License vs Sale: Why These Deals Are Licenses, Not Sales
A license grants a buyer defined rights to use a copy of your records — for AI training, for a set term, under conditions you approve. A sale would transfer ownership. In this market the standard deal is a license: micro1, for example, states that companies keep ownership of their underlying data.
SellMyDataForAI.com helps U.S. companies with 20+ employees license their operating records — email, chat, CRM and project data — to AI labs and training-data buyers. Owners keep ownership of their data; valuation starts with a metadata-only manifest, and no raw data is shared to get an estimate.
What changes hands in a license?
A de-identified copy, plus the contractual right to use it for the purposes and period the license states. Your originals stay in your systems, your team keeps working exactly as before.
Nothing about a license interrupts operations: no migration, no downtime, no change to how your customers are served. The asset being paid for already exists — it is the history your systems have been keeping for years.
Can the same archive be licensed more than once?
Under a non-exclusive license, yes — the same records can be licensed to several buyers over time. Exclusivity changes that, which is why it is priced separately and decided deliberately. See exclusive vs non-exclusive.
This is the structural reason to compare buyers before signing: the first exclusive signature can end every later conversation about the same archive.
What should the term and deletion clauses say?
The term states how long the buyer may keep and use the licensed copy; the deletion clause states what happens when the term ends — copies deleted or returned, and your right to license the archive to others fully revived. Both belong in the signed document, not in correspondence.
Term length is a priced term like any other: a longer term and a broader field of use are worth more than a short, narrow one, and the comparison at offer stage shows them side by side. What should never appear is an open-ended grant — perpetual, all-purpose, with no deletion duty — accepted by default because it was in the buyer's first draft. First drafts are starting points; the negotiation checklist on the exclusivity page covers the clauses owners most often improve.
Do you qualify? The 90-second fit check
The introduction service on this site is built for U.S. companies with 20 or more employees, 3 or more years in business, and records in 5 or more systems — such as email, chat (Slack or Teams), shared files, a CRM, support tickets, project tools, or accounting software. Individual buyers set their own floors, which may be higher (for example 30+ or 50+ staff) or lower for specific industries, and each buyer’s own floor controls for its program.
Fit floor (published): 20+ full-time staff · 3+ years of records · 5+ data sources (email, Slack/Teams, Drive/SharePoint, CRM, support, QuickBooks, calls, code, project files). The interactive checker loads here; if it does not, the interview itself runs the same check in seven minutes.
Book the 7-minute interviewNo files are uploaded in this check. Nothing is sent to find out.
Questions owners ask first
Is this a sale or a license?
A license. You keep ownership of your records and keep using them in your business. A buyer pays for the right to use a de-identified copy for AI training, on terms — length, exclusivity, permitted use — that you approve before anything is signed.
Do I have to send my data to get an estimate?
No. The estimate and the first call use only what you describe: systems, years and rough counts. Buyers bid on a metadata-only manifest. Full data moves only after you sign a license directly with a buyer, and personal data is de-identified before transfer.
What does it cost me?
$0 upfront. There is no retainer and no listing fee. We are paid a success fee only if a deal closes — the terms are stated in writing before any submission is made.