How A Harvard Online Course Inspired Me To Build My Consulting Business

Gwen Mdinaradze has an impressive academic record, with a master’s degree in Industrial-Organizational Psychology from Harvard University Extension School. She is also on track to earn both her Master’s in Education and Doctor of Education from the University of Pennsylvania. However, it was during her time with Harvard Business School (HBS) Online that she unlocked her entrepreneurial mindset.

In 2020, Gwen founded EdBridge—a consulting firm that partners with Fortune 1000 companies—shortly after completing her first HBS Online course, Management Essentials. Today, she is not only a Founder and CEO, but also holds five HBS Online certifications, each one helping shape her into the business woman she is today.

Here, she shares how her experience with online business education shaped her entrepreneurial journey and laid the foundations for her company.

Tell us about your business

EdBridge is a consulting firm that partners with Fortune 1000 companies and medium- and large-sized enterprises to build learning ecosystems that drive measurable business performance. Here’s what makes us different: most learning and development consultancies help you build better programs. We help you build better systems.

Our consultants bring decades of real-world and academic experience. This blend of practitioner–scholar insight and boardroom practicality allows us to design learning ecosystems that develop leaders and transform performance.

At EdBridge, I draw from my expertise at Harvard and the University of Pennsylvania to design learning ecosystems that connect education and enterprise, turning capability into competitive advantage.

What inspired you to start EdBridge?

The idea for EdBridge was born during my time at HBS Online, though I didn’t realize it at first. I kept seeing the same pattern: companies invested millions in learning and development programs, employees completed the training, engagement scores looked great—but nothing changed. Six months later, the same capability gaps and performance issues remained.

The frameworks I was learning around competitive advantage, value creation, and strategic alignment helped me see the core issue: organizations were treating L&D like an isolated function instead of a strategic infrastructure. They were buying programs when they needed ecosystems.

That insight became the foundation for EdBridge. I wanted to bridge the gap between learning investment and business performance—to build systems that actually moved the needle on outcomes that mattered.

How does it work? 

We start by identifying the strategic capability gaps constraining your growth. Once data is collected and analyzed, we design learning ecosystems that are connected to business strategy, measured by outcomes, and built for sustainability.

Tell us more about your business today

We’re a high-impact core team supported by a global network of over 100 specialized consultants. Our model is intentionally lean—built for agility, precision, and measurable results. By prioritizing depth over size, we deliver the caliber of insight typically associated with top-tier firms while maintaining the intimacy of a strategic partner.

We’ve also built the business to be sustainable. I learned from the Sustainable Business Strategy course that growth without a foundation is fragile. We’re building for the long term.

What courses have you pursued with HBS Online?

Since 2019, I have completed several courses with Harvard Business School Online, including Management Essentials (2019), Business Strategy (2022), Sustainable Business Strategy (2022), Certificates of Specialization in Strategy (2022), and finally the Credential of Readiness (CORe) in 2022.

Why did you decide to pursue HBS Online courses?

As an immigrant, I was searching for a learning experience that was flexible and connected to a community of like-minded professionals. What drew me to HBS Online was that combination—the ability to learn on my own schedule while engaging in conversations that felt like sitting inside a real Harvard classroom.

Knowing that the CORe program could serve as a pathway toward my master’s made the decision even more meaningful—it wasn’t just a course; it was a bridge to my next chapter.

What stood out was the rigor and practicality. These weren’t simplified MBA concepts—they were the same frameworks taught at Harvard Business School, designed for working professionals. The case method pushed me to think strategically, make decisions with incomplete information, and defend my reasoning—all skills that mirror what founders and leaders do every day.

In what ways do you draw on the skills you gained from HBS Online?

Every single day.

Business Strategy shaped how I think about EdBridge’s positioning and competitive advantage. Management Essentials influenced how we structure our team, manage client engagements, and guide clients in building their own learning systems.

Sustainable Business Strategy taught me to think long-term about stakeholder value, not just short-term revenue. That’s why our model is profitable, sustainable, and mission-aligned.

CORe gave me the financial literacy I needed as a founder—understanding balance sheets, cash flow dynamics, making informed decisions about pricing, and resource allocation.

Would you recommend online business school courses to other entrepreneurs?

Absolutely—with one caveat: know what problem you're trying to solve.

HBS Online filled a critical gap for me. I had deep subject-matter expertise, but limited frameworks informed by case studies delivered by HBS professors. HBS Online gave me the language and tools to think like a business leader, not just a subject matter expert. In fact, the idea of becoming an entrepreneur was born in 2019, while I was taking my first HBS Online course.

The network was also invaluable. When I took my first course, there was no formal community—so I built one. I founded the first global chapter for HBS Online learners, organizing educational events and networking opportunities. Today, we have over 5,000 members globally. That experience taught me about community building, which is now core to how we design learning ecosystems at EdBridge.

Tell us about your typical working day

There’s no typical day, but a full one might look like this:

I start around 7 a.m. with strategic thinking time—reviewing the pipeline, tackling design challenges, or working on thought leadership content.

After a quick team check-in, I move into client meetings by 9:30 a.m.—discovery sessions, design workshops, or quarterly reviews where we present outcomes data. This is the work I love—partnering with senior leaders to solve real business problems through learning strategy.

Afternoons focus on internal operations: consultant meetings, proposal reviews, delivery frameworks, or mentoring aspiring speakers and consultants. I also attend industry events and conferences and organize ‘lunch & learn’ sessions for top executives to share our view of current trends.

Evenings are dedicated to my family—my husband and our children. That balance is what truly motivates me. If work remains, I return to my home office after bedtime to write, review, or read. I’m naturally curious, so it rarely feels like “work.

What have been some of the biggest obstacles you’ve encountered?

Obstacle 1: Educating the market

When we launched, “learning ecosystems” was not a familiar term. We had to show why ecosystems differ from programs. We invested heavily in thought leadership—writing, the Future Learning Lab newsletter (which drew 1,000+ followers in a day), speaking, teaching, and publishing case studies. Today, prospects come already understanding the problem—they simply need help solving it.

Obstacle 2: Pricing and positioning

Many leaders see learning as a cost, not a growth engine. We help reframe that thinking. Underinvesting in people leads to turnover, disengagement, slow innovation, and cultural stagnation—losses that often exceed the investment itself.

HBS Online’s Business Strategy course reinforced this approach. It helped me think differently about value creation and capture, guiding how we repositioned our firm and began working directly with C-suite leaders. The result wasn’t just financial—our client partnerships became deeper, more strategic, and far more impactful.

Obstacle 3: Balancing growth with quality

As demand grew, I became focused on how to scale without diluting our impact. We could have hired quickly and accepted every engagement, but I knew from the Sustainable Business Strategy course that growth without infrastructure is fragile. So we’ve been intentional about building systems, investing in our team, and saying no to opportunities that don’t align with our strategy. I’d rather build a $20M business that lasts than a $70M business that collapses.

Where would you like EdBridge to be in five years?

I want EdBridge to be the definitive partner for Fortune 500 companies committed to transforming learning into competitive advantage. I want to prove you can build a highly profitable business that is also deeply principled. Impact and revenue aren’t trade-offs—they’re integrated.

What is one surprising thing you've learned from starting your venture?

How much of business success comes down to clarity and conviction.

I used to think success depended on having the best methodology, the deepest expertise, or the most innovative approach. And while those things matter, what matters more is being able to clearly articulate what problem you solve, for whom, and why you're the right partner.

When I started EdBridge, I tried to be everything to everyone. We began as a speaking firm: “We do leadership development, culture change, capability building, strategic learning…” It was all true, but it was confusing. 

Within a year, I recognized the need to focus on building learning ecosystems, and only recently found the time to undergo a full rebrand. The idea for changing our name from Speakers Alliance Canada to EdBridge was born during my time at Harvard Innovation Labs. The new name finally reflects our specialization and impact: bridging education to enterprise growth.

Once we narrowed our message to “We build learning ecosystems that close capability gaps and drive business performance,” everything got easier. Prospects understood what we did. They could see the value. They knew immediately whether we were the right fit.

The lesson: clarity is key. Conviction is contagious. If you believe deeply in what you're building—and can articulate it simply—people will follow.

What advice would you give to someone starting their own business?

Don’t start a business because you want to be an entrepreneur. Start because you’ve identified a meaningful problem and are uniquely positioned to solve it. If you’re not obsessed with the problem, you won’t have the stamina for the solution.

Invest in learning business strategy, finance, and operations. HBS Online was transformational for me because it gave me the frameworks to think like a business leader. You can be the smartest person in your field and still fail if you don’t understand how businesses work.

Remember you’re building for the long term. Resist the pressure to scale quickly unless it serves your strategy.

Don’t forget that community matters. Build genuine relationships. Give generously. Business isn’t transactional; it's relational.

Stay close to the work you love. As you grow, you’ll hear “work on the business, not in the business.” I disagree. Staying connected to the work keeps you sharp and fuels your advantage.

And finally: be kind, but be clear. You can be warm and empathetic while maintaining high standards and making tough decisions. The best leaders I've worked with are both kind and rigorous.