Could your software company have relevant records?
A resolved support issue, the engineering decision behind a fix, and an updated runbook describe different parts of the same job. Origin helps owners explore whether histories like these may be relevant to a licensing opportunity.
The first conversation covers what your business does, which records remain available, and who can review them. A potential buyer then needs to assess its own interest and requirements. Get a free valuation with your company details.
What do you get from a first conversation?
A clearer company-level picture: the record categories you describe, questions to resolve, the unknowns, and a possible next step. We organize that picture as a Company Licensing Brief.
See an illustrative brief, or explore which records might be relevant. Origin helps organize the initial questions and a relevant discussion. Your company approves a specific recipient before an introduction.
Could existing company records become another source of revenue?
Licensing a defined set of operational records is one possibility to investigate. It depends on a recipient’s interest, the rights available for the proposed use, and acceptable terms. Existing records do not establish a repeatable revenue stream or remove the work of review.
Start with a workflow your team already understands. The value guide explains the questions to ask if a proposal emerges; an initial conversation can begin without a finished dataset.
Explore implementation histories, test and QA records, or incident reviews. If you build software for a particular industry, use the six specialist-software examples to distinguish your team's work from customer records.
Three examples from a software business.
These are illustrative examples to help you recognize record types. They are not customer cases, accepted datasets, or evidence of a buyer offer.
| Work your team did | Records to look for | What the history can explain |
|---|---|---|
| Fixed duplicate scheduled reports | Support investigation, linked engineering issue, verified fix, updated runbook | The problem, diagnosis, action, and outcome |
| Changed how scheduled exports retry | Product requirement, design options, decision note, issue, release documentation | Which constraints shaped the change and why an option was chosen |
| Improved an exception-handling procedure | Earlier procedure, internal review notes, revised runbook, follow-up record | How a team learned from a recurring operational problem |
Start with the systems your team already uses.
Ask where the relevant history lives: your support desk, project tracker, company wiki, or engineering workspace. GitHub documents connections between issues and pull requests. In your own systems, check whether the links and the underlying records are still available.
A current help article and a versioned internal procedure tell different stories. Record the available history, languages, responsible team, and gaps. Do not substitute company age for the dates of records you can actually access.
Our guides to support-ticket histories and software documentation show how to describe each category.
- For one resolved issue, can your team follow the investigation, recorded decision, and verification?
- Which links cross into source code, customer submissions, or a third-party workspace that needs separate review?
- Which versions and dates are checked, and which were inferred from company age or team memory?
Source: GitHub: About issues
Which records should be considered separately?
Internal troubleshooting notes, customer messages, source code, and client deliverables are separate categories. A support desk or project tracker can contain several of them in one place. Describe the categories before deciding on a scope.
If links are broken, earlier versions are missing, or a system was migrated, include that in the overview. A useful first discussion can begin with those unknowns.
Who should be involved?
An owner or executive can start the conversation. A support, product, engineering, or operations lead can explain the records. The people responsible for contracts, privacy, and security should review any proposed access and licensing terms.
U.S. copyright law distinguishes ownership of a copy from ownership of copyright. Identify employee, contractor, customer, and licensed contributions. Keep source code and client-owned work separate for review.
What to bring to the first conversation.
Send your company name, website, and contact details through the inquiry form. It then asks for a short business overview. You can discuss the following details when we follow up; you do not need to complete a data project first.
- What your software does and who uses it.
- Two or three record categories and the systems holding them.
- Approximate retained history and any known gaps.
- The team that understands the records and any known restrictions.
- Any earlier contact with a potential receiving program.
What happens after you contact Origin?
Origin reviews your inquiry and follows up to discuss the records, the questions that need review, and whether there is an opportunity to pursue. You can use the inventory example and blank template to organize your notes internally.
If a relevant introduction is proposed, your company approves the recipient and the information shared. The receiving company evaluates the opportunity and proposes its own terms. Your company decides whether to proceed.
There is no standard data price or guaranteed offer. The company-data value guide explains what to compare if an offer emerges. Get a free valuation to start with your company.