Can I license my company's records if I'm shutting down?
In this article
What should I keep before the servers go dark?Who can sign for a closed company?What if contractors wrote some of the code?We already shut down. Is it too late?What should I keep before the servers go dark?
The repository with its full commit history, not a zip of the final version. The Slack or Teams export with threads intact. The Jira, Linear or Asana export. Design docs and decision memos. The support inbox. Buyers pay for the trail of how the product got built, so a ticket that links to a pull request that links to a release is worth more than any of them alone.
Keep the exports somewhere two people can reach. Cancel the subscriptions after the export, not before. Most founders lose the Slack history to a lapsed plan a month after shutting down.
Who can sign for a closed company?
Whoever still holds signing authority for the entity. If the company is dissolved but the entity exists, that is usually the last CEO or the board. If the assets went to an assignee for the benefit of creditors or a bankruptcy trustee, the assignee or trustee signs, and they are usually glad to: it is money for the estate. Buyers ask this on the first call, so have the answer ready.
What if contractors wrote some of the code?
Buyers ask whether contractors assigned their work to the company. Most did, in a standard agreement. If some did not, that code is excluded and the rest is still licensable. A missing assignment lowers the number; it rarely kills the deal.
See what your company's records could get.
Ten questions, under five minutes, built from the buyers' own published ranges.
Get my estimate →We already shut down. Is it too late?
Not if the exports exist. Buyers have closed on companies that shut a year earlier. The GitHub organization, a Slack export on a laptop, or a Jira backup in Google Drive is enough to start. The two-minute check asks which of these you still have. More for founders winding down.
In short
- Yes. Three buyers want shut-down companies at any size.
- $10K to $300K, two to four weeks, one person decides.
- Keep the repo history, the chat export and the ticket export. Cancel subscriptions after.
- First introduction wins at these buyers. Move this week.
