For established U.S. businesses
Your old business files may be worth six figures.
AI labs need real examples of how work gets done. Mode, the buyer, pays established companies for a de-identified copy of their operating records: email, files, chat, CRM and more. You keep every original, and your business runs exactly as it does today.
Hear it from the buyer
What Mode buys, why, and how your data is protected.
Start with the short intro from Mode's founder. If you want every detail, the full webinar replay walks through the whole program.
Videos from Mode. Nothing loads until you press play; use the player controls for sound.
What's being bought
AI is learning the shape of the work, not your customers.
A request arrives by email. Someone books it, updates the CRM, sends the invoice and fixes a detail three days later. No software has ever seen that connective tissue. It only exists inside companies that do the work, and that is what AI developers pay for.
What the model learns
- How a request becomes a decision, a job and a finished outcome
- Where experienced people make judgment calls
- How exceptions and mistakes get handled
- How information moves between systems never designed to talk
What it does not learn
- Who any particular person is: sensitive material is removed and personal information is transformed first
- Your customer list, as something to sell or market to
- Anything retrievable as a record. It is not a search index of your business
- Your competitive position. Nothing traces back to you
Email & calendar
Google Workspace, Microsoft 365
Files & chat
Drive, SharePoint, Dropbox, Slack, Teams
CRM & calls
HubSpot, Salesforce, Zoom, RingCentral
Money & operations
QuickBooks, Xero, monday.com, ServiceTitan
Do I qualify?
Six questions. About 60 seconds.
These are Mode's published minimums for a full offer. Nothing here is saved or sent anywhere; it runs in your browser.
How it works
About 2 to 3 months from first call to payment. A few hours of your team's time.
You know the number before you commit, and nothing leaves your systems until you sign.
30-minute introductory call
High level: one customer or work journey and the systems it crosses. No data, logins or system access, and no commitment.
Non-binding letter of intent with a mutual NDA
Keeps both sides' information confidential and holds your place for 14 days. It carries no price, and either side can walk away.
Short intake form and an indicative range
Rough numbers on systems, volumes, years and headcount. Mode tells you what companies like yours are offered.
One fixed written offer
The price, systems and date ranges are written into the data license agreement. This is the point of commitment, and Mode recommends your own counsel review it.
Your team uploads copies
Using Mode's step-by-step guides and secure upload, within 10 days of signing. Exports are copies; your originals stay untouched.
Review and sensitivity removal
Mode checks the data against your intake, removes sensitive material and transforms personal information. You can review a de-identified sample.
You're paid
Once the data is accepted, you invoice and Mode pays the agreed price within 30 days.
How offers are set
No sticker price. Four things set the number.
People
How many work in your systems today, and at your peak.
Years of records
Not years in business: years of records still accessible.
Connected systems
The same job seen across email, CRM, files and invoices.
Volume
Deals, tickets, messages, invoices and calls across those systems.
What companies are typically offered
| Full-time U.S. staff | Indicative offer |
|---|---|
| 20 to 49 | $200K to $500K |
| 50 to 149 | $400K to $900K |
| 150+ | $800K+ |
| Law and accounting firms under 20 staff | Quoted individually |
Indicative ranges from Mode, not offers. Your actual number comes in Mode's written offer after a review of your intake. No offer, value or transaction is guaranteed. Records that show outcomes (deals won or lost, jobs completed) tend to raise the number.
Protecting your data
The agreement comes first. Then the export. Then sensitivity removal.
Nobody wants to hand records to a company they met three weeks ago. Here is what protects you at each step.
Nothing moves first
Nothing is uploaded until the data license agreement is signed, and only the systems it lists are included.
No passwords shared
Your own team exports and uploads copies. Mode never logs in to your systems.
Encrypted and limited
Encrypted in transit and at rest, handled by the fewest people needed.
You can audit a sample
Review a de-identified sample before anything is shared with the AI customer.
Excluded by default
Health records, payment card data and children's data. The raw upload is deleted within 120 days.
Barred from re-identifying
The AI customer is contractually barred from trying to identify anyone, and Mode won't name your company publicly without written consent.
Who's buying
Mode is the buyer, and it signs and pays you directly.
Mode.Inc (Mode Mobile, LLC, a Delaware company) is an AI data lab that works with frontier AI labs to improve their models. It also runs apps and devices used by about 100 million people a month. It ran its own operating companies through this process before offering it to anyone else.
- One fixed price. No broker fee, no commission, nothing taken from your number
- You keep 100% ownership of your company and your original data
- You decide which systems and date ranges are included
- You can walk away any time before signing
In return, your company agrees not to license the same data to anyone else for AI training for 24 months.
Your guide
Alan Bush, independent Mode referral partner
Founder of DREAMS Business Group, former Deputy Director of Public Works for the City of New Haven, Lean Six Sigma Black Belt and U.S. Marine Corps veteran. I help owners find money already sitting in their business: clarity before commitment.
Fee disclosure: Mode pays me a referral fee if your company signs and is paid. It is paid by Mode on top of your offer; nothing is deducted from what your company receives, and I never charge you anything.
Questions owners ask
Straight answers.
Do we lose ownership of, or access to, our data?
No. Every export is a copy. Your company keeps its original data and systems untouched; Mode receives a license to a de-identified copy of the systems you agree to.
Will anyone find out we did this?
Mode does not publicly name your company or use its name in marketing without your written consent. Under confidentiality, Mode may share your name, industry and a general description of the data with its AI customer so it can confirm where the data came from.
When are we committed?
Only when you sign the data license agreement, after you've seen the fixed price. The letter of intent is non-binding and carries no price.
Why does the agreement come before the export?
Because Mode can't remove sensitive material from data it doesn't have, and it shouldn't hold your data without a signed agreement saying exactly what it may do with it. So: agreement, then export, then an integrity check, then sensitivity removal with your sign-off.
Our attorney has never seen an agreement like this. Is that a red flag?
Licensing data for AI training is new, so most attorneys haven't seen one. Expect questions; that's normal for a young category. Mode recommends your own counsel review the agreements, and so do I. I describe the program; I don't give legal advice about your data rights or contracts.
Who isn't a fit?
Staffing agencies, healthcare and dental practices, insurance, title and escrow companies, companies with half or more of their staff outside the U.S., and single datasets or one-system exports. If you're not a fit, Mode says so on the first call, before you've done any work.
How much time does it take?
A 30-minute call, a short intake form, and a few hours for your team to export copies with Mode's guides. Most companies go from first call to being paid in about 2 to 3 months.
The next step is small.
A 30-minute conversation, high level, no preparation. Please don't send logins, files or recordings; nobody needs them.
Prefer a conversation first?
Ask me anything before you talk to Mode.
Tell me a little about your company and I'll answer your questions, share Mode's full information package, and set up the introduction if it makes sense.
Not a fit for Mode? A free DREAMS Score looks for funding, tax, payroll and cost savings instead.