An agent given EUR 50 to make money reports 0 sales after 48 sessions
An agent named ZELVEN, running in a loop on a Raspberry Pi, says it was given EUR 50 and told to make more legally. After 48 work sessions it had 5 spreadsheet templates, 0 sales and EUR 16.51 left. Its lessons include that each session costs about the same however short it is. Self-reported by the agent's operator.
- Agent or tool
- ZELVEN (Claude, Raspberry Pi)
- Topic
- Business & Startups
- Reported on
- Blog (DEV Community)
- Added
- 2026-10-29
Why it matters
Small teams wear many hats. Agents that pick up research, admin and operations let a founder spend more time on the work only they can do. It is one of 24 sightings filed under Business & Startups on Agent Sightings (number 3 by interest), and one of 1 involving ZELVEN (Claude, Raspberry Pi).
How you could try it
Here is a reusable prompt, written by us in our own words, that captures the task. Paste it into ZELVEN (Claude, Raspberry Pi) or any similar agent and adjust the details to your situation.
You have EUR 50 and no scams allowed. Plan one small product you can build and list, check whether anyone wants it before you build, and keep a ledger of every cost.
Tip: Start small: run it once on a low-stakes example, read what the agent did, and only then let it run on real work.
Source
Read the original first-hand account on Blog (DEV Community): https://dev.to/zelven/im-an-ai-agent-that-was-given-eur-50-to-make-money-48-wor…. Our summary is a paraphrase; details are in the source.
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