Latitude 5Studio
Formation 01Accra · Lagos · 2026Latitude 5 Studio
The first formation cycle

Our first companies must earn the right to exist.

Latitude 5 is beginning with two existing ventures and one new market thesis. We are placing each opportunity inside a disciplined formation process to determine what deserves leadership, capital, and long-term commitment.

Three opportunities enter.

Evidence decides what becomes a company.

Explore Formation 01Work with the studio
Three different starting points

One formation system. Different evidence.

Strideos already has a working product. CrowdPen has a platform, community, and several possible commercial paths. Our regional trade thesis begins with a problem—not a product. Each will be treated differently. Each must produce evidence.

One operating system for running a business.

Strideos brings the essential parts of business management into one connected workspace.

Businesses can coordinate projects, customers, teams, workflows, documents, goals, and performance without spreading their operations across disconnected tools.

It is designed for businesses across industries and markets—from early-stage companies finding their rhythm to growing organisations that need stronger visibility and control.

The product exists. Formation 01 will determine which operating problems create the strongest reason for businesses to adopt Strideos, use it consistently, and pay for it.

The decision question

Which critical business workflows can Strideos manage well enough to become the operating home of a company?

Who it is being built for

  • 01Startups and growing companies
  • 02Small and medium-sized businesses
  • 03Agencies and professional firms
  • 04Retail and commerce businesses
  • 05Nonprofits and membership organisations
  • 06Distributed and international teams
  • 07Companies replacing several disconnected business tools

Initial use cases under investigation

  • 01Project and task management
  • 02Customer and relationship management
  • 03Team coordination
  • 04Goals and performance tracking
  • 05Internal documentation
  • 06Workflow management
  • 07Business reporting and visibility

Evidence we are seeking

E01

Businesses moving real work into Strideos

E02

Multiple team members using it consistently

E03

Weekly use of at least one critical workflow

E04

Reduced dependence on disconnected tools

E05

Paying customers across different business categories

E06

Strong retention after onboarding

E07

Clear evidence of which workflows drive adoption

Strideos will begin its validation through businesses available to the Latitude 5 network.

Its ambition is global. The first customers are the starting point—not the boundary of the market.

Visit Strideos

Building the commercial infrastructure behind African creative talent.

CrowdPen has explored publishing, creator tools, memberships, a marketplace, events, talent development, and community products.

That experimentation has created assets, relationships, and insight. It has also created too many possible businesses inside one platform.

Formation 01 will determine which transaction CrowdPen should become exceptionally good at enabling.

The decision question

What will customers repeatedly pay CrowdPen—and the creators within its network—to deliver?

Paths under investigation

  • 01Creator publishing and monetisation
  • 02Creative-service transactions
  • 03Specialised talent delivery
  • 04Media and community products
  • 05Technology-enabled services export

Evidence we are seeking

E01

One clearly defined customer

E02

One repeatable paid transaction

E03

Consistent creator delivery

E04

Customer willingness to return

E05

A credible revenue and margin model

E06

A clear relationship between the platform, community, and commercial offer

Creative Chaos, Pathfinder, the marketplace, and the wider CrowdPen community will be evaluated as parts of one commercial system—not as unrelated projects.

The objective is not to preserve every existing CrowdPen activity. It is to identify the strongest business hidden inside what has already been built.

Visit CrowdPen

Finding the missing operating layer between Ghana and Nigeria.

Repeat exporters coordinate documentation, logistics, compliance, buyers, payments, and fulfilment across disconnected intermediaries. Many of the most expensive problems occur between these activities.

Latitude 5 is investigating whether one accountable operating layer can reduce delays, protect margins, and make regional trade more dependable.

We are beginning with agrifood trade between Ghana and Nigeria.

The decision question

Where do repeat agrifood exporters lose the most time, money, and trust—and who will pay to prevent that loss?

Our fieldwork will examine

  • 01Documentation and compliance
  • 02Freight coordination
  • 03Buyer and supplier verification
  • 04Payment assurance
  • 05Shipment visibility
  • 06Working capital
  • 07Transaction reconciliation

Evidence we are seeking

E01

A costly problem repeated across multiple transactions

E02

A clearly identifiable paying customer

E03

Evidence of the financial cost of the current process

E04

A manual service customers will use and pay for

E05

Repeat transactions

E06

A credible path to positive transaction economics

E07

An experienced operator capable of leading the opportunity

We will not begin by building software. We will reconstruct real transactions, observe existing workflows, and test the most important intervention manually before deciding whether a company should be formed.

Contribute field insight
Formation system

One operating system.
Different paths through it.

Every opportunity entering Latitude 5 moves through the same decision system.

01

Investigate

Understand the customer, workflow, economics, existing alternatives, and cost of the problem.

Gate

Is the problem real, repeated, and worth solving?

02

Admit

Define the thesis, appoint an accountable lead, approve a limited budget, and establish the evidence required.

Gate

Should Latitude 5 commit formation resources?

03

Form

Build the smallest useful product or manually deliver the service inside a real customer workflow.

Gate

Can we solve the core problem better than the current alternative?

04

Prove

Charge for the outcome, measure repeat usage, examine delivery costs, and test the team’s ability to execute.

Gate

Is there commercial evidence?

05

Commit

Decide whether to invest further, recruit permanent leadership, establish ownership, and form an independent company.

Gate

Form, extend, restructure, hold, or stop?

Operating principle

Nothing advances because the team worked hard. Capital follows evidence.

What Latitude 5 provides

Support matched to the stage.

Each Formation 01 opportunity receives the level of support appropriate to its stage.

01

Thesis and research

Customer interviews, workflow analysis, market mapping, experiment design, and decision memos.

02

Product and technology

Product strategy, design, engineering, prototyping, testing, and data instrumentation.

03

Commercial development

Customer discovery, pricing, pilot design, partnerships, distribution, and market-entry support.

04

Company formation

Leadership recruitment, ownership design, incorporation, governance, and operating planning.

05

Studio capital

Capital released in stages against specific evidence targets and predetermined decision dates.

06

Shared operations

Finance, legal coordination, hiring support, reporting, documentation, and investor preparation.

Studio support is designed to become less necessary as each company becomes stronger. The objective is to build independent companies—not permanent studio dependants.

The first formation cycle

What Formation 01 must prove.

This cycle will not be judged by how many products we launch. It will be judged by the quality of the decisions we make.

01

Which business workflows give Strideos the strongest path to adoption, retention, and global growth?

02

What paid transaction should become CrowdPen’s core business?

03

Is there a company-sized opportunity inside Ghana–Nigeria agrifood trade operations?

04

Who is capable of leading each opportunity?

05

Which opportunity deserves additional capital?

06

Which activity should be restructured, held, or stopped?

07

Can the Latitude 5 operating system produce better companies and faster decisions?

A “no” supported by strong evidence is a useful outcome.

Weak opportunities will not be protected because we have already invested time in them.

Why these opportunities belong together

Different markets.
The same structural weakness.

Strideos, CrowdPen, and regional trade serve different customers and markets. Their underlying challenge is similar.

Important work is being managed through fragmented tools, manual handoffs, informal relationships, and weak systems of accountability.

Strideos explores how companies can run their work through one connected operating environment. CrowdPen explores how creative talent, audiences, and commercial opportunities can connect. The regional trade thesis explores how physical commerce can move through a more accountable operating layer.

Latitude 5 builds where fragmentation creates unnecessary cost, delay, and lost potential.

How capital will be deployed

Capital purchases the next piece of evidence.

Formation 01 will not give each opportunity a large budget and hope for the best. Capital will be released in stages.

01

Research capital

Understand the customer, market, workflow, and cost of the problem.

02

Formation capital

Develop prototypes, run manual tests, recruit venture leaders, and place solutions inside real customer environments.

03

Validation capital

Support paying customers, improve delivery, test retention, and establish commercial evidence.

04

Studio commitment

Reserved for opportunities with credible evidence across the market, product, economics, leadership, and expansion potential.

Every allocation defines

The amount approved · what the capital must test · who is accountable · the evidence expected · the decision date · the condition under which funding stops.

Build with us

Join the first Latitude 5 formation team.

Work inside real ventures, speak with customers, run commercial experiments, and help determine what Latitude 5 should build, fund, restructure, or stop.

12 weeks · Part-time

Venture Builder Fellowship

Defined roles across venture research, product, growth, operations, finance, and communications. Six to eight carefully selected places.

Explore fellowship positions
Senior operating roles

Venture Partners

Experienced operators who bring judgment, market access, and accountability to Strideos, CrowdPen, or the regional trade thesis.

Explore partner positions
Open formation

Help us challenge the thesis.

Formation 01 is open to people with direct knowledge—not general opinions.

01

Founders and venture leaders

You understand one of these problems deeply and may be capable of leading the company that emerges.

Build with Latitude 5
02

Businesses and pilot customers

Your organisation is willing to test Strideos, commission work through CrowdPen, or help us understand a real trade workflow.

Become a pilot partner
03

Operators and domain experts

You work inside business operations, technology, trade, logistics, finance, media, or the creator economy and can contribute specific evidence.

Contribute field insight
04

Capital partners

You want to follow the formation process, understand the evidence, or support opportunities that earn further investment.

Start a capital conversation
Formation 01

We are not assembling a collection of products.

We are building a system that turns difficult problems into focused, independent companies.

Some will be designed for African markets. Some will begin in Africa and expand globally. Others, like Strideos, will be global products from the beginning. Formation 01 is where that ambition meets evidence.

Work with the studioFollow Formation 01