How does a company data licence actually work?
It starts with a form rather than a call. Inventory, anonymised teaser, a buyer, the licence, delivery, payment. Most of the work is ours and you are asked for a decision three times.
1. The inventory
You list what exists: the systems, roughly how big each one is, the years covered, who owns it and who can sign. That is the whole ask. It is a form, not a meeting, and an unfinished one still leaves us enough to tell you whether it is worth continuing.
2. The teaser
We write a one page description under a codename. Sector, region, headcount, the years covered, the systems, the formats, whether an export exists today. Your name, your town and your people are not in it and do not reach a buyer before a mutual non-disclosure agreement is signed.
3. The buyer
One asset goes to one buyer at a time with a twenty four hour clock on the answer. That is how a seller gets a real read instead of four maybes, and it is why an asset that has already been passed on by one lab never sits quietly in the next buyer's book.
4. The licence and the money
A term sheet on one page first, so you can say yes or no in a day before either side spends money on the long form. Then the licence. Payment is a signing amount, a share of what the buyer pays, and a floor: a named amount that falls due on a named date whether or not any buyer ever pays. Read that clause twice and take advice on it, because between signature and the floor date the main payment depends on a buyer paying us.