When Tracey Lartey ’26 began validating her own startup idea, she was surprised by how difficult it was to find reliable information in one place. What should have been a seamless process quickly became overwhelming: multiple research platforms, inconsistent data sources, scattered academic papers, expensive subscriptions, and AI tools that offered surface-level insights without context. Speaking with other young founders confirmed the same frustration; early-stage market validation is often one of the biggest bottlenecks in the venture journey, marked by fragmented workflows, slow processes, and high costs.
This insight became the seed for ArcheLab, a platform Lartey is building to give early-stage founders a clearer, more structured pathway for understanding their markets. ArcheLab aims to centralise essential research tools and provide tailored insights on market size, competition, customer needs, and funding pathways. “It will generate research-backed insights and connect users with the most relevant grants, accelerators, and support opportunities, whether they are in the initial idea, prototype development, or scaling phase,” Lartey explains.
Her current work focuses on analysing existing tools, studying contextual gaps in early-stage research workflows, and designing the system architecture that will allow ArcheLab to synthesise information effectively. Guided by her supervisor, Mr. Dennis Asamoah Owusu, she is refining the concept into a platform that helps founders answer critical early questions: Is this idea viable? Who is the customer? What should I do next?
Lartey notes that a tool like this could significantly reduce the time, guesswork, and cost associated with early-stage validation. She is now deep in the research and design phase, mapping user journeys, reviewing global best practices, and testing ways to integrate automated analysis with evidence-based insights.
Once developed, ArcheLab has the potential to offer entrepreneurs across Ashesi and the broader ecosystem a reliable, affordable resource for navigating the earliest, and often most challenging, stages of venture development.
