Selling your startup's data when winding down

Who owns the data and who can authorise a sale

The data belongs to the company, not to the founders personally. Any sale or licence must therefore be authorised by the company, usually by a board decision. If a liquidator or administrator has been appointed, they generally control company assets and take the decision, with any proceeds going towards creditors first. Your articles or shareholder agreement may also require investor consent for disposing of significant assets.

Which data has value

• Slack or Teams history showing decisions and hand-offs
• Product specs, wikis and project documents
• Engineering tickets, code and code reviews
• Customer support tickets and resolutions
• Sales notes and CRM activity

Longer history and more people generally add value. micro1's defunct track requires 30+ employees (micro1's published requirement), with mainly English records and Slack or Teams history. Our guide to what company data is worth explains the other factors.

Export before you cancel anything

This is where most value is lost. Once a subscription ends, many providers delete workspace data after a period. Before cancelling, check:

• Slack: which export options your plan allows and who holds owner access
• Google Workspace or Microsoft 365: that an admin can export mail and drive content
• Notion or Confluence: full workspace export, including attachments
• Jira or Linear: issue history with comments
• Zendesk or other help desks: ticket exports with conversations

Keep exports in secure storage the company controls, and record who has access.

Privacy and de-identification

Your records contain personal data about staff, customers and contacts, so privacy law such as GDPR or CCPA still applies. In a data partnership, records are de-identified before licensing: names, emails and personal identifiers are removed or masked, and data is reviewed before transfer. Exclude client data covered by NDAs, and check your customer contracts for deletion commitments. More detail on your duties is in what to do with company data when shutting down.

Telling investors

Tell investors early. They will want to know what is being licensed, on what terms and where proceeds go. Being open avoids surprises and helps if consent is needed. Explain the safeguards, including de-identification and the written scope, and confirm whether proceeds sit with the company or, in a formal insolvency, are handled by the liquidator for creditors.

The process with micro1's defunct track

1. Take the free Cadabra valuation for an indicative range.
2. Apply to micro1's Defunct Company Data Partnership.
3. micro1 reviews the company and its records.
4. A scoping call agrees which sources and date ranges are included.
5. You approve a written scope.
6. The data is de-identified, then transferred securely.
7. Payment follows under the agreed terms once the data is approved.

For reference, micro1's published range ($100k to $2M+ per data package), subject to micro1's review and approval; not guaranteed. Defunct partnerships are covered. If your liquidator or an advisor is handling the wind-down, they can refer the company through our partner programme. The full process is explained in the micro1 data partnership, explained.

Common mistakes founders make

Cancelling tools too early. Shutting down subscriptions to save money in the final weeks can wipe the records with the most value. Export first.

Losing admin access. If the last workspace owner leaves, exports may become difficult or impossible. Keep at least one owner account under company control until exports are complete.

Acting without authority. A founder agreeing a deal personally, without a board decision or the liquidator's involvement, can create problems later. Make sure the right people sign.

Forgetting customer commitments. Some contracts require deletion of customer data at the end of the relationship. Check them before including any customer material.

Questions to ask before signing

• Which sources and date ranges are in scope, and is everything else excluded?
• How is de-identification performed, and can you review samples first?
• What triggers payment, and what happens if some data is rejected?
• How long can the buyer keep the data, and what must be deleted afterwards?
• Where do proceeds go: to the company, or to the liquidator for creditors?

Having clear answers protects the company, its investors and its former team, and makes the process quicker for everyone involved.

Who to involve internally

Founders often try to handle everything alone in the final weeks, which is when mistakes happen. Bring in whoever owns your key systems, usually IT or an operations lead, so exports and access are not a bottleneck. Involve finance to understand how any proceeds will be treated, and legal counsel or an external advisor to review the scope, warranties and deletion terms. If investors hold consent rights over significant assets, brief them early rather than at the point of signing.

It also helps to nominate one person to coordinate the process. They keep the inventory of systems up to date, collect answers from each team, and act as the single point of contact during scoping. That avoids conflicting answers and makes review faster. Keeping a simple written log of decisions, such as what was excluded and why, gives you a clear record if questions come up later.