Article

Can you apply without TrustPast?

By TrustPast

Updated November 1, 2026

Our pages end with a button, and for a company of 30 or more people it leads, through our estimate, to micro1 by our link. A fair-minded owner asks the obvious next question: do we need TrustPast at all? The answer is no, and this page says so plainly, then shows what applying directly looks like, what our pages add, and what we never do.

The short answer

Yes, you can apply without us. micro1 runs its own registration for companies, and anyone can reach it from micro1’s own pages.

We read micro1’s public pages again on 1 November 2026. The “Get in touch” button on its data partnerships page opens micro1’s company registration. The “Monetize your data” button on its payout estimator opens the same page.

micro1’s referral page also takes it for granted that companies arrive on their own. It speaks of a company that “has already registered independently.” It has a rule for “Applications created without the referral link.” That’s micro1 describing a direct route in its own words.

So the choice is real. You can apply through the button on our pages, or go to micro1’s site and register there. The rest of this page is about what each route involves, and what changes between them.

See your estimate

What applying directly looks like

micro1’s referral page sets out the company’s side in one line. The company’s point of contact “sets up the company’s profile on the company portal” and “completes data manifest.” That line is written for referred companies, but the portal and the manifest are the same objects either way.

The profile is who you are. The data manifest is what you keep: which systems, how many years, what’s in them. Our page on what to prepare before you apply works through that list system by system.

Then micro1 takes over. Its referral page says: “Once the company registers and completes its profile and data manifest, our team reviews the application.” Its data partnerships page adds an initial interview, which “helps assess whether the company and its data are a good fit for the program.”

After that, the published order is a call, then contracting, then the transfer. “Qualified companies are invited to connect with a Data Partnership Manager to discuss their data, licensing terms, and next steps.” Then: “If both parties agree to proceed, the company moves through contracting, data transfer, and data approval.”

micro1’s four steps put it another way. Discovery and pricing. Contracting. Delivery and acceptance. Payment. Our page on how the data partnership works walks through all four, and what happens after you apply covers the weeks in between.

None of those steps involves us. That’s true whichever route you take.

What changes, and what doesn’t, with our link

micro1’s pages describe one application for the company. Register, build the profile, complete the manifest, wait for the review. We found no second form for referred companies and no shorter path.

What the link changes is attribution. micro1 says a company “must register through your unique referral link for the referral to be attributed” to the referrer. That’s a sentence about who micro1 credits. It’s written to referrers, not to companies.

What we couldn’t find is any line saying the route changes the review, the offer or the payment. micro1 says compensation is “determined based on the characteristics and value of the data being contributed.” It lists “dataset size and volume, workflow complexity, data quality, domain expertise represented, and the uniqueness of the operational knowledge.” The route a company arrived by isn’t on that list.

We won’t claim more than that. micro1 doesn’t publish a sentence saying “the offer is the same either way.” If that matters to you, ask micro1 on the call, and have the answer in writing.

One more rule from micro1 is worth knowing before you click anything. Once a company has registered, the route is fixed. micro1 says that if a company “has already registered independently or through another partner’s link, attribution cannot be manually or retroactively changed.” So decide before you register, not after.

What we add before you apply

We, TrustPast, do three things, all of them before the application. None of them requires you to use our link.

The estimate. Our estimate asks five questions and shows a range in about two minutes. For a company of 30 or more people, it places the company inside micro1’s published band, using answers an owner can give from memory. It’s a sense of scale, not a price. The answers are worked out in your browser, and we don’t receive or store them. Our page on what our estimate measures shows the arithmetic and what the estimate can’t see.

micro1 runs a calculator of its own, too. It asks three questions: employees, years of data, and where the company is headquartered. Under the result it says “Indicative estimate only.” Ours asks about systems and industry as well, and what our estimate measures explains how each answer moves the range. Use either, or both.

The plain-words articles. micro1’s pages are written for every kind of company. Ours translate them into a contractor’s or a repair shop’s records. Our cornerstone page on what data buyers want from a trade business sorts a trade company’s files into what counts and what doesn’t. Other pages take one question each: the interview, the call, ownership, deletion, cost.

The record checklist. Before you press apply, it helps to have one page listing what you keep. Our checklist sits at the end of what to prepare before you apply. Headcount. Every system, with its first and last year. A rough count per system. The client contracts that put work out of bounds. The point of contact and the person who signs. What stays out.

That list is the same whether you apply through us or directly. It’s what micro1’s data manifest asks you to describe.

What we don’t do

This part matters more than the last one. Each line below restates something our own pages already say.

We don’t apply for you. Our referral disclosure says: “We do not introduce your company ourselves: you apply to the buyer directly through a tracked link on our site, and the buyer alone reviews, prices and licenses.” Our How it’s safe page says the same in three words: “You apply yourself.”

micro1 would not accept it otherwise. Its referral page says: “Companies must register and complete their own applications through the referral link.” It adds that “Manual introductions, applications submitted on behalf of a company, and direct meeting requests do not replace the official application process.”

We’re not party to the agreement. How it’s safe says: “Nothing is licensed until your company signs an agreement with the buyer. We are not a party to that agreement, and nothing passes through us at any step.” Our referral disclosure says micro1 is “the purchaser under its own program and its own agreement with your company.”

We don’t negotiate. Our terms of use say: “We are not a broker, an agent, a law firm, an accountant or a financial adviser.” How it’s safe says: “The buyer alone reviews, prices and licenses.” So nobody from TrustPast argues your price, or your scope, or your terms.

We don’t see your records. The disclosure says: “We never receive, store or handle your company’s files or systems. Samples and data pass directly between your company and the buyer, under their own agreement.” How it’s safe opens its answer to the question “Does TrustPast join the calls or see the files?” with one word: “No.” What we do hold, if we wrote to you, is on our page on how we use your email address.

We don’t guarantee anything. The terms of use say: “We do not guarantee any offer, any price, or any timeline.” micro1 says much the same about its own process: “There is no guaranteed timeframe between application and partnership completion.”

Put those together and the line is clean. Our work ends at the click. Everything after it is between your company and micro1.

Who pays what

Here is the money, in our disclosure’s own words and nothing more.

Our referral disclosure says micro1 “pays us a referral fee when a company that applied through our link completes a deal.” It says: “Your company pays us nothing.” It says: “We do not share our referral fee with any referred company.”

So if you apply through our link and a deal completes, micro1 pays us a referral fee. If you apply directly, micro1’s rule is that an application “created without the referral link” can’t be credited to a referrer later. In that case, nobody pays us anything for your company. Either way, your company pays us nothing.

Our page on how TrustPast is paid reads the disclosure line by line.

As for micro1’s side, its pages name no fee charged to the company at any step. The money in its four steps runs one way, from micro1 to the company. micro1 says: “Once your company transfers its data, micro1 has 30 days to review and approve it.” Then “payment will be made within 30 days of invoicing.” Our page on whether licensing your records costs anything counts the real cost, which is your office’s time.

micro1 doesn’t publish whether a referral changes what the company is paid. We’ve said what we found: the factors it names are about the data, not the route. If you want that confirmed for your company, it’s a fair question for the call.

Why some owners use the link anyway

We won’t pretend the link does more than it does. It’s a door. Some owners use it because they read our pages first, ran the estimate, worked through the checklist, and the button was simply where they were standing when they decided.

Others prefer to go to micro1’s site themselves. That’s fine too. The estimate still works, the articles still read the same, and the checklist still fits the data manifest.

There’s one practical reason to pick a route on purpose. micro1 fixes attribution at registration. If your office manager registers the company on Monday from micro1’s site, and you press our button on Tuesday, the Monday registration stands. Nobody can move it afterwards, micro1 says. That’s a rule about credit, not about your application, but it’s worth agreeing in the office who registers and from where.

Who qualifies, whichever route you take

The route doesn’t change who micro1 is looking for. Its eligibility answer reads: “We’re looking for established companies with 30+ full-time employees, mature business operations, and substantial historical operational data.”

It adds: “Data should be primarily in English. We’re currently prioritizing US companies, followed by other Western markets.” And micro1’s referral page is blunt about the review: “All companies must complete micro1’s qualification and evaluation process.”

So the link doesn’t qualify anyone. A company of 12 people isn’t a better fit because it arrived through us. A company of 60 with fifteen years of job files isn’t a worse one because it registered directly. Our page on who qualifies for the data partnership goes through micro1’s criteria one at a time.

Our estimate also points each set of answers to one buyer. For a company with 30 or more people, that’s micro1. The programme page for 30 or more sets out micro1’s terms in its own words.

What this means for a mechanical contractor

Take a hypothetical mechanical contractor with 45 people. It’s our own example, not a case micro1 has published. Eighteen years in business, mostly commercial HVAC and service contracts.

The owner reads a few of our pages and runs the estimate on a Sunday evening. The range is wide, but it’s enough to decide the application is worth an afternoon. The owner doesn’t press the button yet.

On Monday, the office manager works through the checklist. Estimates in the estimating program since 2011, every revision kept. Job files and work orders in the field service system since 2016, with the crew notes and the punch lists. Change orders in email before that. Service tickets since 2016, each with the complaint, the diagnosis and the follow-up visit. Two hospital projects with confidentiality clauses, marked to stay out.

Then the owner decides how to register. Through our button, or straight from micro1’s site. Both lead to the same company registration and the same data manifest. The office manager fills in the manifest from Monday’s list.

From there, nothing differs that we can see. micro1 reviews the application. Someone sits the interview. The owner and the office manager take the call with a Data Partnership Manager. Counsel reads the draft. The owner decides whether to sign.

What micro1 would be pricing is in those files. The bid that rose after the roof survey, and the note on why. The change order for the extra rooftop unit, and the emails that settled it. The service ticket where the first visit swapped a capacitor and the second found a failing compressor. Our pages on estimates and quotes and job files and work orders go through what makes each one useful.

None of that touches us. We’d never see the bid, the change order or the ticket, whichever button the owner pressed.

What is never included

The route doesn’t change what’s in scope. micro1 says: “We protect sensitive information through data anonymization and secure handling.” It says personal and identifying information “is removed or transformed before your data is shared with third parties.” micro1 doesn’t publish a fixed list of records it excludes.

What follows is our own advice, not micro1’s. Keep these out unless micro1 agrees otherwise in writing: 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. Add anything a client owns under its contract with you, and the customer list itself.

Customer names and payment details are never the point. What’s wanted is how an estimate became a job, how a change order was settled, and how a repair was diagnosed. Our page on what is never included shows where those records hide in a contractor’s files.

And one thing that’s never included on our side: your records. We hold none of them, before or after you apply.

What you keep, either way

micro1 says: “Companies retain ownership of their underlying data.” That’s true whichever route you came by.

You also keep every decision. How it’s safe says: “You decide whether to apply, whether to take each call and whether to sign.” Our terms of use put the legal review with you: “You are responsible for your own legal review before you agree to anything with the buyer.” Our page on whether you need a lawyer covers how to brief one.

Where we fit

We’re a small US advisory. Our about page says it in one line: “TrustPast exists to explain the process plainly and estimate a range.” You apply to the buyer yourself. The buyer pays us a referral fee; you pay us nothing.

If our pages helped, the button below opens the estimate; for a company of 30 or more, the range ends with micro1’s button. If you’d rather register on micro1’s own site, that’s a real option, and the checklist still applies. Either way, have the list of records ready before you start the manifest. Want to see the range first?

TrustPast

Questions and answers

Can a company apply to micro1 without going through TrustPast?

Yes. The “Get in touch” button on micro1’s data partnerships page opens micro1’s company registration. micro1’s referral page also speaks of companies that have “registered independently.” Nothing on micro1’s pages says a company needs us, or any referrer, to apply.

Is the application different if we use TrustPast’s link?

micro1’s pages describe one set of steps for the company: set up the profile on the company portal, complete the data manifest, then micro1’s review. The link decides who micro1 credits with the referral. We found no line on micro1’s pages saying the review, the offer or the payment changes with the route.

Does applying through TrustPast cost our company anything?

No. Our referral disclosure says: “Your company pays us nothing.” It also says micro1 pays us a referral fee “when a company that applied through our link completes a deal,” and that we don’t share that fee with any referred company.

Can we use TrustPast’s estimate and articles and still apply directly?

Yes. The estimate runs in your browser and we don’t store the answers. The articles and the checklist are free to read. Nothing on our site asks you to apply through our link before you can use it.

Can we switch to TrustPast’s link after we’ve registered with micro1?

micro1 says that if a company “has already registered independently or through another partner’s link, attribution cannot be manually or retroactively changed.” So the route is fixed at registration. That fixes who micro1 credits. We found nothing on micro1’s pages that ties what the company is paid to the route.