Our data-handling pledge

Your records belong to you, your people and in many cases your clients. These are the rules we work by, and the rules we ask buyers to accept before any transfer.

During the valuation, we see no data

  • We never ask for system access, logins, API tokens, exports, screenshots or sample files.
  • The valuation uses only your answers to our questions.
  • We don’t hold your data at any point in this phase. If a deal goes ahead, export happens under the contract between you and the buyer.

What must be removed before any transfer

  • Personal data. Names, emails, phone numbers, addresses, photos and anything else that identifies staff, customers or contacts, in email, documents, chat, CRM, accounting and project records.
  • Credentials and secrets. Passwords, API keys, tokens, bank and card details, and access codes, including those buried in old emails, documents and files.
  • Client material outside the agreed scope. Documents, files and conversations the contract with the buyer does not cover, as assessed by the buyer and your own lawyer.
  • HR and people records. Performance reviews, salaries, hiring discussions, disciplinary threads, health and leave information, and private messages.
  • Regulated data. Anything covered by health, payment-card or financial-services rules, and data held under a processing agreement that forbids onward transfer. This is also why we don’t take on healthcare, insurance, staffing, title and escrow companies or law firms.

Consistent pseudonymisation

Records are only useful if the links between them survive. So people, clients and projects are replaced with consistent pseudonyms: the same employee becomes the same “Staff 14” in every email, task and invoice, and “Acme Ltd” becomes the same “Client C” everywhere. The mapping key stays with you and is never sent to a buyer. Buyers must agree in the contract not to try to re-identify anyone.

Pseudonymised data can still be personal data under laws like the GDPR. That is why the contract, not just the scrubbing, has to cover it.

Client contracts: we ask, we don’t advise

The valuation asks one factual question: who owns the records of work you do for clients, under your contracts. Your answer changes the range. We don’t advise on whether you have the right to license any records, whether your contracts allow it, or how a buyer will use them. Each buyer assesses that in its own review, and your own lawyer should advise you before you sign anything.

Your team

Your staff wrote these records. We recommend telling them before any sale and explaining what is shared and how they are protected. Employment and privacy law differ by country; your lawyer should confirm what notice or consent is needed where your team works.

Platform terms

Some tools restrict how exported data may be used. Slack’s API terms (May 2025) ban bulk export and LLM training on data pulled through the API (source). The buyer and your own lawyer check any export route against each tool’s current terms before a contract is signed.

Questions about this page: [email protected]. TODO(owner): legal review of this pledge before launch.