Alumni Spotlight: Lukas Erlebach — MBA & DBA, Founder & CEO, GlamCoding Erlebach s.r.o. | Atlanta College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (ACLAS)

Running a company and studying at the same time sounds like two full-time jobs. Lukas Erlebach did both — an MBA in 2024 and a DBA in 2026 — while leading GlamCoding Erlebach s.r.o. in Czechia, the digital media company he founded. He brings more than seventeen years of experience in digital media and entrepreneurship to that role: building digital media projects and websites, and helping businesses grow through technology, SEO, and online marketing. As Editor-in-Chief he also leads several online publications covering technology, gaming, consumer electronics, and lifestyle. His story is about what happens when study is not kept separate from the business, but applied to it the same week it is learned.

"Studying at ACLAS was an enriching and rewarding experience. The MBA and DBA programs allowed me to strengthen my strategic thinking, leadership, finance, marketing, and management skills while immediately applying what I learned to my own company. The flexibility of the programs enabled me to study alongside running my business, and every course contributed practical knowledge that I could implement in real-world situations."
— Lukas Erlebach, MBA & DBA, as featured on his Alumni Spotlight poster

Strategy, applied the same week

The theme of Erlebach's LinkedIn feature was strategy — not as an academic exercise, but as a tool for everyday business decisions. That distinction matters, because for a founder the test of a framework is immediate: does it change the next decision, or does it stay in the notebook?

His account answers that directly. The MBA and DBA programmes, as he describes them, strengthened his strategic thinking, leadership, finance, marketing, and management skills — and he applied what he learned to his own company right away. Each course, in his words, contributed practical knowledge he could implement in real-world situations. That is the opposite of studying for a distant payoff. The classroom and the company were running in parallel, and each week's learning had somewhere to go the same week.

For a founder, that loop is the point. A decision about pricing, a hire, a product direction — these are not case studies. They are live, and they carry consequences. Study that feeds directly into them is study that gets tested, not just completed.

His own work gives that loop concrete shape. He manages web development projects, digital marketing campaigns, and content strategies — work where a pricing decision, a campaign, or a content call is live the moment it is made. Strategy, finance, and marketing learned in a course could be tried on that work the same week, and the result showed in the business rather than in a grade. His stated goal now is to keep creating innovative digital products and sharing practical business knowledge with others — the same instinct, extended outward.

Study alongside running a business

The second theme of his feature was flexibility, and it is the one that makes the first theme possible. Erlebach studied alongside running his business. That only works if the programme bends around the work rather than the other way round: self-paced, fully online, with no fixed timetable competing against the company's demands.

That is a practical point, not a marketing one. A founder's week does not have spare evenings on a schedule. The work arrives when it arrives. A programme that insists on fixed attendance would have forced a choice between the degree and the business; a flexible one let both continue, and let the learning feed the business instead of competing with it.

It is also worth noting the order of his two degrees. The MBA came first, in 2024, and the DBA followed in 2026. That sequence tells its own story: the first degree proved the format worked — study that could run alongside a company and pay off in real decisions — and the second went further into the same approach at doctoral level.

For readers considering the same path

If you are running a business, or working full-time, and wondering whether further study is realistic, Erlebach's story offers three practical takeaways — not as advice from him, but as what his example demonstrates:

Apply it the same week. The strongest study for a practitioner is study with a live destination — a decision, a process, a team — waiting for it. If a course has nowhere to land, it fades; if it lands on real work, it sticks.
Treat flexibility as a requirement, not a perk. Study alongside a business only works if the programme fits around the work. Self-paced and fully online is what makes the combination possible at all.
Measure the degree by what changes at work. A degree completed alongside a career is a long commitment. Its value shows in how decisions are made afterwards — in strategy, finance, marketing, and leadership — not only in the certificate itself.

None of this makes the path easy. It makes it possible — which, for a working professional, is the real question.

Want to be our next Alumni Spotlight?

Erlebach's story was first shared on ACLAS's LinkedIn page in late October 2026. If you are an ACLAS graduate with a story to share, you can submit yours through the Alumni Spotlight page at spotlight.aclas.college — new graduates are invited to take part, and selected stories will be featured here.

The DBA is $199 one-time (instalments available: Plan A 4 payments of $30, $40, $50 and $79, plus $2 per payment, $207 total; Plan B 2 payments of $60 and $139, plus $2 per payment, $203 total), 14 courses, 210 credits, 1–3 years self-paced and 100% online — see https://aclas.college/programs/dba. Entry needs a master's degree or equivalent and English reading, writing and speaking. The MBA is $89 one-time, 8 courses, 120 credits — see https://aclas.college/programs/mba.

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Alumni Spotlight: Lukas Erlebach — MBA & DBA, Founder & CEO, GlamCoding Erlebach s.r.o.

Strategy, applied the same week

Study alongside running a business

For readers considering the same path

Want to be our next Alumni Spotlight?

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