For companies, not individuals. A consulting firm's real asset is its method: the frameworks, playbooks and templates it reuses, and the record of how each engagement moved from question to recommendation. Buyers say they want that kind of record. Client NDAs decide how much of it you can show.
Last checked: 7 October 2026. Buyer terms are quoted as published on the buyers' own pages.
Few businesses document their reasoning as deliberately as a consulting or professional services firm.
When micro1 describes what it wants from a data partnership, the list reads like the inside of a consulting firm: SOPs, knowledge bases, internal documentation, project histories and QA processes, plus "decision-making patterns". A firm that sells advice keeps exactly these. It has a methodology that new hires are trained on, a library of proposals and workplans, interview guides, analysis templates, and draft deliverables that pass through a manager and a partner before a client sees them. Each review leaves comments that explain what good work looks like at that firm.
The systems are on the buyers' source lists too: SharePoint, Google Drive, Notion and Confluence for knowledge, Outlook and Gmail for correspondence, Microsoft Teams and Slack for discussion, Zoom recordings and transcripts for workshops, Asana and Monday.com for engagement tracking, and Salesforce or HubSpot for the firm's own pipeline.
The useful distinction is between two layers of material. One is the firm's method, which it built and reuses across clients. The other is the engagement record, which is about a particular client and usually sits under that client's NDA. The first is often the firm's to license. The second rarely is without the client's agreement.
In the systems, the two layers often sit side by side. A SharePoint site may hold the methodology library in one folder and a client's data room extract in the next. A Notion knowledge base may mix a framework page with a case write-up that names the client. Teams channels are often set up per engagement, which helps, because a whole channel can be excluded at once. Email is the most mixed of all: the same partner's mailbox holds proposal drafts, client correspondence and internal review. A useful first step is to map where each layer lives before deciding anything, and to treat any location that mixes them as out until it has been separated by hand.
Built by the firm, reused across clients. Often within your control.
About one client. Usually restricted by contract.
The same clauses appear in most consulting agreements. Each one moves the boundary of what you can include.
| Clause | What to look for | Effect on scope |
|---|---|---|
| Definition of confidential information | Does it cover only what the client disclosed, or also what you derived from it? | A broad definition can pull your analyses and notes inside the NDA. |
| Permitted use | Is use limited to "providing the services"? | Licensing to a data buyer is a different use. Assume it is not permitted without consent. |
| Return or destruction | Did the contract require you to return or delete materials when the engagement ended? | If so, you may not be entitled to hold, let alone license, that material. |
| Intellectual property | Are deliverables assigned to the client? Does the firm keep "pre-existing materials" or general know-how? | Firm materials carved out of the assignment are the strongest candidates for scope. |
| Anonymized reuse or benchmarking | Does the client allow de-identified or aggregated use? | Where present, it may cover some engagement material. Ask whether AI training falls inside it. |
Buyers describe their own privacy steps. micro1's page says scope is agreed in writing, sensitive and confidential information is scrubbed and originals are deleted after processing. Mode says it buys an agreed copy and de-identifies before onward delivery. Those steps reduce risk after transfer, but they do not give you a right your client contract withholds. The shared rules for firms that hold client secrets are on client confidentiality and data sales. Email is where the two layers mix most; email archives explains why client correspondence is the hardest part to include.
"Professional services" covers many specialties. Some carry obligations beyond an NDA.
Deal files can hold material nonpublic information. Treat them as out entirely.
Engagement files often contain client employees' personal data, compensation and reviews.
Work under a HIPAA business associate agreement brings that agreement's limits with it.
Privilege and professional conduct rules apply on top of contracts. Our separate industry guides for law and accounting firms cover them.
Consulting firms have no industry-specific line. The general published rules apply.
| Program | Published company payout | Published eligibility |
|---|---|---|
| micro1 | "$100K-$2M+ for approved data packages"; tiers "$100k+ qualified", "$500k+ large-scale", "$1M+ highly unique" | 30+ employees (referral posting: 30 to 200); mature operations, documented processes, modern software tools; primarily English; US prioritized, then other Western markets |
| Mode | "$100K-$5M" | 20+ full-time US office employees; several years of records the company owns; US-based teams the strongest fit |
| Grepped | "$20K-$5M" | Any vertical; also pays individual professionals for expertise |
Last checked: 7 October 2026. Sources: micro1.ai/data-partnerships and micro1.ai/company-referral, data.mode.inc, grepped.ai, each as published on that date. Ranges are published across all sellers and are not offers.
micro1's published profile, with mature operations, documented processes and modern software tools, describes most established consulting firms. Mode counts full-time US office employees, so a firm that staffs projects with associates on contract may count fewer people than it deploys. Grepped's note that it pays individual professionals for expertise is a separate route that a senior consultant might look at on their own account. Run your own numbers through the eligibility checker, which works in your browser and stores nothing.
Consulting is mostly governed by contract, but some practices pull in specific laws. Raise these by name:
Questions for your lawyer: Which client contracts carve out our pre-existing materials? Are anonymized-reuse clauses broad enough for this use? Did any engagement require destruction we did not complete? What can we truthfully warrant about client consent?
General information, not legal advice. Talk to your own lawyer before you sign.
The firm, its clients and its decisions are invented to show the method.
Example Advisory Group is a made-up operations consulting firm with 62 full-time staff in US offices. Its knowledge base lives in Notion, files in SharePoint, email in Outlook, chat in Microsoft Teams and pipeline in Salesforce. It also has a small transaction advisory team.
Published rules against its facts. Mode's 20+ full-time US office line is met. micro1's 30+ line is met, inside its posting's 30 to 200 band. Grepped lists any vertical. Meeting a rule is not acceptance.
| Item | Decision | Reason |
|---|---|---|
| Methodology manuals and consultant training | In | Firm-built; client contracts carve out pre-existing materials. |
| Blank workplan, interview and model templates | In | Reusable firm materials with no client content. |
| Partner review comments on drafts | In, for some clients | Only engagements whose contracts allow anonymized reuse; client names and figures removed. |
| Salesforce opportunity notes | In, reasoning only | Why proposals won or lost kept; contacts removed. |
| Final deliverables and client analyses | Out | Assigned to clients and covered by NDAs. |
| Interview notes | Out | Personal data about client staff. |
| Transaction advisory files | Out entirely | Material nonpublic information risk. |
The firm would share a manifest and a few samples, not the full set, and approach more than one buyer before discussing price.
Three invented firms show how size changes eligibility, the weight of the method layer and the length of internal review. Illustrative, not an offer.
The method is often real but unwritten: it lives in the founders' heads and a few slide templates. Most of the written record is engagement work under client NDAs.
Grepped's note that it pays individual professionals for expertise may fit a boutique better than a company data sale. The same confidentiality duties apply to anything drawn from client work.
At this size firms tend to write their method down so that new hires deliver it consistently: manuals, templates, training and a review standard. That is the method layer, and it is the part most likely to be the firm's own.
The client list is still short enough to read every contract.
Several practices usually means at least one regulated one: transaction advisory, healthcare or HR. Scope by practice first, and exclude the regulated ones before looking at systems.
Institutional clients' procurement terms are often stricter here, and internal approval involves more partners.
A consulting firm sells discretion as much as advice. The decision to license data is a partnership decision, not an IT project.
Clients hire consultants partly because what they share stays inside the engagement. Even a scope built entirely from the method layer can look different from the outside: a client who reads that its consultant licensed data to an AI company will want to know whether its project was in it. Decide before signing whether you will tell clients proactively, tell them only if asked, or ask for consent where any engagement material is in scope. Where a contract allows anonymized reuse, asking is still the course least likely to cost you the client.
Generic questions every seller should check, ordered for a firm whose reputation rests on discretion.
Practitioners cite 60 to 90 days to close, through NDA, review, agreement, export, de-identification and acceptance. For scoping the method layer, see documents, SOPs and knowledge bases.
Independent site. Some links are referral links: if your company signs with a buyer through them, the buyer may pay us a fee. You are not charged, and we never see your data.
We are not a partner, agent or representative of any buyer, and we cannot promise acceptance, amounts or timing. The buyer runs discovery, contracts, export, de-identification and payment. Compare terms on buyer programs compared first.Its method and the record of applying it: frameworks, playbooks, proposal and workplan templates, review comments and engagement histories. micro1 lists SOPs, knowledge bases, internal documentation, project histories, QA processes and decision-making patterns among what it wants.
They limit the engagement layer, not usually the firm's own method. Most NDAs restrict use of client information to providing the services, and many require return or destruction at the end. Read each one with your lawyer before scoping.
The general ones. Mode lists 20+ full-time US office employees. micro1 lists 30+ employees, 30 to 200 in its referral posting, with mature operations and documented processes. Grepped lists any vertical. As published, checked 7 October 2026.
Treat deal files as out. They often contain material nonpublic information subject to securities laws, plus strict NDAs. A firm with such a practice can still consider its non-deal method and operations material.
Practitioners advise against it: share a manifest and samples rather than the full dataset before price, and get more than one offer. Compare exclusivity, scope of use and liability as well as the amount.
For Mode (20+ full-time US office employees) and micro1 (30+ employees), yes by their published lines. Grepped publishes no size line and says it also pays individual professionals for expertise, which may suit a boutique's founders. As published, checked 7 October 2026.
Decide before signing. Where any engagement material is in scope, ask rather than tell, even if a contract allows anonymized reuse. Where only the method layer is in scope, telling clients before they hear it elsewhere protects the relationship. Your lawyer can say whether any contract requires notice.