Questions about selling company data

For company data, Barako is a broker. We introduce companies that hold data to buyers who want to license it.

No. Every agreement is made directly between the company selling the data and the buyer.

Because Barako isn’t a party to the sale, most details are arranged case by case between you and the buyer. Raise these with the buyer before you sign:

• Which systems, accounts and date ranges are exported, and how access is granted
• How the data is secured while it’s exported, stored and processed
• What you leave out before export
• How PII and BII are removed, and how that’s checked
• What the buyer may do with the data
• Consent and notice for employees, customers and others in the data
• Deleting samples and exported data if there’s no sale
• Payment and invoicing

Barako earns commissions from data buyers, for introductions and for completed sales.

Barako may view a sample, or hold it before passing it to the buyer, but doesn’t keep samples permanently and never sells your data as its own. Barako doesn’t want credentials or access to sensitive data.

If your IT team asks, we can help it find and access data sources. Generally, Barako’s involvement isn’t required.

Each sale is arranged case by case, but it usually runs like this:

1. We meet with you to understand your company and its data, and to see whether we know buyers who’d be interested.
2. We describe your company to those buyers in general terms, without naming it.
3. An interested buyer can ask for a sample, usually specific files. An NDA is signed before any sample is shared, and we pass the request on to you or coordinate it with you.
4. Before the buyer’s team exports any data, documents such as an NDA are signed.
5. The buyer’s team exports the data it’s interested in and appraises its value.
6. You decide whether to sell at the price offered.

A buyer usually asks for a sample once it’s already interested and planning to buy. It inspects the raw sample only to check that the data is in the right format and of the right quality.

Barako never shares samples without agreements signed by all parties. If the buyer decides not to buy, the agreement should require it to delete the sample.

The buyer’s own team. How the export works depends on the platform the data is in, and someone from your IT team will most likely need to help. Barako can help if your IT team asks.

You don’t have to sell. The buyer is expected to delete the data it exported, as set in your agreement with them, and no money changes hands.

It depends on the buyer, and is generally set in the agreement you sign with them.

We prefer mature, US-based companies with at least 30 white-collar/office employees, that work mostly in English, and run mostly digitally over email, messaging and other software. These aren't strict requirements and shouldn't deter you from exploring a data sale.

No. Not all data is high value, and some buyers may turn down a particular company profile. That’s why we meet with each company first and only go further when we know buyers who could be interested.

The buyer appraises it, but these tend to be worth the most:

• A long operating history
• A large white-collar headcount
• An industry or line of business buyers are interested in
• Large amounts of available, useful data, such as email, Teams or Slack messages, project management tools and internal documentation

Yes, but its value is unclear, and there’s no guarantee buyers will want it.

Not at first. We introduce your company to several buyers with a general description, such as “a financial services company with ten years in operation and more than fifty employees.” Your name is shared only if a buyer asks and you agree. After that, it’s case by case.

The buyer, either internally or through a third-party specialist, after the data is exported. This covers personally identifiable information (PII), business identifiable information (BII) and other sensitive information. How it’s done should be discussed with the buyer.

Barako can confirm only that its channel partners have PII and BII removal services available and have been told to remove PII and BII.

You don’t need to remove it yourselves, and we encourage you not to. Removing PII and BII properly takes much more than erasing or replacing names.

We don’t recommend it. For data covered by laws such as HIPAA, GLBA, GDPR or CCPA, we’d rather the buyer contact you directly about samples.

You do. Your company is responsible for confirming it has full rights to sell the data, and for its own legal due diligence.

Agreements with a parent company, clients or other third parties, and NDAs, among others. For example:

• A client’s private documentation for its own product shouldn’t be included.
• A subsidiary may need permission from its parent company.
• A government contractor may be restricted from selling its communications with the government.

No. Barako takes no liability for damages, lawsuits or other issues that arise from a sale.

AI labs and data brokers.

You can ask for that. Barako doesn’t limit buyers by country unless you do.

That depends on the buyer and is set in the agreement you sign with them. Some data brokers license data to several labs. Labs use it to train AI models, including by building reinforcement learning (RL) environments.

A practice version of a real workplace, built from its tools, documents and tasks, where an AI model learns by doing the work rather than by reading about it. Your company’s data is what makes it realistic. It works like this:

1. The model is given a task, such as answering a customer email or closing a support ticket.
2. It works through the task with the same kinds of tools your team uses.
3. Its result is checked and scored, for example against how your team actually handled the same task.
4. Over many attempts, it learns which approaches score well and gets better at the work.

Yes. A sale licenses a copy of your data. The license may include exclusivity clauses that stop you from selling that copy again.

Usually not. Almost all labs want exclusivity, and their agreements will legally restrict you from selling that copy again.

Generally, yes, though it’s decided case by case. Data your company creates after a sale is new and unique, and buyers may want it in the future. You can sell it as long as your earlier buyer’s agreement doesn’t restrict you.

It’s possible. A buyer may pay for new data made to order, such as recordings of your team completing tasks, or your team grading an AI model’s answers. There’s no precedent for this yet, so Barako can’t guarantee it.