Updated October 2026
Under 20 employees: can you still license your data?
Your options are thin but not zero. One Meta page, Nyne AI, says it buys archives from businesses with 10 or more employees, and Polyshares says any company with real operating history. Most others start at 20 (Nyne.ai, Handshake referrals, Jottings AI) or 30 (micro1, Goldmined.ai, Ventra).1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8
Who might talk to you
The few offers that reach below 20
The Nyne AI page's ads say "We buy business archives" and name businesses with 10 or more employees for years. That conflicts with Nyne.ai's own 20+ W-2 rule, so ask which applies before you prepare anything. Polyshares states no headcount at all, only real operating history.1,3,2
Some brokers' floors count something other than total staff. Clova Data asks construction firms for 20+ office staff and 4+ years, which a 15-person office would not meet, but shows that some buyers count only the people who write records.9
Why the floors exist
Why small firms get turned away
Fewer people write fewer records, and every deal has fixed costs: calls, contract review, cleaning, transfer. micro1's video puts the work on its side and yours at hours, not days, but its tiers start above $100K, a size we expect a 12-person archive rarely reaches. Sunset values archives by headcount first, then years, data volume and tools.10,11,12
What helps a small firm
What can make a small archive worth a look
Depth over width. Fifteen years of job history in one well-kept system can matter more than headcount. Cielo24's 13 years of Slack, Jira and email sold for a reported hundreds of thousands of dollars, though we do not know its size at the time. The AI Data page claims older dispatch data is worth more.13,14
A rare trade. A workflow few others have written down is the kind of gap Nyne's ads mean when they say the price changes as labs fill gaps. A peak headcount above the floor. micro1's closed-company ads count staff at the company's peak (25+), not today.15,16
If the answer is no
If nobody bites, keep your records
Do not destroy anything because one buyer said no. Floors are new and moving: almost every advertiser we found launched between 2026-09-01 and 2026-10-14. Keep your archive intact, and check again as the market fills out. If you grow past 20 staff, the published offers open up.17
FAQ
Questions, answered with sources
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
- 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?