Article

What data buyers want from a trade business

Last updated October 16, 2026

Owners assume a data buyer wants the customer list. It is the first worry and the wrong one. A buyer pays to license records like these to train AI models, and what it pays for is how the work was done. Here is what that means in a roofer’s, an HVAC company’s, a plumber’s and an auto shop’s files. Then what in those files has value, what has none, and how it works with Polyshares.

The short answer

Three things, in order. The records are de-identified before anyone reads them. Customer names and payment details are not what the buyer wants. What it wants is the trail of how a job went from the first quote to the final invoice: the estimate, the versions of it, the job notes, the change order, the decision on each.

Polyshares puts it this way on its data licensing page: the value “is in reasoning that was captured while the work happened.” A support ticket that shows a problem being misdiagnosed, argued over and finally resolved “is worth more than a clean table of finished numbers.” And “a thread where two people disagree about a quote and work it out carries judgment that cannot be manufactured.”

Read that against your own filing cabinet. The clean table of finished numbers is your invoicing system. The reasoning is everything that came before each invoice. That is the part a buyer pays for, and the part most trade companies have never counted.

See if your company qualifies at Polyshares

De-identified before anyone reads it

Start with the step that removes the worry. Polyshares says a specialist PII partner anonymises the record first. On its data handling page: “Names, emails, phone numbers, account numbers, and addresses are removed or replaced by a specialist PII partner before Polyshares or any buyer sees the record.” Then: “Roles, timestamps, and the work itself are kept.”

So the estimate for the house on the corner keeps its measurements, its scope, its line items, its three versions and its outcome. It loses the homeowner’s name, address and phone number. The job note that says the decking was rotten keeps the decking. It loses who lived there.

Polyshares also says someone on its team reads the anonymised sample before pricing the record. If the partner reviewing the sample spots anything that reads as identifying, “the record goes back for another pass before pricing continues.” Buyers see de-identified listings only, with a code instead of your name. And “two named people are the only ones at Polyshares who see a company’s identity alongside its data.”

Before any of that, nothing has moved. Polyshares says “intake asks for record counts, not files or exports,” and “nothing leaves your systems until Polyshares has made an offer and you have accepted it.” You can find out what the record is worth without sending a single file.

What has no value

Say this plainly, because it is what owners ask first. The customer’s name has no value to the buyer. Neither does the address, the phone number or the email. Polyshares strips them. On its legal page, the reason is blunt: “No buyer with regulatory exposure will accept a record carrying personal information.” And, in the same section: “This is why anonymization happens before anything moves.”

Payment details are not how the work was done. Account numbers are on Polyshares’ list of fields removed. Card numbers and bank details, as our own advice, stay in your own filing cabinet and get raised at discovery, not put in any export.

The same goes for anything a client owns. Polyshares says its licence “does not cover what you hold on behalf of your own clients.” A general contractor holding a developer’s drawings under contract holds them for the developer. On the legal page: material held for a client under an agreement that assigns ownership to the client “cannot be licensed regardless of value, and only the contracts separate the two.” Polyshares calls this “the single most common reason a promising record turns out to be unsaleable.” Find the contracts before you count the files.

What has value

The reasoning, in the buyer’s word. In a trade company, reasoning lives in four places, and this is our own description of where to look.

The estimate chain. Version one is what the estimator saw. Version two is what the site visit changed. Version three is the insurer or the customer pushing back. Side by side, the versions show how a scope was argued and settled. A single final price shows none of it. The estimates and quotes page goes through this in detail.

The job notes. What the crew found, what they did about it, what they wrote down at the end of the day. The photo of the rotten decking and the note that says 22 sheets instead of 14.

The change orders. Each one is a decision under pressure: the scope moved, here is why, here is what it cost, here is who approved it. Ten years of change orders by job type is the company’s judgment on paper.

The outcome. Won, lost, never answered. The lost bids matter, because they record a price the market said no to. A lost bid is reasoning too.

Polyshares says, on its home page, that “depth of operating history and how much visible reasoning the record contains move the number far more than raw volume does,” and that “the length and texture of the record matter more than headcount or revenue.” A 12-person shop with 15 years of estimate chains has depth. A 60-person shop with one year of invoices has volume. Which one are you?

What a roofer’s files hold

Walk through a roofing company’s records with the buyer’s question in mind: where is the reasoning, and where is it only names and money? This is our own description, not a list from any buyer.

Value: the estimates and proposals, with the squares, the pitch, the layers to tear off and the decking allowance. The supplement requests to the insurer, and what the adjuster came back with. That exchange is a negotiation over scope, written down, hundreds of times. The change orders when the decking was rotten or the flashing was wrong. The crew notes and the photos from the first walk to the final one. The warranty records and the callbacks, which say which jobs went wrong and what fixing them took. The CRM of storm leads, canvassing and referrals, with the close rate on each source by year.

No value: the homeowner’s name on the proposal. The address. The adjuster’s name and claim number. The homeowner’s card on file. Polyshares’ PII partner removes the identifiers; the card never belonged in the export.

The roofing page lists the rest of what a roofer keeps and where the estimate sits for roofing.

What an HVAC company’s files hold

An HVAC company writes down every visit, which makes its record long and its reasoning easy to find. Our own description again.

Value: the estimates, with the load calculation, the equipment options and the price gap between repair and replace. Which option the customer picked, and what was said about it. The service agreements and the maintenance logs, visit by visit, with what was found each time. The repair tickets: what failed, what the technician checked, what was quoted, what was done. The dispatch history, because how the day got reshuffled when a unit died in July is a decision too. The CRM of which customers took the maintenance plan and which didn’t.

No value: the customer’s name and address on every ticket, the phone number the dispatcher called, the payment on file. The buyer wants the ticket. It wants the serial number of the unit only as a fact about the work, and Polyshares’ list of removed fields is where to settle what counts as an identifier.

The HVAC page has the full list and the HVAC estimate.

What a plumber’s files hold

A plumbing company’s record runs from a drain call to a whole-house repipe, and the mix by year is the company’s whole market in one file. Our own description.

Value: the quotes and estimates, and the second version after what was found behind the wall. The camera inspection reports. The permit history. The job notes and photos. The service histories by address, because the same house comes back, and the record of what was tried last time is why the second visit is shorter. The dispatch and scheduling history. The CRM of calls, follow-ups and repeat customers.

No value: who lives at the address. The buyer wants the fact that a slab leak was found under a 1970s house and that the repipe quote went up by a third. It does not want the homeowner. The address itself is on Polyshares’ list of fields removed or replaced, so what remains is the work and when it happened.

The plumbing page has the rest.

What an auto shop’s files hold

An auto shop writes an estimate on almost every car, and then a repair order on what was actually done. The gap between the two, across every car the shop ever saw, is the record. Our own description.

Value: the estimate, with the complaint, the diagnosis, the parts, the labour hours and the price. The repair order, with what was found on the lift and what changed. The inspection notes and the photos. The parts records, including the part that was ordered and sent back. The service history by vehicle, which shows what the shop recommended, what the customer declined, and what failed six months later. The scheduling history.

No value: the customer’s name, phone number and card. The plate and the VIN are identifiers; raise them at the discovery stage, because Polyshares’ published list names names, emails, phone numbers, account numbers and addresses, and does not mention vehicle identifiers either way. Ask before you assume.

The auto repair page has the rest.

The invoice is the end, not the record

Owners sometimes say their records are in the accounting system, so the rest doesn’t matter. The accounting system holds the clean table of finished numbers. Polyshares says that table is worth less than the reasoning that led to it.

Here is a worked example, as our own description. A roofing estimate goes out at version one after a drone measurement. The site visit finds two layers to tear off, and version two is higher. The insurer’s adjuster approves a number in between, and version three matches it with the scope cut to fit. The crew finds rotten decking on day one, and a change order adds sheets. The invoice shows the final figure. Only the chain shows how the company priced a roof it couldn’t fully see, then reshaped the job to a number someone else set, then handled the surprise. That chain is what the buyer is paying for. The invoice is already in the ledger.

So keep the versions. Keep the emails that caused them. Keep the lost bids. Don’t tidy up before anyone has looked.

What Polyshares has paid

Polyshares publishes four deals. Each is described as a “perpetual exclusive license to the operational record,” “anonymized before delivery,” with the company’s name kept confidential:

a roofing company, home services: $450,000;
a general contractor, construction: $300,000;
a solar company, energy: $275,000;
a global marketing agency, professional services: $110,000.

Polyshares says typical deals run $100K to $2M and above. Polyshares does not publish how many years of records or how many staff sat behind each deal, so we can’t tell you what the roofer had. We can tell you Polyshares says it looks at the record before it prices it: “We do not pay for something we have not seen.” A past deal does not predict an offer, for your company or for one like it. The published deals page keeps the list.

How it works with Polyshares

These are Polyshares’ published terms:

The company pays no fee and no commission. “Money moves one way, from us to you.”
The structure is a licence to defined operational data, non-dilutive, with no equity and no debt. “A license is not a sale.”
Intake asks for record counts, not files or exports. “Three quick questions, then the detail once your account exists. About two minutes.”
Polyshares reviews the record and returns an offer within one to two weeks.
Nothing leaves the company’s systems until an offer has been made and accepted.
A specialist PII partner removes or replaces names, emails, phone numbers, account numbers and addresses before Polyshares or any buyer sees the record.
Payment is net 30 to 60 once the data is approved, anonymised and delivered.
Licences cover defined systems and a defined term, and are exclusive by default. Resale or use beyond the licence scope is not permitted.

Polyshares also says the company is responsible for confirming ownership, because only the company holds its customer contracts, and that a company should have its own counsel review any licence before signing. We say the same. Worth two minutes to see your range? The estimate asks five questions.

What you keep

Under Polyshares’ published terms, “you keep the business and the underlying data.” The company “keeps operating exactly as before, with the same data, the same systems, the same customers.” The estimates stay in your software. The job files stay in your folders. You keep quoting from them, and the licence is to a de-identified copy within a defined scope.

What is never included

Here is what sits outside the record, as our own description, and where Polyshares’ published terms draw a line.

Customer personal details. Names, emails, phone numbers, account numbers and addresses are on Polyshares’ list of fields removed or replaced before anyone at Polyshares or any buyer sees the record. They were never the thing being bought.

Payment details. Card numbers and bank details are not part of how the work was done. Polyshares’ list names account numbers; for card numbers written on a scanned estimate, as our own advice, keep that page in your own cabinet and raise it at discovery.

Anything a client owns. Polyshares says the licence does not cover what you hold on behalf of your own clients, and that only the contracts separate the two. Find the contracts first.

Health details and employee files. A customer’s medical details on an accessibility job, or a technician’s personal file that ended up in the job folder, are personal information. Polyshares says what decides whether a record can be licensed is ownership, what the customer contracts say, and whether personal information can be removed, and that anonymisation happens before anything moves. Ask Polyshares before you apply if any of your records sit near those lines.

What Polyshares licenses is decided by Polyshares, in the offer, after it has looked at the record. We can only tell you what is usually in and usually out.

What this means for a trade company

The four trades keep different paperwork, but the test is the same. For each file, ask: does this show how the work was done, or only who it was done for and what they paid? The first kind is the record. The second kind is what the PII partner removes, or what never belonged in the export. This is our own description, not a list from any buyer.

A trade company usually holds, in the first kind: the estimate chain with its versions and its lost bids; the job notes and photos; the change orders and who approved them; the service histories by address or by vehicle; the dispatch history; the CRM of leads and outcomes. In the second kind: the customer list, the contact details, the cards on file, the payment records, and anything a client owns under contract.

Count the years of the first kind. That is most of what our estimate asks, and most of what Polyshares says moves the number. The safety page covers what is licensed and what never is in plain words.

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 Polyshares yourself, through the button below. Polyshares pays us a referral fee. You pay us nothing. We never see your files.

Before you apply

Four things to do first, as our own advice:

Separate the two kinds of file. The estimate chain, the job notes, the change orders and the service histories on one side. The customer list, the cards and the ledger on the other. Only the first side is the record.
Count the years. Polyshares says depth and visible reasoning move the number more than volume. A shop that has quoted since 2011 has 15 years, whatever the document count.
Find the client contracts. Anything held for a client under an agreement that gives the client ownership stays out, and only the contracts say which is which.
Don’t clean up. The lost bids, the four versions and the change orders are the reasoning. The PII partner handles the names. Leave the rest as it is.

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

Alex, TrustPast

Questions and answers

Does the buyer want our customer list?

No. Polyshares says names, emails, phone numbers, account numbers and addresses are removed or replaced by a specialist PII partner before Polyshares or any buyer sees the record. Roles, timestamps and the work itself are kept.

Do we have to send our files to find out?

No. Polyshares says intake asks for record counts, not files or exports, and that nothing leaves your systems until Polyshares has made an offer and you have accepted it.

Which of our files have the most value?

Polyshares says the value is in reasoning that was captured while the work happened, and that depth of operating history and visible reasoning move the number far more than raw volume. In a trade, that is the estimate chain, the job notes and the change orders.

Do we keep the records afterwards?

Yes. Polyshares says a licence is not a sale, that you keep the business and the underlying data, and that the company keeps operating exactly as before.

What has a trade company been paid?

Polyshares’ published deals include a roofing company at $450,000 and a general contractor at $300,000. Polyshares says it looks at the record before it prices it, so a past deal does not predict an offer.

What does it cost us?

Nothing. Polyshares says there is no fee and no commission, and that money moves one way, from Polyshares to the company. Polyshares pays TrustPast a referral fee; you pay us nothing.