Your company's records may be one of its last assets.
Closing and closed companies are often the strongest candidates for licensing data to AI buyers, because the records are complete and no longer in daily use. The money belongs to the company and goes to creditors and shareholders in the normal order. The most important step is the first one: do not delete your workspaces before you have a plan.
Data preservation checklist
- 1
Do not delete workspaces yet
Cancelling Google Workspace, Microsoft 365 or Slack can delete data after the provider's retention window. Keep at least one admin account and export before you cancel.
- 2
Check who owns the data
In a dissolution, data is a company asset and belongs to the company (and in bankruptcy, the estate), not to founders personally. The person signing a license must have authority.
- 3
Read your customer contracts and privacy policy
Promises you made to customers survive the shutdown. Customer personal data and anything your contracts restrict stay out.
- 4
Tell the people who need to know
Your board, your lenders and, in a formal process, the trustee or assignee. In bankruptcy, a sale of assets outside the ordinary course needs court approval.
- 5
Compare more than one buyer
Several programs accept closed companies, with different structures: a one-time payment, a revenue share, or a sale through a closure marketplace.
- 6
Get the deletion date and scope in writing
Once the company is gone, nobody may be left to enforce the agreement. Make the terms clear before you sign.
For founders
You may be closing the company yourself, or with a service. Either way, start the value check before you cancel any subscriptions. We will tell you which programs accept closed companies, whether a one-time payment or a revenue share fits your timeline, and what to exclude.
For attorneys, trustees and wind-down firms
Data licensing can return money to creditors and shareholders that would otherwise be lost when accounts are cancelled. We do not touch the data and we are not a party to the license. We compare buyers, flag privacy and contract limits, and introduce the company. Buyers pay our referral fee; the estate pays nothing. Partner program.
Chapter 7, Chapter 11 and state dissolution
- State dissolution (for example a Florida LLC under Chapter 605): the company winds up its affairs, which includes collecting and selling assets, before distributing to creditors and members.
- Chapter 7: a trustee takes control of assets and liquidates them. Any license is the trustee's decision.
- Chapter 11: the debtor usually stays in control, but sales outside the ordinary course need court approval.
- Personal data in bankruptcy: if the company's privacy policy restricted transfers of personal information, the Bankruptcy Code limits a sale of it and may require a consumer privacy ombudsman. Keep customer personal data out entirely.
Questions
Can a closed startup license its Slack and code to AI companies?
Yes, several programs accept companies that are winding down or already closed. On our tracker, micro1, Turing (Project Lazarus), SimpleClosure AssetHub, AIData.Broker publish that they work with closed companies. The company (not the founders personally) must still own the data and have someone authorized to sign.
Who gets the money when a closed company licenses its data?
The company does, and it is distributed like any other asset in the wind-down: creditors first, then shareholders, in the order the law and your documents require. Founders should not take it personally. Ask the attorney handling the dissolution.
What if we are in Chapter 7?
In Chapter 7 a trustee controls the estate's assets, including data. The trustee, not the founders, decides whether to sell or license it, and the Bankruptcy Code limits transfers of personally identifiable information when the company's privacy policy restricted them. Talk to the trustee.
We already cancelled Google Workspace. Is it too late?
Maybe not. Providers keep data for a period after cancellation, and exports you kept still count. Some buyers say they can work from exports alone.
Closing soon? Check before you cancel anything
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