Winding down the company? Do not cancel Slack before reading this

Slack captures a team's debates, decisions and fixes in writing as they happen. Surge AI says a rich, varied workspace can outvalue a different company's Slack, mail and calendar put together.

Almost every startup used it. SimpleClosure reports that 95% of the shutting-down companies it assessed ran Slack, and Mercor has gone after defunct startups' Slack and Jira archives directly.

1. 1

   Keep the subscription running

   Unpaid Slack, Google Workspace and GitHub accounts eventually get wiped. Hold on to them until a buyer has reviewed a sample.

2. 2

   Check who has authority

   During a shutdown, the right to agree a sale may sit with a liquidator, an administrator or the board. Confirm this before approaching anyone.

3. 3

   Read Slack's API rules

   Since 29 May 2025, Slack's API terms have limited mass exports and their use to train large language models. Ask any buyer how its approach deals with that.

SimpleClosure warns that assets lose value fast once a wind-down begins, and recommends contacting buyers while the dissolution filings are still in progress.

• SimpleClosure handles workspace data sales free of charge for the startups it is shutting down.
• Sunset purchases a closed company's dataset in full.
• Turing's Project Lazarus advertises a one-off payment of up to $1M, open to companies that are closing.
• Brokers including License My Data and AI Input operate closed-company programs for firms that peaked at 50 or more staff.

Imagine a software agency of 40 people closing after six years. Its Slack contains every client handover, every argument over a bug and every midnight fix. Keep the plan paid for a few more months, then approach two routes: a wind-down specialist, and a buyer that runs a closed-company program. Get a figure from each before releasing any export.