Your company’s data could be worth $100K–$2M+
AI labs are paying businesses for years of real work: projects, conversations, decisions and completed jobs.
We help you find out what your data is worth, connect with established buyers, and walk you through the offer.
- Keep your records
- Private details removed
- No cost to you
- Construction
- Architecture
- Accounting
- Manufacturing
- Logistics
- Engineering
- Game studios
- Closing or winding down
What could your data be worth?
Get a quick estimate based on your business. No uploads, no passwords.
Preliminary estimate. Final value depends on the records and buyer review.
The range combines team size, years of records and the types of records you have, then maps the result to illustrative bands across the $100K–$2M+ range buyers report publicly. It is not an offer or a market quote.
- Actual record volume (messages, files, projects or transactions)
- Whether the records are complete and still accessible
- Whether client contracts or confidentiality terms limit licensing
Why buyer review? Each buyer sets its own criteria and pricing. Value depends on record quality, completeness and licensing rights, not just size. This tool can't see your records. A buyer has to review what actually exists.
- Buyer-reported license range
- $100K–$2M+
- Fee to you. The buyer pays the broker.
- $0
- Ownership kept. It’s a license.
- 100%
- From intake to a first written offer
- 1–2 weeks
Public examples of companies paying for data. Neither involved SetupLobster.
Reuters reported a deal making Reddit content available to train Google’s AI models. Source: Reuters ↗
Google won the auction for Spirit’s internal emails, chats and documents. Court approval was still pending as of October 27, 2026. Source: Axios ↗
What AI labs are paying for.
Find your industry. Ranges are what buyers publish and what has closed, not offers.
Construction
Project records, drawings, site photos, Procore history
Manufacturing
Production, maintenance, inspection records, CAM programs
Accounting & tax
Workpapers, returns, bookkeeping records
Roofing & solar
The company’s operating record
Ranges are published buyer listings and reported closed deals, not offers. Your range depends on what you actually have.
There’s another asset hiding in plain sight.
There’s more there than you think.
Every customer problem your team solves leaves a trail — emails, conversations, design revisions, decisions, and the final result. Over the years, that history accumulates inside the software your business already uses.
- Your everyday work is an extraordinary asset.
- The decisions your business makes leave a record.
- The same story runs across every conversation. That’s connected context.
AI labs are looking for that kind of real-world knowledge to train their models. What was once simply a record of doing business could now be a valuable asset.
Examples of that software: Outlook, Microsoft Teams, Google Calendar, Gmail, Slack, Asana, Google Drive, Notion, Salesforce, HubSpot, GitHub, QuickBooks.
- Years of history
- Volume of records
- Connected systems
- Real decisions and outcomes
AI has read the public web. It has never seen how real work gets done.
AI labs want to train their models on how decisions get made through real workflows. What they don’t want is customer data.
A grid of hundreds of red dots for private company records, with a single black dot for the public web that AI models have already trained on. Examples of private records include change orders, closed support tickets, approved invoices, dispatch decisions, punch lists.
- 01 · RequestCustomer asks“can we get this by Friday?”Email · HubSpot
- 02 · DiscussionTeam weighs it6 messages in #ops-westSlack · Teams
- 03 · DecisionSomeone calls it“approve rush, bill at 1.3x”Email · phone
- 04 · WorkJob gets doneJob 1042 · 3 crew · 2 daysProcore · ServiceTitan
- 05 · ResultPaid, closedInvoice 7731 · paid net 14QuickBooks · CRM
Labs want this chain, request → decision → result, to learn how a company actually runs. They don’t want your customer data. That gets removed before delivery.
Your personal data is de-identified
before AI labs receive it.
Personally identifiable information (PII), including employee, customer, and contractor names, email addresses, and phone numbers, is removed or replaced as part of the agreed data-handling process.
Your original records
Stay with you
- customer
- Cedar Works LLC
- contact
- Avery Doe
- avery@cedar.co
- phone
- 310-555-0142
- request
- expedite replacement
- decision
- approve rush
De-identified
Before delivery
- customer
- Company_01
- contact
- Person_01
- [removed]
- phone
- [removed]
- request
- expedite replacement
- decision
- approve rush
What the lab receives
How the work happened
- a rush request came in
- stock and margin checked
- approved, shipped same day
- invoice paid net 14
no names · no numbers · no client
Example records are fictional.
Three steps to an offer.
- 01
Tell us what you have
Choose your systems and answer a few questions about your business. We’ll review the opportunity together on a 15-minute call.
- 02
We connect you with buyers
We introduce qualified opportunities to established data buyers. If there’s interest, they’ll review your records and may make an offer.
- 03
You review. You decide.
We’ll walk you through the offer, what data is included, privacy protections, and payment terms before you make a decision.
Save your records before you shut down the accounts.
Before closing your software accounts, find out how to preserve years of projects, conversations and business history.
Our free guides show you where to find the records and how to save them.
I’m Craig, founder of SetupLobster.
I help owners of established businesses get their company data valued and licensed to AI research labs. I also run AI-native go-to-market systems for private-equity-backed operating companies.
Here’s what that looks like: I size what you have the way buyers size it, submit it to more than one buyer, and walk you through the offer and the terms before you sign. You keep your data. The buyer pays my fee on top of your price, not out of it.
Los Angeles · LinkedIn · craig@setuplobster.com · Got an email from me? Just reply to it.
Questions owners ask first.
Does SetupLobster charge me?
No. There’s no fee to you, upfront or later. SetupLobster is an independent referrer. If a license closes, the buyer pays our commission on top of your price, not out of it.
Do we keep ownership of our data?
Yes. You license defined rights to an agreed copy and keep your originals. Check the scope and any exclusivity period in the agreement before you sign.
What about client and employee information?
It’s removed before delivery. Names, contact details and other identifiers are removed or replaced in the agreed copy, so the lab sees how the work happened, not who it was for. You can leave HR, payroll and personal mailboxes out entirely. No method removes every risk, so we go through the de-identification terms with you before you sign.
What if a client contract says the client owns the work?
Then that work is excluded from the license. We check your client contracts before anything is submitted to a buyer.
Can we pick which systems and dates are included?
Yes. You choose the systems and date ranges that go into the agreed copy. Anything you leave out isn’t licensed.
How long does it take?
We start with a 15-minute call. If there’s a potential match, we’ll help you prepare a short data inventory and speak with interested buyers. Some buyers can make an offer within 1–2 weeks of intake. Payment terms depend on the buyer and the agreement.
How many calls will I need?
One 15-minute call with me to start. If there’s interest, typically a couple of short buyer calls and a review of the offer.
We’re closing. Does that matter?
Possibly. What matters is whether the records still exist and can be accessed. Keep your software accounts open until you know what to save. Our data guides show how.
We plan to sell the business in 2–3 years. Should we wait?
Not necessarily, but exclusivity terms can touch a future sale, and a buyer of your business may need to know about the license. We’ll look at your plans and tell you if licensing now is a bad idea.