# How Do I License Training Data From Old Companies?

> A GTM play for Revnu, for AI labs and data vendors that license data. Old, owner-run companies hold decades of records nobody has digitised for AI. Revnu finds them by industry and founding year, reads their filed accounts and owner age, and reaches the owner by email and LinkedIn with a licensing offer.

Canonical: https://revnu.com/docs/play-legacy-data-archives
Last updated: 2026-11-08

An oilfield services firm founded in 1950 has seventy years of well logs, inspection reports and job tickets. A trade publisher has every back issue. A manufacturer has drawings for parts it stopped making in 1985. None of it is on the open web, and most of the owners have never been asked. Revnu finds these companies, checks which ones are shrinking or whose owner is near retirement, and writes to the owner with an offer for the archive.

## Why it works

An owner-run company decides in one conversation. A long history means a long archive. And a company with a filed loss, a shrinking team or an owner past 65 has a reason to turn old records into new revenue. An email about their own records reads as a business offer, not a pitch.

## How to run it

1. **Name the records you want.** Well logs, maintenance records, engineering drawings, back issues, call notes, contracts. Revnu turns each kind into the industries that hold it.
2. **Find the companies.** Revnu searches 200 million+ companies by industry, founding year, size and location, and reads each website to confirm what the company does.
3. **Qualify them.** Where a registry publishes accounts, such as Companies House in the UK, Revnu reads turnover, profit trend, net assets, debt and directors' ages, and reads insolvency notices. Each signal is stated as the filing shows it, such as "filed a loss two years running".
4. **Find the owner.** The owner, president or managing director, with a verified work email, their LinkedIn profile and the company's own phone number from its website or registry listing.
5. **Write by email and LinkedIn.** The email names the company, its founding year and the records it likely holds, and offers a paid pilot on one year of them. A LinkedIn connection request follows three days later, then a follow-up with how the first partners started.
6. **Run it every week.** Revnu adds new companies and new filings as they appear.

## The prompt

> Find [industry] companies in [country] founded before [year] with [size] people. Where filed accounts are public, note turnover, profit trend and directors' ages, and rank companies with a falling profit or an owner over 65 first. Find the owner and their work email. Write an email that names their company, how long it has run and the records it likely holds, and offers a paid pilot to license one year of them for AI training. Connect on LinkedIn three days later.

[Try this in Revnu](https://revnu.com/sign-up?prompt=Find%20%5Bindustry%5D%20companies%20in%20%5Bcountry%5D%20founded%20before%20%5Byear%5D%20with%20%5Bsize%5D%20people.%20Where%20filed%20accounts%20are%20public%2C%20note%20turnover%2C%20profit%20trend%20and%20directors%27%20ages%2C%20and%20rank%20companies%20with%20a%20falling%20profit%20or%20an%20owner%20over%2065%20first.%20Find%20the%20owner%20and%20their%20work%20email.%20Write%20an%20email%20that%20names%20their%20company%2C%20how%20long%20it%20has%20run%20and%20the%20records%20it%20likely%20holds%2C%20and%20offers%20a%20paid%20pilot%20to%20license%20one%20year%20of%20them%20for%20AI%20training.%20Connect%20on%20LinkedIn%20three%20days%20later.)

Each lead keeps its reason on its **Signals** tab with the source. Your first sequence waits for your approval in **Review**.

## Run it every week

> Every Monday, find [industry] companies founded before [year] that filed new accounts or an insolvency notice last week, and add the ones that fit to the Legacy Archives campaign.

Set it up once as a [workflow](https://revnu.com/docs/recurring-work.md).

## Related

[Add-on acquisitions play](https://revnu.com/docs/play-add-on-acquisitions.md), [hidden public lists](https://revnu.com/docs/play-public-lists.md), [Revnu for AI training data](https://revnu.com/for/ai-training-data) and [all GTM plays](https://revnu.com/docs/play-overview.md).

## Frequently asked questions

### Which industries hold the most useful archives?

Ones that wrote everything down for decades: oil and gas services, utilities, engineering and manufacturing, trade and local publishing, insurance brokers and law practices. Revnu searches by industry and founding year, so you can test several in a week.

### Can it tell which companies are struggling?

Where the record is public, yes. Revnu reads filed accounts and insolvency notices at registries that publish them and states what the filing shows. It never calls a company failing on a guess.

### Who signs the licence?

The owner or managing director at an owner-run company. Revnu books the call; pricing, rights and the contract stay with you and your counsel.

### Does Revnu handle the data itself?

No. Revnu finds the companies and runs the outreach. The files move between you and the company under your agreement.