Referral program for wind-down and restructuring advisors
When a company shuts down, its Slack, Jira, code and email archives can still be worth something to AI developers. If you advise companies through a wind-down, introducing them to SourceX can add to what founders and creditors recover, and you can earn up to $100,000 in referral fees if the deal closes, under SourceX’s referral terms in effect when you refer.
Why your network holds licensable data
AI developers have been paying for shut-down startups’ work records. Forbes reported in April 2026 that one shutdown platform processed nearly 100 such deals in a year, which typically paid $10,000 to $100,000 per company.
Larger archives draw larger bids. In 2026, bankrupt Spirit Airlines’ internal data drew competing bids of $7.5 million to $12.5 million from AI companies, according to Reuters and Fortune. See what AI companies paid for company data in 2026.
Timing matters more here than anywhere else. Archives disappear when subscriptions lapse, so the earlier the introduction, the more there is to license.
Companies to look for
- Companies that operated for several years with a substantial team
- Engineering-heavy startups with code, tickets and chat covering the same years
- Companies whose tools are still active, or whose data was exported before shutdown
- Discontinued business units being wound down inside larger companies
How to raise it
- Raise it early, before Slack, Jira, GitHub or Google Workspace accounts are canceled or downgraded.
- Confirm who controls the company’s assets now: the founders and board, an assignee, or a trustee.
- Refer the company with that decision-maker as the contact, and read the guide to selling a shut-down startup’s data.
The guide to introducing a company has an email you can adapt.
Check first
- In a US bankruptcy, selling or licensing company data outside the ordinary course of business needs court approval. If the data 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 an assignment for the benefit of creditors, the assignee controls the assets and must agree.
- Check the company’s privacy policy and employee notices, since they shape what can be licensed.
- Don’t delete archives the company is allowed to keep until it decides whether to license them, but keep honoring any deletion obligations. Don’t transfer data before an agreement is in place.
This is general information, not legal or tax advice.
What the program pays
- Referral fees
- Up to $100,000 in referral fees on deals that close
- When it’s paid
- After the buyer accepts the data and SourceX receives payment
- Which terms apply
- SourceX’s referral terms in effect when you refer. Start at sourcex.si/refer.
- Guarantee
- None. Submitting a referral doesn’t create a right to payment.
- Cost to you
- Nothing. Submitting a referral is free.
Data your referrals may hold
- Workplace chat and email
Slack and Microsoft Teams workspace archives; enterprise email archives; complete archives from wound-down companies.
- Software engineering data
Private codebases with full commit history; pull requests with code review threads; issue and sprint histories; incident, on-call and postmortem records.
Questions
Can a company that has already closed still license its data?
Yes, if the archives still exist and whoever now controls the company’s assets agrees. In bankruptcy, the court must approve the deal; in an assignment for the benefit of creditors, the assignee decides.
What if the company didn’t reach 20 employees?
SourceX’s published requirement is 20 or more full-time employees. For a company that has shut down or stayed smaller, ask SourceX how that applies before you refer it.
Know a company with years of records?
Introduce the company to SourceX. If its data deal closes, you can earn up to $100,000 in referral fees, paid after the buyer accepts the data and SourceX receives payment.