There’s gold in the work you’ve already done.
Your company has spent years creating data. Conversations, workflows, records, images, code, decisions, outcomes. Motherlode buys valuable proprietary business data. Find out what yours could be worth.
The other balance sheet
You know what your business owns. Do you know what it knows?
Every day, your company leaves behind a record of how real work gets done. That knowledge accumulates quietly inside the software you already use. For years, it may have looked like nothing more than old records.
◇ Above ground
What most businesses measure
- Revenue
- Profit
- Inventory
- Equipment
- Property
- Customers
- Employees
◆ Below the surface
What it quietly knows
- How problems are solved
- How decisions are made
- How customers are helped
- How equipment gets repaired
- How mistakes are caught
- How projects move forward
It may be an asset.
Why it matters
The internet taught AI to read. Your business can teach it to work.
AI has already learned from enormous amounts of public information: books, websites, research, forums, documentation, open-source code. But reading about work is not the same as seeing how real people actually do it. The knowledge AI still needs often lives inside businesses.
Real business data can contain millions of examples of that process.
AI doesn’t just need answers. It needs examples of how people arrive at them.
And your business may have years of those examples already.
Public vs. proprietary
Some knowledge lives on the internet. The good stuff often doesn’t.
Public data
Already published. Already searchable. Already trained on.
- Websites
- Books
- Forums
- Public reports
- Open datasets
- Open-source code
Proprietary business data
Created through years of actual work. Impossible to scrape.
- Internal conversations
- Workflows
- Service records
- Operational histories
- Customer interactions
- Private codebases
- Images and video
- Equipment records
- Expert decisions
- Failures and recoveries
- Real-world outcomes
Beneath the surface
AI can’t learn from what it can’t reach.
Motherlode goes beneath the surface.
What we buy
What’s buried in your business?
Motherlode evaluates many kinds of proprietary business data. Seven categories, and the one that matters most is the last.
Category 01
Conversations
The discussions behind the work. Internal messages, email, support conversations, threads, escalations. They show how a problem moves from uncertainty to decision.
Where it lives
- Slack
- Microsoft Teams
- Zendesk
- Intercom
- Internal chat
Category 02
Workflows
How work actually moves through your company, from beginning to end.
What it includes
- Tasks
- Approvals
- Reviews
- Exceptions
- Escalations
- Recoveries
Category 03
Documents
The written memory of your company.
What it includes
- SOPs
- Internal guides
- Reports
- Specs
- Knowledge bases
- Research
Category 04
Code & technical history
Not just the finished code. The story behind it.
Where it lives
- GitHub
- GitLab
- Bitbucket
- Jira
- Pull requests
- Issues
Category 05
Operational data
The records produced while your business operates.
What it includes
- Orders
- Work orders
- Service histories
- Dispatch
- Inventory
- Inspections
Category 06
Real-world data
Information generated outside a spreadsheet.
What it includes
- Images
- Video
- Audio
- Sensor readings
- Machine data
- Diagnostics
Category 07
Outcomes
Often the most important piece.
- Did the repair work?
- Was the customer satisfied?
- Did the shipment arrive?
- Did the claim get approved?
- Did the bug disappear?
- Did the project succeed?
A decision becomes much more meaningful when you know what happened afterward.
Industries
Every industry leaves a trail.
Motherlode evaluates proprietary data from businesses across the economy.
- Field service
- Manufacturing
- Logistics
- Software
- E-commerce
- Professional services
- Customer experience
- Construction
- And more
If your people repeatedly solve problems, make decisions, or interact with the real world, your company may be creating valuable data.
See If My Data Qualifies →How we value
More data doesn’t always mean more value.
A mountain of random files can be worth less than a small, connected record of high-quality work. Motherlode looks deeper. We consider things like:
How many years of history exist?
How much usable information exists?
Was it consistently captured over time?
Can events, decisions and outcomes be connected?
How difficult is it to recreate?
Does it contain skilled human work?
Can we see what happened afterward?
Is it organized enough to evaluate and transfer?
We don’t value dirt by the ton. We look for the vein.
How it works
Dig. Assay. Offer.
Getting started is simple.
Tell us what you have.
A few questions about what you do, how long you’ve been operating, which systems you use and how much history you have. No raw data.
We evaluate it.
Motherlode looks at the depth, quality, continuity, uniqueness and potential usefulness of your data. If something looks promising, we ask for more.
Get an offer.
If your data qualifies, Motherlode may make an offer to purchase or license specific data. You’ll know what we want, what rights are involved and what we’re paying.
Get paid.
Complete diligence, agree to the terms, and get paid. That’s it.
Free preliminary valuation
Find out what you’re sitting on.
- Your company already paid to create the data.
- Your employees created it while doing their jobs.
- Your software stored it.
- Your business accumulated it year after year.
Now find out what it could be worth.
Trust
Nothing leaves the ground without your approval.
Getting a valuation does not transfer ownership of your data. It does not give Motherlode unrestricted access to your systems. It does not obligate you to sell anything.
- You know what’s being evaluated.If we find something interesting, we explain exactly what we’re interested in before anything moves forward.
- You know what the offer covers.Which data, which rights, what we’re offering, and what happens next. In writing.
- You decide whether to proceed.At every step. A valuation is an assessment, never a commitment.
The Motherlode
Most businesses only measure what they can see.
- Revenue.
- Profit.
- Inventory.
- Equipment.
- Property.
- Customers.
- Employees.
But underneath all of it sits the record of how the business learned to operate.
- Years of decisions.
- Years of conversations.
- Years of solved problems.
- Years of mistakes.
- Years of outcomes.
That’s the Motherlode.
FAQ
Before you start digging.
What kind of data does Motherlode buy?
We evaluate many forms of proprietary business data, including internal communications, operational records, workflows, documents, code, images, video, technical records, service histories, and other information created through normal business operations.
Do I need to upload my data to get a valuation?
No.
The initial valuation only requires information about the shape of your data, such as the systems you use, years available, approximate volume, and types of records you maintain.
Does getting a valuation mean I have to sell?
No.
A valuation is simply an initial assessment. You decide whether to proceed if Motherlode is interested.
Is every company's data valuable?
No.
Data value depends on many factors, including quality, completeness, uniqueness, context, volume, continuity, legal rights, usability, and current demand. Some datasets may not qualify.
What if our data contains sensitive information?
Sensitive information, privacy requirements, contractual restrictions, and other legal considerations must be evaluated before a transaction can proceed. Motherlode will identify relevant requirements during diligence.
Does Motherlode buy data from small businesses?
Potentially.
Company size matters less than the quality and uniqueness of the underlying data. A smaller company with years of detailed, specialized records can sometimes have a more interesting dataset than a much larger company with poorly organized information.
How long does the process take?
The preliminary valuation takes only a few minutes. Additional diligence depends on the size, complexity, and readiness of the dataset.
How much could my data be worth?
There is no universal price. Different datasets can vary dramatically in value depending on their characteristics. The best place to start is with a preliminary valuation.
Estimate My Data Value →