Blog

The data that fuels AI, explained.

Field notes on proprietary AI training data: valuation, licensing, provenance, and how the market actually works. Written by the team that brokers these deals every day.

FeaturedData Valuation 14 min read

How Much Is a Startup's Data Worth? The Complete Valuation Framework

The definitive guide to valuing proprietary startup data for AI training: the 7 real pricing drivers, licensing multiples, price benchmarks by data type, a worked example, and a step-by-step valuation process. Data-backed and cited.

Read the guide

All articles

Data Monetization· 16 min read·2026-07-31

How to Sell Your Startup's Data: The Complete Wind-Down Guide

The definitive step-by-step guide to selling your startup's data during a wind-down or pivot: the sell-vs-delete decision, who buys and why, the full 7-step process (inventory, provenance & consent, legal review, sampling, listing, negotiation, closing), risk management, and the pitfalls that kill deals. Cited.

Data Licensing· 13 min read·2026-07-30

AI Training Data Licensing: Exclusive vs Non-Exclusive Explained

The definitive practical guide to AI training data licensing: what a license actually grants, exclusive vs non-exclusive, perpetual vs time-limited, metered and revenue-share structures, the exclusivity premium, the clauses every Data Purchase Agreement needs, and how to choose.

Data Compliance· 14 min read·2026-07-29

Data Provenance & Consent for AI Training: The Legal Risks You Must Know

Why provenance is a hard gate for AI training data, not a nice-to-have: consent vs lawful basis under GDPR, HIPAA de-identification for clinical data, copyright and web-scraping risk, CCPA and other privacy laws, contractual warranties, and a due-diligence checklist.

Training Data Strategy· 13 min read·2026-07-28

Synthetic vs. Real Data for AI Training: A Decision Guide

The definitive decision guide to synthetic vs. real data for AI training: what each type is, strengths and weaknesses, the model-collapse and quality risks of synthetic data, cost and compliance tradeoffs, when to use synthetic vs. real vs. hybrid, and why real human-generated data is irreplaceable for RLHF and fine-tuning. Cited and data-backed.

RLHF & Preference Data· 12 min read·2026-07-27

RLHF & Preference Data Explained: The Human Data Behind Aligned AI

The definitive explainer on RLHF and preference data: what reinforcement learning from human feedback is, how preference pairs and ranked lists are structured, why this data is so scarce and valuable, how it is collected and labeled, the quality signals that separate great data from bad, and how to source or sell it. Cited and data-backed.

Vertical AI· 15 min read·2026-07-26

Vertical-AI Training Data: Legal, Healthcare, Finance, and Code

The definitive guide to vertical-AI training data. Why domain fine-tuning needs proprietary human-generated data, and deep dives on what data matters, where it comes from, the compliance concerns, and the market value in legal, healthcare/clinical, finance, and code. Original and cited.

AI Data Supply Chain· 13 min read·2026-07-25

Where Does AI Training Data Actually Come From? A Map of the Data Supply Chain

The definitive map of the AI data supply chain: public web corpora, proprietary and held-out datasets, user-generated platform data, licensed and purchased datasets, synthetic data, and the brokers and marketplaces that connect supply to demand. Cited and original.

AI Data Buying· 16 min read·2026-07-24

How to Buy AI Training Data: The Buyer's Complete Guide

The definitive end-to-end guide to acquiring AI training data: defining the requirement, budgeting, choosing between public, licensed, and proprietary/marketplace sources, evaluating quality and provenance, legal and compliance vetting, the NDA and sampling workflow, negotiation, and post-purchase validation. Original and cited.

Have data worth valuing?

Turn it into a vetted, legally clean listing, or source exactly the dataset your model needs.

List Your Data Browse Datasets