Article

Can a company get paid for its records?

Last updated October 17, 2026

You’ve run the company for years, and the paperwork piled up the whole time. The project files, the job folders and the email threads sit on a server nobody opens. Most owners think of them as storage costs, if they think of them at all. The plain answer is yes. A company can be paid for records it already keeps. Here is which records, what you keep, what micro1 publishes about the money, and where the limits are.

The short answer

Yes, with conditions. micro1 runs what it calls a Company Data Partnerships program. On its data partnerships page it says it “helps companies monetize those assets through data licensing opportunities.” The assets are the records your teams already make. micro1’s words: “Every day, your teams generate operational data and business workflows that capture how work gets done in the real world.”

That is the whole idea. You keep doing the work. The written record of how the work was done has a price, because a buyer uses it to train AI models on how real businesses run.

The conditions are just as plain. micro1 says its Enterprise Data Partnership looks for “operationally mature companies with 30+ employees, established documentation, and high-quality operational data.” It wants documentation primarily in English. It says it currently prioritises US companies, followed by other Western markets. And it decides, company by company, who qualifies. More on each of those below.

See if your company qualifies at micro1

Why a buyer pays for old records

On 9 October 2026, micro1 announced a commitment to spend $1 billion over the next 12 months acquiring and licensing enterprise operational data. In the same post it says the program “gives businesses a new revenue stream from the operational intelligence they have built over years.”

The reason is in the next lines of that post. micro1 says it uses de-identified company data to build environments that reflect real business operations. And it says why: “Real business operations involve incomplete information, competing priorities and exceptions that require judgment.”

Read that against your own files. Incomplete information is the estimate written before anyone opened the wall. Competing priorities are the three jobs that all needed the same crew on a Tuesday. Exceptions are the change order, the warranty callback, the customer who wanted it done differently. Your records hold years of those, with the outcome attached.

Here is our own observation. Nobody can produce ten years of real decisions to order. They only exist because a company ran for ten years and wrote things down. If you want the longer version of who is buying and why, read who buys company records to train AI models.

What counts, in micro1’s words

micro1 publishes the kinds of data it looks for. Under “Operational documentation” it lists “SOPs, knowledge bases, internal documentation, CRM data, project histories, and QA processes.” It adds “Decision-making patterns”, which it describes as “How teams evaluate information and make operational decisions.”

Its frequently asked questions go further. micro1 says it wants “data that reflects how work is actually performed within an organization.” That may include SOPs, process documentation, knowledge bases, workflows, templates and “other business process artifacts.” And it says the most valuable datasets “capture real operational expertise, decision-making processes, and repeatable workflows.”

On its referral page, micro1 adds one more item to the list: “operational communications.” In practice, that is the email and the chat where the work got argued out.

micro1 also names six areas where the data can come from: software and engineering, finance and accounting, customer support, sales and CRM, legal and contracts, and operations and logistics. Under operations it lists “Operational SOPs, logistics processes, fulfillment workflows, inventory management, and internal operations.”

None of those words appear on the spine of a binder in your office. So here is what they mean in the records you actually keep.

What that means in your files

This is our own translation, not a list from micro1. Take a hypothetical: a mechanical contractor with 45 staff, in business since 2009.

The SOPs are the startup checklist for a new rooftop unit, the safety sign-off before a crew goes up, the steps for closing out a job. Many were never called SOPs. They are the laminated sheet in the truck and the template in the shared drive.

The project history is every job, start to finish. The bid, the revised bid, the schedule, the submittals, the change orders, the punch list, the closeout. Fifteen years of that is the company’s whole method, written down one job at a time.

The CRM is every lead and every quote that went out, won or lost. The notes on the lost ones say why.

The QA records are the inspection reports, the commissioning sheets and the callback log. They say what “done right” meant at that company, and what happened when it wasn’t.

The email is where the exceptions live. The general contractor asks for a substitution. The project manager pushes back. The owner settles it. Three messages, and a decision with its reasoning.

Swap in your own trade. An auto group keeps repair orders and service histories. A property manager keeps work orders and vendor threads. A logistics company keeps dispatch logs and incident reports. The test is the same for all of them: does this file show how the work was done?

What is wanted, and what is not

Here is the part owners ask about first. The records are de-identified before use. micro1 says personally identifiable information is removed when relevant. It says some datasets “may undergo synthetic rewrites that preserve workflow structure while reducing direct ties to original records.”

So customer names and payments are never the point. Nobody is paying for who your customer was or what card they used. What is wanted is how the work was done. How an estimate became a job. How a change order was settled. How a repair was diagnosed, what was tried first, and what finally fixed it.

Think of a single job in your files. The address, the homeowner and the invoice total are the parts that get stripped or never belonged in the first place. The site notes, the second version of the quote and the email where the scope moved are the parts with value. If you want the long version, file by file, our guide to what data buyers want from a trade business walks through four trades.

Project history: the record that runs longest

We picked two records to look at closely, because most companies with 30 or more staff have both and undercount them. The first is the project history. micro1 names “project histories” directly in its list.

A project history is the plan and what happened to it. The bid says what the company thought the job was. The change orders say what it turned out to be. The schedule revisions say what slipped and when. The closeout says how it ended.

Say a commercial electrical contractor with 60 staff runs 150 jobs a year. Over 12 years that is 1,800 jobs, each with its own bid, changes and closeout. This is a hypothetical, and the numbers are ours. But every one of those jobs is a small case study in pricing work you couldn’t fully see, then adjusting when the building disagreed.

Owners tend to discount the messy ones. The job that ran three months late, with eleven change orders and a dispute at the end, is exactly the kind of record micro1’s post describes: incomplete information, competing priorities, exceptions that need judgment. Keep it as it is.

Email: where the reasons are

The second record is email. micro1’s referral page names “operational communications” among the data it looks for. For most companies of 30 or more, that means email first, then Slack or Teams.

The project file records what was decided. The email records why. A supplier says a part is six weeks out. The project manager asks the engineer for an equal. The engineer approves one with a note. The customer signs off. That chain is four messages, and it is the reasoning behind one line on a change order.

Say a 35-person HVAC service company has 14 years of shared inbox for dispatch and quotes. This is hypothetical too. Every morning’s reshuffle when a technician called in sick is in there. Every quote that went out, came back with a question, and went out again. No SOP covers those days. The inbox does.

You don’t have to clean any of it. The names in the email are what the de-identification step exists to remove, under rules you agree with micro1 before anything is shared.

What the company keeps

This is a licence, not a sale. micro1 describes its program as “data licensing opportunities.” On ownership, its published answer is one sentence: “Companies retain ownership of their underlying data.”

In plain terms, the company stays yours. The records stay yours. The project files stay on your server, and your staff keep using them the next morning. Nothing in micro1’s published terms asks you to sell shares, take on debt or stop operating.

micro1 also publishes what happens to the data after it is shared. It is processed for the agreed use. It is “retained only for a limited period based on agreed retention policies.” You get “the opportunity to review representative samples before prepared data is used.” And “upon request or at the end of an engagement, data is deleted according to the agreed retention and deletion terms.”

On access, micro1 says it is “restricted to a limited number of authorized team members,” and that each company’s data runs through “isolated pipelines that prevent it from being commingled with other engagements.” Our safety page covers this in plain words, step by step.

What micro1 publishes about pay

micro1 publishes numbers. On its referral page, the Enterprise Data Partnership lists “Company compensation: $100K-$2M+ for approved data packages.”

On its data partnerships page it splits that into three tiers:

“$100k+”: qualified Enterprise Data Partnerships;
“$500k+”: “Large-scale operational datasets or ongoing participation across multiple teams and business functions”;
“$1M+”: “Highly unique, proprietary operational data,” which micro1 says carries “significant value.”

micro1 also says what moves the figure. Compensation is “based on the quality, uniqueness, and value of the data provided.” The factors it names are “dataset size and volume, workflow complexity, data quality, domain expertise represented, and the uniqueness of the operational knowledge contained within the dataset.” And “each partnership is evaluated individually.”

Its FAQ adds one more line. Companies receive compensation based on the value of the data, and “may also benefit from improvements tied to the specific use cases they contribute.”

For how those factors play out in a real company’s files, read how much company records are worth. Worth two minutes to see your own range? Our estimate asks five questions.

The limits

Three of them, and they matter.

micro1 decides. Its referral page says referring a company “does not guarantee placement,” and that every company goes through micro1’s evaluation process. Fit depends on client requirements and on how well a company matches the opportunities open at the time. The 30-employee line, English and US priority are micro1’s published criteria. Meeting them gets you considered, not paid.

The range is not an offer. micro1’s own estimate page says it plainly: “Indicative estimate only. Final payout is determined based on data sources, volume, quality, access terms, and due diligence.” Our estimate is the same kind of thing: a band, built from what micro1 publishes, not a price.

The timing is micro1’s. Its data partnerships page says companies from outside the strongest markets “may still be considered,” but selection “will depend on the specific needs of active opportunities and customer demand at the time.” Nobody can promise when.

One more, as our own advice. Anything a client owns under contract is the client’s. Only the contracts say which is which. Find them before the discovery call.

How it works with micro1

These are micro1’s published steps:

Get started. A short assessment “designed to identify the right partnership for your company.”
Evaluation. micro1’s team reviews the submission “to determine whether your company is a fit.”
Discovery. If there’s a potential fit, micro1 requests more information and schedules a call “to discuss your data and privacy requirements.”
Partnership. If approved, micro1 finalises the agreement and the data requirements, and the partnership begins.

micro1 also says that after a referral, its team guides the company through an initial interview to assess fit. Companies that meet the criteria move on to partnership discussions, the agreement and onboarding. What happens at each step, and what the company keeps along the way, is on how the micro1 data partnership works.

Company representatives must be able to work with micro1 in English throughout, according to micro1’s FAQ. Plan for whoever knows the records best to be on the discovery call.

What this means for a company with 30 or more staff

At 30 people, a company can’t run on conversation. Someone wrote the SOPs because new hires kept asking. Someone set up the CRM because three estimators couldn’t share a spreadsheet. The project files exist because six jobs at once don’t fit in one head. Our page for companies with 30 or more staff goes through why that line matters.

Here is what such a company usually keeps, as our own description and not micro1’s list:

the project history: bids, revisions, change orders, schedules, closeouts, by job and by year;
the email: the shared inboxes for quotes, dispatch and complaints, and the project managers’ threads with customers and suppliers;
the SOPs and checklists, including the ones nobody calls SOPs;
the CRM, with the lost quotes and the notes on why;
the QA record: inspections, sign-offs, callbacks and what fixed them;
the chat channels where the day got reorganised.

The question is how many years, and how completely, the work was written down. A company that switched systems in 2019 still has the old export somewhere. Those years count too. Find the file before you fill in the estimate.

What is never included

micro1 says every partnership is designed around the company’s requirements, “with clear controls over what is shared, how it is handled, and what is never included.” It says that before any participation, the two sides define together the approved data scope and clear boundaries, the security and confidentiality standards, the anonymisation and redaction requirements, and the internal approval processes. What is excluded is settled with each company before any participation, not published as a list.

Buyers commonly exclude attorney-client privileged records, health information, payment-card and financial-account details, Social Security numbers, minors’ data, biometric data, and classified or export-controlled material. That is our own advice, not micro1’s. Ask micro1 before you apply if any of your records sit near those lines.

Two more, also as our own advice. Anything a client owns under contract stays out. And staff personnel files were never how the work was done, so they don’t belong in the scope.

Where we fit

We, TrustPast, explain the process and give you a range with our estimate. Five questions, two minutes. The estimate is ours, not an offer. You apply to micro1 yourself, through the button below. micro1 pays us a referral fee. You pay us nothing. We never see your files.

Before you apply

Four things to settle first, as our own advice:

Count the people. micro1’s published line is 30 or more employees.
Count the years. List each system, from the project tracker to the shared inbox, and how far back it goes. Include the old ones you switched away from.
Find the client contracts. Have counsel read them before the discovery call, so you know what stays out.
Don’t tidy up. The late jobs, the long email chains and the lost quotes are the record. The de-identification step handles the names.

Then answer the five questions. If the range is worth your time, apply.

Alex, TrustPast

Questions and answers

Can a company really be paid for records it already keeps?

Yes. micro1 says it helps companies monetize their operational data through data licensing opportunities, and that participating companies receive compensation based on the value of the data provided. micro1 decides which companies and which records qualify.

Do we sell the records, or the company?

Neither. micro1 describes data licensing, and its published terms say companies retain ownership of their underlying data. The business and its systems stay yours.

How much does micro1 pay?

micro1’s partner programme lists company compensation of $100K to $2M+ for approved data packages. Its data partnerships page names three tiers: $100k+, $500k+ and $1M+. micro1 calls its own payout estimate indicative only; the final figure follows due diligence.

Which companies qualify?

micro1 says its Enterprise Data Partnership looks for operationally mature companies with 30+ employees, established documentation and high-quality operational data, primarily in English. It currently prioritises US companies, followed by other Western markets.

Do customer names go to micro1?

micro1 says personally identifiable information is removed when relevant, some datasets are rewritten synthetically, and the anonymisation and redaction requirements are defined together before any participation.