A new resale market is emerging around the digital remains of failed startups, with AI labs paying for the code bases, Slack histories, emails, and workspace documents left behind when companies shut down. SimpleClosure, a firm that helps founders wind down, says its Asset Hub platform has brokered over 150 such deals since launching the service in April 2026 and expects to return more than $10 million to shuttered startups by the end of the year.
Keelan Miskell, who closed his crypto startup this year, netted roughly $25,000 for his code base and expects around $15,000 more for workspace data pulled from Google, Notion, Figma, and Slack. He told MIT Technology Review he hadn't initially thought the data was worth much.
“At least all that stuff we were doing for two and a half years is worth something to someone somewhere.”— Keelan Miskell, Crypto startup founder
SimpleClosure CEO Dori Yona says 47% of the firm's shutdown deals now include code or data sales, a transaction type he describes as once rare and "somewhat taboo" but increasingly routine. Rival Sunset is also growing a data resale business, valuing a dying client's assets by head count, years in operation, data volume, and how the team used its tools.
Key facts
- 01SimpleClosure's Asset Hub has brokered over 150 deals since April 2026 and expects to return more than $10M to shuttered startups by year-end.
- 0247% of SimpleClosure's shutdown deals now include code or data sales, up from a near-taboo rarity.
- 03Google outbid Mercor to acquire Spirit Airlines' data trove — 100M emails, 500M Teams messages, 176,000 employee records — for $10M in August 2026.
- 04Startup shutdowns are rising between 26% and 56% annually, per Carta and AngelList estimates.
- 05Keelan Miskell netted roughly $25,000 for his crypto startup's code base and expects about $15,000 more for workspace data from Google, Notion, Figma, and Slack.
Buyers include foundation AI labs, vendors building simulated workspaces for AI training, and mature tech companies developing their own models. Surge AI, for example, uses the data to build "reinforcement-learning gyms" where client agents practice tasks like debugging IT architectures or drafting appellate briefs. Nick Heiner, who leads that work at Surge, says valuations rest on "research theses" estimating how many useful tasks come from, say, 100,000 lines of code.
“This operational exhaust data is like the wood shavings that everyone thought had no value, but it actually has a ton.”— Brendan Mahony, Founder and CEO of Sunset
Pricing varies wildly because no company has released tests comparing results from real-world data training against synthetic alternatives. Real archives avoid common synthetic errors, such as references to dates that don't exist, but the extent of performance gains remains unclear.
Larger deals are already happening. As part of Spirit Airlines' bankruptcy in August 2026, Google outbid AI data company Mercor to acquire the carrier's archives — 100 million emails, 500 million Teams messages, and 176,000 employee records — for $10 million. Bloomberg reported in September that SpaceX's AI unit is weighing similar purchases from struggling startups.
The legal picture is unsettled. Spirit's flight attendants' union objected to the sale on privacy grounds, and Greg Ewing, an attorney who advises AI startups, has called such data "legally radioactive," describing a "Wild West of AI training" that is only starting to give way to proper licensing. Suppliers and buyers say they scrub personally identifiable information, but Ewing notes that emails and calendars often contain doctor appointments, school pickup arrangements, and other private details.
“Employers should have express consent before selling workers' data.”— Ifeoma Ajunwa, Law professor at Emory University
Proceeds typically flow to senior creditors and investors rather than employees. Ifeoma Ajunwa, a law professor at Emory University and author of The Quantified Worker, calls this a form of "captured capital" — legal precedent allows workplace monitoring to help workers do their jobs, but once a firm shuts down, that justification vanishes. She notes there is no federal law banning such sales.
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