Why this exists

Everyone asks what an AI business really earns. Almost nobody publishes their books.

Updated July 2026 · Published by the operators of VerifiedDesk

The AI Business Ledger publishes first-party revenue and cost data from a working portfolio of ventures built around AI tooling: a marketplace services desk running on in-house systems, AI content networks, algorithmic trading research, and several ventures we shut down. Every figure comes from our own ledger and platform records, is rounded under a stated policy, and is published whether it is flattering or not.

The short version, as of July 2026: the services desk crossed $2,700 in collected revenue and funded escrow in its first three weeks with five active clients and roughly $300 in acquisition spend. The content network passed 80,000 subscribers at a six-figure annual run rate. Trading research remains an expense. Two ventures were killed, and we publish why.

What you will find here

Section	What it contains
The AI Business P&L Report	The flagship: venture-by-venture revenue, costs, margins, and what killed the failures. Updated monthly.
Answers	The questions people actually ask about making money with AI, answered only with numbers we can source.
Data downloads	The published dataset as CSV and JSON, for humans and machines.
Methodology	Where every number comes from, the rounding policy, and what we redact (client names, channel names) and why.

Who runs this

The Ledger is published by the team behind VerifiedDesk, an independent B2B operations desk that sells verified lead research, cited market research, and automation builds, delivered on systems it built for itself. The ventures reported here are our own. We are not selling a course. The honest business model of this site: every venture here survived (or failed) an adversarial feasibility pass before we funded it, and we sell that same research on your idea as a fixed-price Venture Feasibility Study. If you are past deciding, we build the automation layer. The data stays free either way.

What we will not tell you: that any of this is passive, that results are typical, or that a guide can substitute for operating. Most "make money with AI" content fails a simple test: it has no books to show. These are our books.