How Polyshares compares to other data suppliers.
The AI training data market splits along a line most coverage misses. Some suppliers manufacture data on demand. Polyshares finds data that already exists.
Three other kinds of supplier.
A data-labor marketplace recruits specialists, matches them to a lab's brief, and pays them to produce training material that did not exist before. The output is precise and made to order, and the cost scales with the hours worked.
An annotation vendor sits adjacent to that, doing labeling and human feedback on material a lab already holds. That is preparation rather than origination.
A synthetic data provider generates material algorithmically instead of sourcing it from a real business. It scales cheaply, but it has no operating history behind it.
Polyshares does none of these. We license operating records that businesses already produced in the course of running, then clear and prepare them. Nothing is written or generated to order. The supply already exists, and the work is finding it, verifying who owns it, and making it usable.
- Data-labor marketplaces
- Recruit specialists to write training material to order. Supply is created on demand. Cost scales with hours.
- Annotation vendors
- Label, rate, and correct material the buyer already holds. Preparation rather than origination.
- Synthetic data providers
- Generate training material algorithmically. Cheap to scale, with no real operating history behind it.
- Polyshares
- Licenses existing enterprise operating records as the principal buyer. Pays the company directly, typically $100K to $2M, with no fee and no commission.
Why the distinction matters to a lab.
Commissioned or generated material answers a known gap. A lab that knows it needs more clinical reasoning can pay for it, or generate it synthetically, and it gets exactly what it specified.
An operating record answers a gap nobody specified. It carries how a real business actually handled a decade of ordinary problems, including the wrong turns, the arguments, and the corrections. That texture cannot be commissioned or generated, because manufactured material writes the clean version.
These are complements rather than competitors. Most serious buyers want both.
What this means if you run a business.
A data-labor marketplace is a route for individuals with scarce professional knowledge who want paid work. It is not a route for a company that wants to monetize what it already has.
If your business has years of operating history sitting in Slack, a CRM, a ticket queue, and a drive, that record is the asset. Polyshares buys a license to it and pays the company.
A few questions are enough for us to say whether we are interested.
Questions about the comparison.
What is the difference between Polyshares and a data-labor marketplace?
The supply. A data-labor marketplace recruits and manages human specialists who produce training material to order. Polyshares licenses operating records that already exist inside businesses. One is manufactured on demand, the other is found and cleared.
Is an annotation vendor a data lab?
No. An annotation vendor's core work is labeling and human feedback applied to material a lab already holds. That is preparation of data rather than origination of it.
Which kind of data is worth more?
They are not substitutes. Expert-written and synthetic material is precise, targeted, and made to order, and a lab commissions or generates it when it needs a specific capability. Operating records are broad and unrepeatable, and they carry the messiness of real work. Most labs buy both.
Why would a company sell to Polyshares rather than to one of the others?
Because the others are generally not buying what an operating business holds. A data-labor marketplace wants your people's time. Polyshares wants the record your business already produced, and pays the company for a license to it.
Does Polyshares pay contributors by the hour?
No. There is no hourly work and no task queue. We license a defined body of existing material and pay the company a single agreed amount, typically between $100K and $2M.
Speak with someone on the team.
Three quick questions tell us whether there is a market for what your company holds. You will get a straight answer either way.
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