Article

What our estimate measures

By TrustPast

Published October 31, 2026 · Updated November 1, 2026

Our estimate asks five questions and shows a range in about two minutes. Owners use it to decide whether applying is worth an afternoon. That only works if you know what the range is built from and what it leaves out. This page explains, question by question, what the estimate measures, how it gets from your answers to a number, which buyer it points to, and where it stops.

What the estimate is for

The estimate does one job. It places a company inside a buyer’s published band, using answers an owner can give from memory. It’s a sense of scale, not a price.

The buyer this page is about is micro1. micro1 publishes what it pays in broad terms. Its referral page lists company compensation of “$100K-$2M+ for approved data packages” (indicative, not an offer). That band is wide on purpose, because micro1 prices each company on records it hasn’t seen yet. Our estimate narrows the band a little, using three things that tend to go with bigger and richer records: years, systems and people.

The page says it plainly at the top: “You’ll see an estimated range, not an offer.” Under the range, once the answers point to micro1, it says: “Indicative range, not an offer. micro1 prices each company after its own review; only the buyer makes offers.”

So read it as a pin on micro1’s map. The address comes from micro1.

Apply & License Your Data

The five questions, exactly as asked

Here are the questions in the order the page shows them, with the choices each one offers.

1. Is the company operating, or has it closed? Two choices: “Operating” or “Closed or closing.” A note under it says that for a closed company you answer for the years it was trading, and that “Now” can be zero. The same question then asks where the company is based: “In the US” (ticked by default) or “Outside the US.”

2. How many people work at the company, counting everyone? Two numbers: “Now” and “At peak.” The help line says to count office, field crews, drivers and part-timers alike, and that a best guess is fine. Each box has a minus and a plus button, and you can type a number too.

3. How many years of records does the company keep? A slider from one year to “25 or more.” It starts at ten.

4. Which systems hold the work? Pick all that apply, from eight tiles: email; chat, such as Slack or Teams; shared files; CRM or job software; project tracker; accounting; support desk; and other.

5. Which industry is the company in? A list of fifteen: roofing, HVAC, plumbing, auto repair, moving, electrical, solar, landscaping and pools, general contracting, cleaning and restoration, software or services, logistics and freight, professional services, restaurants and retail, and other.

That’s the whole input. It doesn’t ask for revenue, a company name, an email address or a file.

How it reads an unclear answer

A form filled in on a phone gets odd entries, so the estimate cleans them before it counts anything.

Headcount boxes take whole numbers only. “1,200” reads as 1,200, and anything above 500 is treated as 500, which the box then shows when you leave it. A closed company may leave “Now” empty; it counts as zero. An operating company has to fill in both boxes.

Four things stop the form until they’re fixed. Question one needs an answer. Both headcounts need a number, and “Peak can’t be lower than now.” At least one system has to be ticked. And an industry has to be chosen. The page tells you how many questions need an answer and takes you to the first one.

Some links to the estimate arrive with an answer filled in. A link from one of our trade pages may preselect the industry, and a link for closed companies may preselect “Closed or closing.” You can change either.

How the answers become a range

This is the arithmetic, in plain words.

The estimate starts from the floor of micro1’s published band: $100,000 (indicative, not an offer), the bottom of micro1’s first tier and of its referral band. It then works out a score from three of your answers and multiplies the floor by it.

The score adds up three parts:

Years of records carry the most weight. Every five years adds 0.4 to the score. Ten years gives 0.8.
Systems carry less. Each tile you tick adds a little under 0.04, so all eight together add 0.3.
People count through the larger of your two headcounts, now or at peak. Every 50 people add 0.3, so 30 people add 0.18.

The score can’t go below 0.5 or above 2. Whatever the score, the bottom of the range never drops below the floor. A score under 1 still shows a bottom end of $100,000 (indicative, not an offer).

The top of the range is four times the bottom, held under micro1’s ceiling of $2 million (indicative, not an offer), which no answer reaches. Both ends are rounded to the nearest $5,000. Because the top is worked out before the bottom is rounded, it can sit up to $10,000 off an exact four times the bottom shown.

Three worked cases, all operating companies in the US:

40 people, five years, two systems. The score is under 1, so the range is the floor: $100,000 to $400,000 (indicative, not an offer).
60 people, 12 years, five systems. The score is about 1.5, and the range is $150,000 to $605,000 (indicative, not an offer).
150 people at peak, 15 years, four systems. The score passes 2 and stops there, so the range is $200,000 to $800,000 (indicative, not an offer).

That last range is the highest the estimate can show. The lowest is $100,000 to $400,000 (indicative, not an offer). Every answer that points to micro1 lands somewhere between those two.

Why those three answers

The three inputs that move the range are the ones micro1’s own pages point to.

On years, micro1’s payout estimator asks “How many years of data do you have?” and adds “Typically the number of years you’ve been in business.” On years and systems together, micro1’s FAQ says: “Companies with several years of records across multiple business systems are generally a stronger fit.” On people, both micro1 partnership cards on its referral page list “30+ employees” as a requirement.

Years get the most weight in our score because a long run of records is the clearest sign of depth. Twelve years of job files show a company working through slow seasons, price rises and staff changes. Two years show a sample. Our page on how many years of records count shows how to count them system by system, old software included.

Systems count because each one usually covers a different desk. A CRM shows how work was won. A project tracker shows how it was delivered. A support desk shows what went wrong afterwards. micro1’s middle tier names “ongoing participation across multiple teams and business functions.”

People count because a bigger crew writes more down, in more places, about more jobs. It’s a rough signal, and the weakest of the three.

Which published figures anchor it

Every figure the estimate shows comes from micro1’s own published terms. None of it is ours.

On its data partnerships page, micro1 lists three tiers: $100K-500K for “Qualified Enterprise Data Partnerships,” $500K-2M for “Large-scale operational datasets or ongoing participation across multiple teams and business functions,” and $2M+ for “Highly unique, proprietary operational data” (indicative, not an offer). Its referral page gives both of its partnership cards, operating and defunct, the same band of “$100K-$2M+ for approved data packages” (indicative, not an offer).

The estimate uses the floor and the ceiling of that band. It never shows the top tier. The questions can’t see uniqueness, so the estimate doesn’t pretend to.

You’ll find other numbers on micro1’s site. The headline on its payout and partnerships pages reads “We’re paying out $200k-2M+” (indicative, not an offer). Its payment step says “payments typically ranging from $150K to over $2M” (indicative, not an offer). Our estimate keeps the lower floor from the referral band and the first tier. A low answer from us isn’t a judgment that micro1 would pay less than its headline. It only means the five answers gave little to go on.

micro1 also runs its own estimator on its payout page, with three questions: employees, years of data and headquarters. We don’t copy its numbers and it doesn’t use ours. Its result carries the same warning: “Indicative estimate only. Final payout is determined based on data sources, volume, quality, access terms, and due diligence.”

Which buyer it points to

The estimate points every set of answers to one buyer, the one whose published programme fits. The rule is headcount and location. The industry doesn’t decide it, and neither does the range.

It points to micro1 when any of these is true:

The company is operating and has 30 or more people, now or at peak.
The company has closed and had 30 or more people, now or at peak.
The company is outside the US, whatever its size.

The first two follow micro1’s two cards. The operating one, the Enterprise Data Partnership, lists “30+ employees,” “US and Western markets,” “English” and “All industries.” The closed one, the Defunct Company Data Partnership, reads “We are acquiring data from companies that are no longer operating” and lists “30+ employees,” “10+ Countries,” “English” and “All industries.”

The third is our own routing. micro1’s FAQ says “the program accepts referrals globally,” with demand “strongest for companies based in the United States, United Kingdom, and Canada.” Its eligibility answer still asks for “30+ full-time employees,” and micro1 applies that in its own review, not us.

A US company with fewer than 30 people, now and at peak, gets a range and a button for a different buyer whose programme fits that size. This page covers micro1 only, so we’ll leave that one to the estimate.

Operating and closed answers that point to micro1 use the same band, so the first question changes the buyer’s programme, not the number.

What it does not measure

This is the longer list, and the more important one. micro1 says what decides its price: “dataset size and volume, workflow complexity, data quality, domain expertise represented, and the uniqueness of the operational knowledge contained within the dataset.” The estimate sees a sliver of the first one and none of the rest.

What’s inside the systems. Ticking “CRM or job software” says the system exists. It doesn’t say whether the deals carry notes or the jobs carry change orders.
Completeness. It can’t tell a job file that runs from first call to closeout from one that jumps from estimate to invoice.
How the work was written down. It doesn’t know whether a technician logged why the first diagnosis was wrong, or just wrote “fixed.”
Uniqueness. It can’t judge whether your records describe work nobody else could supply.
Volume. Ten years in a system can mean 300 jobs or 30,000.
Language. micro1 says it is “primarily looking for companies that operate in English and maintain their documentation, workflows, and knowledge bases in English.” The estimate doesn’t ask.
Who owns what. It can’t see which records a client owns under contract. Those stay out, however good they are.
Access terms and due diligence. Both are on micro1’s list for the final payout. Neither can be answered in a form.
Industry. It asks, and the answer moves nothing, because micro1 says “Operational data from every industry can contribute.”

Our page on what decides the price takes each of micro1’s factors in turn. Our page on whether messy records still count covers the half-filled work orders and the estimates lost in email that a form can’t weigh.

Why the final figure can move

Put the two lists side by side and the gap is plain. The estimate counts years, systems and people. micro1 prices volume, complexity, quality, expertise, uniqueness, access and due diligence. Two companies with identical answers can hold very different records.

That’s why micro1’s figure can land below our range, inside it or above it, up to and past the top of its band. micro1’s published order puts the offer in its first step, “Discovery & pricing,” where it says it will “tailor an offer based on the nature, scale, and value of your data.” Payment comes at the end, “within 30 days of acceptance.” Our page on why the final offer can differ from the estimate goes through the reasons one at a time.

For the band itself and where companies sit in it, read what a company’s records are worth.

What happens to your answers

The range is worked out in your browser. We do not receive or store your answers, and neither does the buyer. The page counts, as aggregate totals in Fathom, our analytics service, that it was opened, that the first question was answered, that the range was shown and that the buyer button was followed. Fathom sets no cookies and stores no personal data.

The button under the range takes you to micro1 through our referral link. You apply to micro1 yourself. micro1 pays us a referral fee; you pay us nothing. The full list of our part, and where it stops, is on what TrustPast does, and what it doesn’t.

What this means for a company with 30 or more staff

At 30 people or more, the estimate will point you to micro1 and show a range no lower than $100,000 to $400,000 and no higher than $200,000 to $800,000 (indicative, not an offer). The more useful thing it does is make you count.

A mechanical contractor of 50 answering question three has to decide how far back the job files really go. Question four makes the same contractor notice that the estimates live in the job software, the change orders in email, and the scope arguments in a Teams channel. That’s three systems, not one.

A services firm of 80 will tick the CRM, the tracker, the support desk and chat. Each holds a different side of the same client work. A logistics company will find its dispatch history, its incident reports and its procedures in three different places.

What micro1 then prices is what those systems hold. The records are de-identified before use, and customer names and payments are never what’s wanted. What’s wanted is how the work was done: how an estimate became a job, how a change order was settled, how a repair was diagnosed. Our guide to what data buyers want from a trade business walks through it file by file.

What is never included

The estimate takes no records at all, only five answers. When it comes to the records themselves, micro1 says “We protect sensitive information through data anonymization and secure handling.” Before any participation it confirms four points with the company: “U.S. and allied buyers only,” “Data segregation,” “De-identified before sharing” and “Defined retention periods.”

micro1 says personally identifiable information “is removed when relevant.” Asked whether a company has to anonymize its data first, it answers “No, micro1 has processes for de-identifying and transforming sensitive information.” micro1 doesn’t publish a list of records it excludes.

As our own advice: customer names, payment details, health information and anything a client owns under contract are not what you’re offering. Our safety page covers this in plain words.

Before you run it

Three things make the answers honest, as our own advice:

Count the years per system, old exports included, and use the longest run you can open.
List every system that holds work, not just the one you log into daily. Chat and the shared drive count.
Use the peak headcount if the company was bigger once. The estimate takes the larger number.

Then answer the five questions. Worth two minutes to see where you sit?

TrustPast

Questions and answers

Is the range an offer?

No. The range is ours, worked out from five answers, and it is indicative, not an offer. The line under it says so: “Indicative range, not an offer. micro1 prices each company after its own review; only the buyer makes offers.” micro1 says “Each partnership is evaluated individually.”

Which answers move the range?

Three: the years of records, the number of systems that hold the work, and the larger of the two headcounts. Years carry the most weight. For answers that point to micro1, whether the company is operating or closed, where it is based and its industry don't change the number.

What is the highest range the estimate can show?

$200,000 to $800,000 (indicative, not an offer). The bottom end starts at $100,000, the floor of micro1's referral band, and stops at $200,000, and the top end is about four times the bottom, so it never reaches micro1's $2M+ tier (indicative, not an offer). The questions can't see what earns that tier.

Why does the industry question not change the number?

micro1 lists “All industries” among its company requirements and says “Operational data from every industry can contribute.” The industry answer is kept with the form, but it moves neither the range nor the buyer.

Do you see our answers?

No. The range is worked out in your browser. We do not receive or store your answers, and neither does the buyer. If you follow the button, you apply to micro1 yourself.

Why might micro1's figure be different?

micro1 says compensation depends on “dataset size and volume, workflow complexity, data quality, domain expertise represented, and the uniqueness of the operational knowledge contained within the dataset.” Its payout page adds “data sources, volume, quality, access terms, and due diligence.” Our five questions see almost none of that.