Sites We Scour — Ranked

Everywhere we hunt for companies whose historical data can be licensed to AI buyers — scored by measured yield, and re-scored as the scans come in. Rescored October 13, 2026 against the current model: companies for sale under $100K, ranked by capture-to-price.

Sources ranked

Top score

8/10

New this review

Re-scored weekly

Mon

What changed in the rescore: v1 was scored for the old model (large wind-downs and estates). Under the for-sale, sub-$100K model the ranking inverts — marketplaces produced nearly every target found (BizBuySell 8/10 leads), while the news and bankruptcy channels that topped v1 produce zero for-sale listings and drop to monitoring duty. Six new sources were vetted in, led by Florida's BizMLS — the only free board that discloses employee counts.

#	Source	Type	Efficacy	Measured yield
1	BizBuySell bizbuysell.com	marketplace	8/10	v4 sub-$100K scan (Oct 13, 2026): 5 of 8 ranked targets carried here outright (Knoxville TN, Richmond VA, Hudson FL, Dickson TN, Middlesex MA), plus co-credit on #1 and #7 via syndication. v3 for-sale scan: ~28 of 34 targets. The dominant source under the for-sale model by an order of magnitude.
2	BizQuest bizquest.com	marketplace	6/10	v4 scan: carried target #1 via the Transworld broker page (including the $100K -> $85K price-cut intel) and target #7 outright; St Cloud MN1114 ($107K) is the top price-cut watch. v3 scan: 4+ targets incl. exclusives.
3	Accounting Practice Sales + Poe Group Advisors accountingpracticesales.com	marketplace	6/10	v4 scan: APS produced ranked target #6 (APS #NC6601, west of Charlotte NC, $85K, board-verified 'New'). Poe Group listed/cross-checked multiple v3 targets (incl. NC2103).
4	Business Brokers of Florida — BizMLS (bizmls.com) bizmls.com	marketplace	6/10	No measured yield yet — discovered in the Oct 13, 2026 rescore spot-check. Baseline starts now.
5	Bankruptcy / ABC assignee notices (DSI Assignments · Insolvency Services Group · CMBG Advisors) dsiassignments.com	bankruptcy	5/10	Oct 13, 2026 funnel sweep: 6 of 21 wind-down candidates sit in estates with a named fiduciary (Parker, Character.AI, Rad Power, Picnic, Sunbird Bio, 3DEO). Zero sub-$100K for-sale listings — estates are not marketplace inventory.
6	Hilco Streambank hilcostreambank.com	bankruptcy	5/10	No measured yield yet — not swept in any Oct 13 scan. Baseline unchanged.
7	SimpleClosure & Sunset (wind-down platforms, as source partners) simpleclosure.com	network	5/10	No measured yield — partnership not yet opened. Named in the v4 scan as the Route A resale channel for sub-floor archives (resell/license de-identified archives via SimpleClosure/Sunset-type channels).
8	BizScout bizscout.com	marketplace	5/10	No measured yield yet — discovered in the Oct 13, 2026 rescore spot-check: sub-$100K asks present in target geographies ($66K TX franchise resale, $75K/$90K Spokane chiropractic practices, $85K TX retail). Baseline starts now.
9	LinkedIn linkedin.com	network	4/10	Origination point for Tally (funnel sweep); the designated first-move channel for nearly all 21 funnel candidates. Zero for-sale inventory of its own.
10	BusinessBroker.net BusinessBroker.net	marketplace	4/10	No direct ranked targets yet; v3/v4 scans repeatedly surfaced it as a mirror (a BizQuest target mirrored here; a v3 target's location resolved via its mirror). Spot-check Oct 13, 2026 confirms live sub-$100K inventory.
11	GlobalBX globalbx.com	marketplace	4/10	v3 for-sale scan: 1 of 34 targets sourced here — the only non-BizBuySell-family marketplace to produce a ranked target before this rescore. v4 scan: a Dallas/Fort Worth medical billing listing visible but priced as a range and 1-3 staff — not qualifiable at the cap.
12	SMERGERS smergers.com	marketplace	4/10	No measured yield yet — discovered in the Oct 13, 2026 rescore spot-check: US sub-$100K full-sale listings exist (e.g. a $30K software company — but <2 employees; a $60K salon at 5-10 staff). Baseline starts now.
13	BusinessesForSale.com us.businessesforsale.com	marketplace	3/10	v4 sub-$100K scan: ZERO qualifying targets — asking prices are shown as ranges (e.g. $100K-$250K), so no listing could be confirmed at or under the cap in a target vertical. No v3 targets either.
14	DealStream dealstream.com	marketplace	3/10	v4 scan: cross-confirmed target #1's $85,000 price (listed on BizBuySell, BizQuest and DealStream) — corroboration value only, no unique target. Spot-check Oct 13, 2026: live target-vertical listings exist (a medical billing & RCM firm) but at $1.8M — far over cap.
15	Transworld Business Advisors (tworld.com board) tworld.com	marketplace	3/10	v4 scan: the #1 ranked target (Van Wert County OH tax practice) is a Transworld listing — but it was found and priced via BizBuySell/BizQuest, not the tworld.com board. No target has been sourced from the board directly.
16	GeekWire geekwire.com	news	3/10	Oct 13 funnel sweep: 5 of 21 wind-down candidates first-surfaced + first signal on 2 estates. v3/v4 for-sale scans: zero targets — it carries no for-sale inventory.
17	TechCrunch — shutdown & bankruptcy coverage techcrunch.com	news	3/10	Oct 13 funnel sweep: 5 candidates (Pulley, Relay, Yupp, Huxe, Character.AI) + Parker filing facts. v3/v4 for-sale scans: zero targets — no for-sale inventory.
18	layoffs.fyi layoffs.fyi	news	2/10	1 candidate all-time (Atrium — from its archive; that shutdown was in 2020). No for-sale inventory.
19	YC Companies directory (Inactive) ycombinator.com	network	2/10	0 direct — the Inactive filter was not enumerable in the Oct 13 sweep; the pool's best member (Parker, W19) was found via TechCrunch instead. No for-sale inventory.
20	Axial axial.net	network	2/10	No data yet, and none expected at the cap: its floor (roughly $500K EBITDA) sits an order of magnitude above a sub-$100K asking price.
21	Acquire.com acquire.com	marketplace	2/10	v4 scan: zero qualifying (grouped with Microns/Empire as 'gated or startup-weighted; no verifiable sub-$100K services business with archive depth'). v1 sweep: listings uniformly small.
22	Digital M&A brokers (FE International · Quiet Light · WebsiteClosers) feinternational.com	marketplace	2/10	No measured yield; rescore spot-check confirms the price floor problem — the cheapest current Quiet Light ask is ~5.75x the cap.
23	Empire Flippers empireflippers.com	marketplace	2/10	v4 scan: zero qualifying. v1: 0.
24	Flippa flippa.com	marketplace	2/10	v4 scan: zero qualifying — sub-$100K SaaS listings were young solo products (7-month-old lead-gen SaaS at $70K; 3-year EU repricing tool at $50K). v1 sweep: 0.
25	Microns microns.io	marketplace	1/10	v4 scan: zero qualifying (grouped zero with Acquire/Empire). v1 sweep: 0.
26	SideProjectors sideprojectors.com	marketplace	1/10	0 in every scan.

How scoring works: each source is scored on deals actually produced per unit of effort — candidates found, share passing the screen, and how many convert toward a close — checked against a live spot-check of its sub-$100K inventory in our target verticals. Two consecutive zero-yield weeks drops a source. Also tracked, monitor-only: the IBBA broker directory, IT ExchangeNet, LoopNet's business section, Washington's corporate filing search, and an expired-domains feed.