Chiara Operto never set out to become a tech founder. After years of working in investment banking at Citi and Credit Suisse, she saw first-hand how stacked the odds were against students from non-traditional backgrounds. Breaking into high finance often had little to do with talent and everything to do with access, connections, and understanding the unwritten rules of the recruitment game it was from this frustration and her drive to create something better that EDGE Skills was born.
EDGE Skills is an AI-driven career acceleration platform that helps students navigate the highly competitive world of finance and consulting recruitment. What started as one-on-one coaching sessions done from her apartment has now scaled into a business earning more than $58,000 per month, with over 20,000 users and a fast growing online community. Unlike generic job boards or resume builders, EDGE combines technical training, simulated interviews, and access to insider mentors with a strong focus on building a communit that actually gets results.
From Finance to Founder: The Origin Story
Chiara’s journey to entrepreneurship was anything but polished. After leaving her job in M&A, she began coaching students on LinkedIn, not with a grand plan, but out of a desire to help. She answered messages, hopped on free calls, and shared stories about rejection, imposter syndrome, and navigating the industry without a powerful surname or a prestigious degree. One student became five, five became ten, and before she knew it, Chiara was fully booked, she hadn’t planned to launch a startup but the demand found her before she even had a website, logo, or monetisation strategy.
Her “aha” moment came when a student from a non-target university, someone who had been rejected repeatedly, landed multiple M&A interviews after working with her. The realization was clear, the system was broken, and there was a scalable solution in front of her. She wasn’t just offering tips she was building confidence, structure, and access, she was solving a real, painful, urgent problem.
I didn’t “tell” the world, I showed them. I posted. I shared stories. I documented my students’ transformations by making some testimonials. I talked about rejection, imposter syndrome, and how brutal the recruitment process can be.
Chiara Operto
The First Sale and Scrappy Beginnings
Like many early stage founders Chiara’s first sale was a bit of luck and improv, a student just asked if they could pay for more sessions. She agreed (unsurprisingly!) and sent over a PayPal link, that initial €150 was more than money, it was proof (as every startup founder can attest!), it validated everything she had been working toward.
For months, she kept giving without worrying about the cash, every student interaction was treated with care, her strategy was simple, deliver as much value that word-of-mouth would become her primary growth engine, she worried about buying ads or hire sales rep she just focused on building trust.
Within weeks, her name became a recommendation between aspiring analysts and consultants, “Talk to Chiara” became the unofficial advice for anyone serious about breaking into finance without the usual advantages.
Turning Coaching Into a Scalable Platform
When Chiara hit capacity with 1-on-1 clients, she faced a choice, should she keep raising prices or scale the impact, thats when she decided to turn her manual coaching into a digital product, EDGE Skills became a platform that offers personalized feedback, AI-driven simulations, real case studies, and ongoing community support.
Students could now rehearse interviews in realistic environments, practice technical skills tailored to their sector, and get feedback not just from a machine, but from mentors who had walked the same path. The platform was launched not with a flashy ad campaign, but with content, human, honest, and transparent using LinkedIn, Instagram, and TikTok to share wins, case studies, and the realities of navigating competitive recruitment. She talked openly about her own setbacks, including the mistakes she made with her first failed startup, a sustainable sportswear brand that never fully launched. That transparency resonated because we’ve all been there as early stage founders, people weren’t just buying coaching, they were buying into the relatability.
Scaling With Community Instead of Capital
EDGE Skills has grown without a dollar of external investment. Instead of raising a seed round, Chiara doubled down on community building. She launched free 5-day challenges that combined Discord groups, quizzes, and live mentor calls. These events created urgency and helped onboard hundreds of users organically.
She also made herself accessible, by answered DMs, responded to comments, and didn’t just hide behind a logo, she showed up not as a polished CEO, but as someone who had lived the pain her users were going through.
One viral post led to another, students began sharing their success stories and he platform’s reputation grew because it worked and people liked it, not just because it was plastered all over the place.
The USP
Unlike many EdTech platforms that feel robotic or academic, EDGE doesn’t just tell students what to do, it was built to try and show them, train them, and support them.
The AI technology behind the platform helps replicate high-pressure interview environments and offers personalized performance insights. But the heart of the business remains human, real mentors, handpicked for their industry experience, to try and guide students with honesty and structure.
Today, the company earns around €50,000 per month (roughly $58,000 USD at the time of writing) from a mix of coaching, platform access, and digital services, the growth is consistent, driven by organic traffic, referrals, and the strength of the community.
Chiara and her cofounders now manage a small but effective team, with just 2 full-time employees. They’ve done their best to automate key workflows and continued to refine the product based on feedback and user data and the next steps include expanding into new industries like consulting, tech, and law, while keeping the same core principle of access over privilege.
My strategy? Show up every day and give a damn
Chiara Operto
The Early Lessons
Chiara admits she made many mistakes along the way, she waited too long to delegate, tried to do too much herself, and missed opportunities because she didn’t feel “ready.” Her quote above is a real lesson for other founders, albeit difficult to do in the early stages when it feels like you are shouting into the void, a common feeling amongst our followers on twitter and other socials in those early days of being a founder. But those lessons shaped her leadership style, now she trusts faster, build in public, and puts speed of execution over perfection, a common theme amongst the success stories we have profiled over the years.
Her advice to other entrepreneurs is simple and is difficult to argue with:
- Don’t copy. Test.
- Solve a real problem and talk about it daily.
- Stop waiting for perfect branding. Start ugly.
- Build trust by showing up with honesty and consistency.
- Talk to your users more than you talk about your product.
She believes that the best founders aren’t the ones with the flashiest pitch decks, they’re the ones who are obsessed with their users and willing to build what those users actually need.
As for what’s next, Chiara is focused on building EDGE into the most impactful global EdTech platform for students trying to break into elite industries, it’s about making sure that the next generation of professionals is chosen for their potential, not their parents or their location.
