAQ
Questions, answered with sources
For closed companies, micro1's ads ask about staff at the company's peak (25+). For operating companies, buyers have not said. Give both numbers on the first call.8
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
- Does our headcount include contractors whose messages are in the archive, and are their messages handled differently?
- 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?