Closing your company
Winding down a business: the data steps for your checklist
Your wind-down checklist already covers the final tax return, last payroll, customer notices and the dissolution filing. It almost certainly skips the company's data.
AI companies pay closing businesses to license their email, Slack and files. Here is where those data tasks belong in the shutdown plan.
In this guide
01
At the start: inventory beside the dissolution filing
In SimpleClosure's experience, asset value falls quickly once a shutdown starts, so it suggests approaching buyers in parallel with the dissolution paperwork. That puts listing the data high on the checklist.
For every workspace, mailbox, shared drive and code repo, record the owner, the years covered, the approximate number of users and any material that must stay inside the company.
02
The data checklist
- Keep Slack, email, drives and code accounts paid
- Secure one admin login that outlives the last employee
- Record peak headcount and the years of records you hold
- Read vendor contracts, NDAs and privacy policies for limits
- Flag sensitive files: HR, health, payment data
- Get two buyer assessments and compare written offers
- Agree who receives the proceeds under your documents
- Only then cancel accounts and destroy what is not needed
03
Where it fits with everything else
Board approves dissolution
Approve exploring a data license
Notify staff
Ask key staff to map systems before they leave
Cancel vendors
Keep data-holding tools until a buyer has looked
Final tax return
Confirm record retention with your accountant
Distribute remaining assets
Include data proceeds in the waterfall
| Usual wind-down step | Data step alongside it |
|---|---|
| Board approves dissolution | Approve exploring a data license |
| Notify staff | Ask key staff to map systems before they leave |
| Cancel vendors | Keep data-holding tools until a buyer has looked |
| Final tax return | Confirm record retention with your accountant |
| Distribute remaining assets | Include data proceeds in the waterfall |
Take the match quiz early, while accounts are live. It asks your peak size and what records survive.
FAQ
Questions, answered
When should I start selling data during a wind-down?
At the start, alongside the dissolution filing, while the systems and the people who know them are still around.
What if my board has not decided to close yet?
You can still have a buyer assess the archive. Licensing a copy works for operating companies too.
Find the buyers that fit your company
Answer a few questions about your size, tools and history. We show which buyers want a company like yours. Free, no files.
Keep reading
Sources
Every number on this page links back to one of these.
- 1SimpleClosure: how to sell your startup's assets before you closesimpleclosure.com
- 2aitrainer.work: selling a closed company's dataaitrainer.work
- 3Pewter Datapewterdata.com
- 4Frankfurt Kurnit: selling company data for AI training, what to know before you say yestechnologylaw.fkks.com
- 5IRS: closing a businessirs.gov
- 6MIT Technology Review: AI labs are buying data from dead startups (13 Oct 2026)technologyreview.com
- 701net: SimpleClosure AssetHub on track to return $10M to venture-backed startups01net.it
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