# Is Polyshares legit? What the public record shows

> Is Polyshares legit? A named company with two named partners and public terms. We found no outside review or named lab customer. The evidence.

By Matt Burns, Vaultfish. Canonical: https://vaultfish.com/answers/is-polyshares-legit  
Published: 2026-08-06  
Updated: 2026-10-14

## The short answer

Polyshares names a company, Polyshares, Inc., and two managing partners. It licenses company data for a set scope and term, says you keep the data, and charges companies no fee. Its terms are public. We found no outside review, so check the points below first.

Polyshares licenses company data to AI labs. Its homepage headline says "We buy your company's operational data", but its own pages say "A license is not a sale" and "You keep the business and the underlying data."

This page lists what is public about it, and what is not.

## What is the bottom line?

Polyshares looks like a real, named company with public terms. We found no outside review, court record or named lab customer. Every claim below comes from Polyshares itself.

## What does the evidence show?

| Item | What the sources show | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Entity | Polyshares, Inc. | [polyshares.com](https://polyshares.com/) |
| People | Two managing partners are named: Nathan Mathews and Ryan Lock | polyshares.com |
| Model | Licenses Slack, email, CRM, ticket and file data for a defined scope and term, exclusive by default. You keep the data. Says it is the only counterparty, and buyers see de-identified listings in a buyer portal | polyshares.com, [terms page](https://polyshares.com/data-licensing), [data handling](https://polyshares.com/data-handling) |
| Fee to the owner | Says "No fee, no commission. We pay you." Paid per license | polyshares.com |
| Payment | Net 30 to 60, once data is approved, shared and anonymized | [Terms page](https://polyshares.com/data-licensing) |
| Privacy | It says a specialist partner removes names, emails and phone numbers. Two Polyshares people can see an unmasked record | [Data handling](https://polyshares.com/data-handling) |
| Buyers of the data | Does not say which labs take which data | Terms page |
| Outside proof | No review, filing or customer named in what we read | Our check |

_A page that says "trust us" is a start. A page a stranger can check is better._

## Where do its statements differ?

Ryan Lock wrote an [X article](https://x.com/RyanLockAI/status/2107864069105389717). He says third-party firms do the de-identification, so Polyshares never touches raw files.

The data handling page says two people at Polyshares can see an unmasked record. They may describe different stages. Ask which one applies to you.

Its [homepage](https://polyshares.com/) says "No marketplace, no listing." Its [data handling page](https://polyshares.com/data-handling) says buyers see de-identified listings in a buyer portal, under a code instead of your name.

The article also says over 100 brokers work with Polyshares. The site names no broker program.

## What should you ask before you share data?

- Who sees unmasked records, and at what step?
- Which buyers can see your listing in the buyer portal?
- Who is the anonymization partner?
- What does the license allow, and for how long?
- Which labs can receive the data?

The same questions fit any buyer. See [is micro1 legit](/answers/is-micro1-legit) for a comparison. For the risks, read [is it safe to license company data to AI](/answers/is-it-safe-to-sell-company-data-to-ai). The [Polyshares directory record](/buyers/polyshares) lists the fields side by side.

Figure: comparison of What is public about Polyshares: Its own pages (emphasized: This is what you can read today, Terms and data handling), Outside proof (None found). Polyshares publishes its terms, and we found no outside review to check them against.

micro1 may pay us a referral fee if a company we introduce goes ahead with it. [How we are paid](https://vaultfish.com/disclosure)

Have a lawyer read any contract before you sign. They like that.

_Vaultfish helps you run the process. We are not lawyers and this is not legal advice. If you need counsel who knows this area, we can point you to one._

## Sources

- [polyshares.com](https://polyshares.com/)
- [terms page](https://polyshares.com/data-licensing)
- [data handling](https://polyshares.com/data-handling)
- [X article](https://x.com/RyanLockAI/status/2107864069105389717)
- [Polyshares case studies](https://polyshares.com/track-record)