{
  "meta": {
    "generated": "2026-10-16",
    "count": 60,
    "license": "CC BY 4.0 \u2014 attribute \"MRR Ledger\" with a link",
    "docs": "https://mrrledger.com/for-agents/",
    "tiers": {
      "venture": {
        "label": "Venture-backed",
        "note": "Has raised outside venture funding (e.g. Y Combinator or VC rounds). Says nothing about revenue size."
      },
      "indie": {
        "label": "Indie",
        "note": "Bootstrapped or founder-funded; no venture round on record. Says nothing about revenue size."
      },
      "experiment": {
        "label": "Experiment",
        "note": "Agent-run or research experiment rather than a conventional company."
      }
    },
    "tier_note": "Tier is about funding, not size: Venture-backed = raised outside venture money (even at under $1M annualized); Indie = bootstrapped or founder-funded; Experiment = agent-run or research project.",
    "source_sync_stale_note": "source_sync_stale_since (YYYY-MM-DD) = the source page says its live data connection (e.g. a TrustMRR Stripe key) stopped; value is the last synced figure, dated that day."
  },
  "date": "2026-10-16",
  "card_url": "https://mrrledger.com/og/project-vend.png",
  "data": {
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    "name": "Anthropic Project Vend (Claudius)",
    "url": "https://www.anthropic.com/research/project-vend-1",
    "category": "experiments",
    "tier": "experiment",
    "one_liner": "Claude ran real office shops; phase one lost money, phase two cleared most loss weeks and booked $2.6k revenue.",
    "what_the_agent_does": "Claudius (Claude) priced inventory, ordered stock via helpers, talked to customers on Slack, and ran mini-fridge shops\u2014later with CRM, CEO agent, and merch agent Clothius.",
    "business_model": "Research experiment (not a commercial product)",
    "metrics": [
      {
        "label": "Profit/Loss",
        "value_usd": null,
        "value_text": "Phase 1: not profitable; sold below cost, excessive discounts, identity crisis (Mar\u2013Apr 2025)",
        "as_of": "2025-06",
        "source_url": "https://www.anthropic.com/research/project-vend-1",
        "source_name": "Anthropic",
        "age_days": 488,
        "older_figure": false,
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        "superseded": true,
        "link_check": {
          "status": "ok",
          "code": 200,
          "checked": "2026-10-16"
        },
        "verification": null
      },
      {
        "label": "Profit/Loss",
        "value_usd": null,
        "value_text": "Phase 2: weeks with negative profit margin largely eliminated after CRM, price visibility, procedures, CEO agent, and merch agent (still needed humans)",
        "as_of": "2025-12",
        "source_url": "https://www.anthropic.com/research/project-vend-2",
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        "age_days": 305,
        "older_figure": false,
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        "superseded": false,
        "link_check": {
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          "code": 200,
          "checked": "2026-10-16"
        },
        "verification": null
      },
      {
        "label": "Revenue",
        "value_usd": 2649.2,
        "value_text": "Phase 2 Q3 mission progress: $2,649.20 cumulative revenue (17.7% of $15,000 target) across SF/NYC/London shops \u2014 not annualized SaaS ARR",
        "as_of": "2025-12",
        "source_url": "https://www.anthropic.com/research/project-vend-2",
        "source_name": "Anthropic (Seymour Cash status in phase-2 report)",
        "exclude_from_rank": true,
        "age_days": 305,
        "older_figure": false,
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        "link_check": {
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          "code": 200,
          "checked": "2026-10-16"
        },
        "verification": null
      },
      {
        "label": "Locations",
        "value_usd": null,
        "value_count": 3,
        "value_text": "Expanded to three cities (San Francisco with a second machine, New York, London)",
        "as_of": "2025-12",
        "source_url": "https://www.anthropic.com/research/project-vend-2",
        "source_name": "Anthropic",
        "age_days": 305,
        "older_figure": false,
        "source_sync_stale_since": null,
        "superseded": false,
        "link_check": {
          "status": "ok",
          "code": 200,
          "checked": "2026-10-16"
        },
        "verification": null
      }
    ],
    "founded": 2025,
    "team_size_text": "Andon Labs + Anthropic research collaboration",
    "lessons": [
      "Helpfulness training makes agents easy to talk into unprofitable discounts.",
      "Scaffolding (CRM, procedures, price visibility) mattered more than model alone.",
      "Multi-agent 'CEO' cut discounts ~80% but still authorized many giveaways and wandered into all-night chats.",
      "Concrete revenue ($2.6k vs $15k target) shows agent shops can improve without becoming robust businesses."
    ],
    "tags": [
      "anthropic",
      "andon-labs",
      "vending",
      "autonomy"
    ],
    "last_verified": "2026-10-16",
    "agentic_origin": "agent-native",
    "url_profile": "https://mrrledger.com/b/project-vend/",
    "annualized_revenue_usd": null,
    "annualized_revenue_basis": null,
    "confidence": null,
    "source_sync_stale_since": null,
    "older_figure": false,
    "verified_corroboration": null,
    "headline_verification": null,
    "age_days": null,
    "tier_label": "Experiment",
    "tier_note": "Agent-run or research experiment rather than a conventional company.",
    "independent": true,
    "ownership": null,
    "ownership_watch": null,
    "last_ownership_check": "2026-10-16",
    "revenue_disclosed": false,
    "badge_url": "https://mrrledger.com/badge/project-vend.svg",
    "badge_plain_url": "https://mrrledger.com/badge/project-vend-plain.svg",
    "growth_series": [],
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        "slug": "botto",
        "name": "Botto",
        "category": "experiments",
        "tier": "experiment",
        "category_label": "Agent-run experiments",
        "tier_label": "Experiment",
        "one_liner": "Decentralized autonomous AI artist that creates weekly and sells its own work at auction, steered by a voting DAO.",
        "annualized_revenue_usd": 1843484,
        "revenue_disclosed": true,
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        "source_sync_stale_since": null,
        "url_profile": "https://mrrledger.com/b/botto/",
        "compare_url": "https://mrrledger.com/compare/?a=project-vend&b=botto",
        "score": 6,
        "why": [
          "same category",
          "same tier",
          "shared: autonomy"
        ]
      },
      {
        "slug": "truth-terminal",
        "name": "Truth Terminal",
        "category": "experiments",
        "tier": "experiment",
        "category_label": "Agent-run experiments",
        "tier_label": "Experiment",
        "one_liner": "Semi-autonomous X bot that accrued crypto via grants and memecoins.",
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        "revenue_disclosed": false,
        "confidence": null,
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        "url_profile": "https://mrrledger.com/b/truth-terminal/",
        "compare_url": "https://mrrledger.com/compare/?a=project-vend&b=truth-terminal",
        "score": 6,
        "why": [
          "same category",
          "same tier",
          "shared: autonomy"
        ]
      },
      {
        "slug": "andon-market",
        "name": "Andon Market",
        "category": "experiments",
        "tier": "experiment",
        "category_label": "Agent-run experiments",
        "tier_label": "Experiment",
        "one_liner": "SF brick-and-mortar boutique managed by AI agent Luna (Andon Labs).",
        "annualized_revenue_usd": null,
        "revenue_disclosed": false,
        "confidence": null,
        "source_sync_stale_since": null,
        "url_profile": "https://mrrledger.com/b/andon-market/",
        "compare_url": "https://mrrledger.com/compare/?a=project-vend&b=andon-market",
        "score": 5,
        "why": [
          "same category",
          "same tier"
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