Your company's data is an intangible asset

What makes workflow data valuable

AI models have read the public internet. They haven't seen how a specialist team actually works through a problem: the back-and-forth on a tricky contract, how an engineer diagnoses a fault, how an account manager handles a complaint. That record lives in your systems. Why AI companies pay for business data explains the demand.

What is your data worth? covers the published figures and every factor that moves the price.

If you're valuing or selling the business

A buyer's valuation is mostly based on profits and the assets that produce them. A one-off data license usually counts as exceptional income, so it won't lift the multiple a buyer applies to your earnings. What it can do is put cash in the business, or in owners' hands, before a sale.

• Timing: a license agreed before a sale is a contract the buyer will want to read. One agreed after a sale is the new owner's decision.
• Disclosure: expect due diligence to ask what data has been shared, with whom, on what terms and how it was de-identified. Keep the agreement and your privacy records together.
• Conditions: read the license terms for how long the data company, and the labs it supplies, can use the data and whether you're free to license it to others.
• Advice: your broker or M&A adviser should know about the license before the business goes to market.

1. A year or more before you sell

   The best time. The payment is banked, the agreement and privacy records are ready for due diligence, and you know what the data was worth before a buyer puts a price on the company.

2. Six months before

   Still workable. Allow around three months from registering to payment, and tell your adviser so the license is part of the sale pack.

3. Once a buyer is in due diligence

   Awkward. A new contract mid-sale raises questions, and the buyer may ask you to wait.

4. After completion

   The decision, and the money, belong to the new owner.

If you're closing the company, the order of events matters even more. Closing your company? Deal with its data first covers that.

What licensing involves

1. Register: a short form with your headcount, years of records and the systems you use.
2. Proposal: micro1 reviews the data and makes an offer. You decide what's in scope and what's left out.
3. Agreement and privacy checks: read the contract and ask the nine privacy questions.
4. Export and payment: micro1's engineers handle the export and de-identification. micro1 says a project takes two to three weeks, with payment in around 60 days. micro1 referral partner interview (YouTube), checked Oct 23, 2026

This is a general explanation, not financial, tax or legal advice. I'm not a valuer or a financial adviser.

Putting a figure on your company's data

Nobody can value your data without seeing it. Registering costs nothing and doesn't commit you, and the proposal gives you a real number to weigh.

I'm not employed by micro1. If a company signs up through my introduction, micro1 may pay me a referral fee. It costs you nothing and doesn't change your terms.