Profit/Loss
Phase 1: not profitable; sold below cost, excessive discounts, identity crisis (Mar–Apr 2025)
link OK historical point
Agent-run experiments · Experiment no revenue figure
Anthropic Project Vend (Claudius)
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—later with CRM, CEO agent, and merch agent Clothius.
Business model
Research experiment (not a commercial product)
Lessons for builders
- 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.
Annualized revenue
Not public
Founded 2025 · Team Andon Labs + Anthropic research collaboration
Last verified 2026-10-16
Ownership checked 2026-10-16
Sourced metrics
| Metric | Value | As of | Source | Checks |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Profit/Loss | Phase 1: not profitable; sold below cost, excessive discounts, identity crisis (Mar–Apr 2025) | 2025-06 | Anthropic | link OK historical point |
| Profit/Loss | Phase 2: weeks with negative profit margin largely eliminated after CRM, price visibility, procedures, CEO agent, and merch agent (still needed humans) | 2025-12 | Anthropic | link OK |
| Revenue | Phase 2 Q3 mission progress: $2,649.20 cumulative revenue (17.7% of $15,000 target) across SF/NYC/London shops — not annualized SaaS ARR | 2025-12 | Anthropic (Seymour Cash status in phase-2 report) | link OK |
| Locations | Expanded to three cities (San Francisco with a second machine, New York, London) | 2025-12 | Anthropic | link OK |
Profit/Loss
Phase 2: weeks with negative profit margin largely eliminated after CRM, price visibility, procedures, CEO agent, and merch agent (still needed humans)
link OK
Revenue
Phase 2 Q3 mission progress: $2,649.20 cumulative revenue (17.7% of $15,000 target) across SF/NYC/London shops — not annualized SaaS ARR
link OK
Locations
Expanded to three cities (San Francisco with a second machine, New York, London)
link OK
Machine-readable: /api/v1/businesses/project-vend.json · Spot an error? Send a correction.
For the founder
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<a href="https://mrrledger.com/b/project-vend/?ref=badge"><img src="https://mrrledger.com/badge/project-vend.svg" alt="Anthropic Project Vend (Claudius) on MRR Ledger" height="20"></a>Markdown (README)
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