License software company data to AI: what buyers list
The short answer
List what you hold and check the rights to each kind. Software teams hold what buyers ask for most: source code, tickets, chat, CRM records and documents. A SaaS company has one extra limit. Its customers' data is a separate bucket. A processor follows the customer's instructions.
A software team does its work in a handful of tools. That is the pattern buyers say they want. This page also answers the SaaS version of the question.
Which records do the companies name?
David Revland, who works on human data at micro1, said in an undated recorded forum talk that its intake form asks which services you use.
Examples were Google Workspace, Slack, project management tools and GitHub (self-reported, recording undated). Troveo's business-data page and Mercor's data page give their own lists.
Tools and records each buyer names. A blank cell means the buyer did not list it on the page we read.
| Feature | micro1 | Troveo | Mercor |
|---|---|---|---|
| Google Workspace | Yes | No | No |
| Project management tools | Yes | No | No |
| Slack | Yes | Yes | No |
| GitHub | Yes | Yes | Repositories, commits, pull requests, issues |
| GitLab | No | Yes | No |
| Jira | No | Yes | No |
| Linear | No | Yes | No |
| Zendesk | No | Yes | No |
Gizmodo reported that SimpleClosure's Asset Hub takes source code, documents, workflows, Slack messages and emails from defunct companies.
Which tool pages cover the details?
Each record type has its own rules. See source code, GitHub data, Jira data, Slack data and support tickets.
What if you run a SaaS product?
Your own work records and your customers' data are different things. Think of the attic. Your boxes are yours. Your customers' boxes are stored with you, and you follow their instructions.
A vendor that holds customer data as a processor works on documented instructions from the controller under GDPR Article 28(3)(a). Article 28(10) treats a processor that sets its own purposes as a controller.
Our page on whether a SaaS company can license its customers' data has the cases and the contract benchmark. Our rights check asks what your customer contracts allow as a question of its own.
How do tools you use limit licensing?
Salesforce's agreement puts the legality of your data on you. Zendesk's does the same for notices and consents. Slack's API terms bar third-party apps from using API data to train an LLM. See Salesforce and Zendesk.
What should you do first?
Start with the rights check, which asks about customer contracts, NDAs and employee messages. Then try the free fit check for a readiness score.
micro1's page says 30 or more employees, with mature operations and primarily English documentation. Acceptance depends on its review and current demand. See data readiness.
A startup that is closing has different routes. See licensing startup data.
micro1 may pay us a referral fee if a company we introduce goes ahead with it. How we are paid
Have a lawyer read any contract before you sign. They like that.
Apply to micro1's data partnership (paid link)micro1's own data-partnerships pagePaid link. How we are paid
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. Ask for a referral
