Shutting down a startup? Its Slack, Jira and code may be worth something

• Several years of history, not a few months.
• Linked systems: chat, tickets, code and documents covering the same projects, so work can be followed from discussion to release.
• Engineering records: code with full history, pull requests with reviews, and issues linked to fixes.
• Outcomes: what shipped, what was resolved, what was abandoned.

See complete archives from wound-down companies in the data catalog for how these packages are described to buyers.

• SimpleClosure, which handles startup shutdowns, processed nearly 100 data deals in a year, which typically paid $10,000 to $100,000 per company, and recovered over $1 million for founders (Forbes, April 2026).
• cielo24 received hundreds of thousands of dollars for 13 years of Slack, Jira, email and Google Drive data (Forbes, April 2026).
• Turing has bought five to ten failed-startup codebases, paying an average of tens of thousands of dollars each (Fortune, September 2026).

More figures, including larger company archives, are in what AI companies paid for company data in 2026.

Archives disappear when subscriptions lapse or accounts are downgraded. Before canceling anything:

1. Keep at least one admin account active on each tool until exports are checked.
2. Slack: the standard export covers public channels and links to shared files rather than including them, so download files separately. Exporting private channels and direct messages depends on your plan and may need Slack’s approval. Don’t downgrade to the free plan first, since it limits how much history is kept.
3. Jira and Confluence: use the built-in backup exports, which include issues, pages and attachments.
4. GitHub or GitLab: mirror every repository with full history, and export issues and pull-request discussions separately, since a git clone doesn’t include them.
5. Google Workspace or Microsoft 365: use the admin export tools for mail and drives. Standard exports of Google Docs, Sheets and Slides don’t include revision history, so keep those accounts active until you know whether a buyer wants it.
6. Write down what each export covers and its date range. Buyers will ask.

Exporting preserves the data. It doesn’t give anyone permission to use it, and nothing should be shared before an agreement is in place.

• Before any formal process, the company decides through its founders and board.
• In an assignment for the benefit of creditors, the assignee controls the assets and must agree.
• In a US bankruptcy, a sale or license outside the ordinary course of business needs court approval. If it includes customers’ personal information that the privacy policy promised not to transfer, a consumer privacy ombudsman must be appointed before the court can approve it.

In every case, check the privacy policy’s promises, what employees were told about workplace monitoring and data, customer contracts that restrict confidential information, and whether contractors assigned their IP to the company.

Preparation requirements are agreed with the company before any work begins. They typically cover:

• Personal data about customers and employees, redacted or replaced with consistent placeholders
• HR, legal and privileged channels and files
• Passwords, API keys and other secrets in code and chat
• Customers’ confidential information

Linked datasets need extra care. When the Spirit Airlines records were offered for sale, the flight attendants’ union objected that links between de-identified datasets could let individuals be identified again, and the court hearing was delayed. Linking people across systems should only happen where the agreed de-identification allows it.

• If you’re the founder or decision-maker, apply as a business at sourcex.si/apply.
• If you advise companies through wind-downs, see the program for wind-down advisors and refer the company.

1. Forbes, “AI’s New Training Data: Your Old Work Slacks And Emails” (Anna Tong, April 16, 2026)
2. Fortune, “Google wants Spirit Airlines’ data. Micro1 wants to pay more” (Wen Shao, September 14, 2026)
3. ch-aviation: report on the court delaying Google’s purchase of Spirit’s business data (August 24, 2026)
4. 11 U.S. Code § 363: Use, sale, or lease of property (Cornell LII)
5. 11 U.S. Code § 332: Consumer privacy ombudsman (Cornell LII)