What closing companies are selling
This is the most active part of the market. One wind-down firm reported more than 150 asset deals, with 47% including code or data sales, MIT Technology Review reported in October 2026. Shut-down startups have sold Slack, email and ticket archives for $10,000 to $100,000 each, and one for hundreds of thousands of dollars (Fast Company, citing Forbes). One founder received about $25,000 for his code base alone.
| Asset | Why buyers want it |
|---|---|
| Slack, Teams and email | Real coordination and decisions for training AI agents |
| Code repositories with history | Bug reports, fixes and reviews for coding agents |
| Tickets and project tracking | Work from first report to outcome |
| Documents and procedures | How the company actually operated |
Do this before you shut anything off
- Pause deletion. Workspace and email accounts are often cancelled early in a wind-down to save money, and the archive goes with them.
- Export or preserve what you own, with dates, channels and thread structure intact.
- List what must stay out: HR, legal advice, health and benefits discussions, and customer personal data.
- Check customer contracts and your privacy policy for limits on transferring data.
Who gets the money
Sale proceeds belong to the company and are distributed like any other asset, usually to creditors and investors first. In a US bankruptcy, a privacy policy that restricts transfers can require a consumer privacy ombudsman and court approval. Talk to your wind-down counsel about how a data sale fits the plan.
How Origin helps
We value the archive and introduce you to buyers. You negotiate the sale or license directly with them. You do not need to have started a wind-down process to talk to us. See what your data is worth.
Advising a closing company? Refer it and earn up to $50K.