Georgia Startup SkillZilla Is Teaching Gen Z the ‘Power Skills’ They Need to Stand Out in the AI Age

Want to differentiate yourself in the workplace in the AI Age?

Improve your power skills.

Previously called “soft skills,” power skills include communication, empathy, collaboration, adaptability, and emotional intelligence…all skills that are even more important as technical skills become more commoditized in the AI Age.

But how do young adults build those skills? With SkillZilla, created by Georgia-based founder Holly O’Brien. The platform is a step-by-step training guide for building up power skills.

The gamified platform and app, designed for high schoolers, CTE programs, trade and apprenticeship pathways, and early-career professionals, guides users through three levels (structured competence, adaptive application, and independent demonstration). This gives users tangible lessons on how to improve communication, negotiation tactics, and leadership skills.

SkillZilla is designed so that users are only using the platform for 10 to 15 minutes a day. That’s intentional, said O’Brien, since Gen Z kids and young adults aren’t going to sit down for an hour-long course.

“They’re on their phones, they’re busy, and if you don’t meet them where they are you’ve already lost them,” she added.

But the mission, O’Brien said, is clear.

“No young person should have to figure out their career without a guide.”

Not A Participation Trophy

This isn’t just another EdTech platform where students are stuck watching a few videos to check a box. When students reach Level 3, they have to actually prove they’ve mastered the new skill. Instead of answering a multiple choice questionnaire, students have to demonstrate the skill (with human review) in order to receive a badge that is backed by blockchain that employers can verify.

“It’s not a participation trophy. It’s proof,” she added. “Any platform can teach content. We’re building skill-holders. And now there’s a credential attached to that that means something in the real world.”

Building For An Educational Gap

O’Brien said the idea for SkillZilla came to her during COVID when her kids were home from school.

“I watched them lose months of human-to-human interaction and I kept thinking — this is exactly what nobody was teaching them anyway. Power skills aren’t technical skills. They’re human-to-human skills,” she added. “How you communicate under pressure. How you walk into a room and be taken seriously. How you navigate conflict without blowing everything up. We were already losing that naturally, but the pandemic made it impossible to ignore.”

She sat on the idea for years, waiting for someone else to build it. But O’Brien, with a background in customer and support roles in tech, realized that no one else was building the platform kids like hers really needed.

“I’m a mom of six. I didn’t have to imagine who I was building for. I was raising them. I decided to be the person I was waiting on.”

Building For All

For O’Brien and the team, equity and opportunity is central.

“We are neurodivergent led and trauma informed. That’s not a marketing line — that’s who we are. I understand firsthand what it means to move through the world with a brain that works differently, and I’ve watched what happens when systems aren’t built with that in mind. Kids get left behind. Not because they aren’t capable. Because nobody built them a door. SkillZilla is that door,” she said. “When I’m designing a feature, I’m thinking about the kid who learns differently. The young person who has been told their whole life they’re smart but can’t seem to get traction in the real world. The first-generation kid who doesn’t have a parent who can walk them into a room and make an introduction. Those aren’t user personas to me. Those are real people I know and love.”

“We Kept Building”

O’Brien is building and bootstrapping SkillZilla alongside Dan, who runs operations. But after launching in 2023, the road building the startup has been anything but steady for the entrepreneurs, who live outside of Augusta, Georgia.

“Dan and I have built SkillZilla through two layoffs, me leaving a toxic position, six months of being unhoused, and two surgeries — all in the last two years. We didn’t pause. We didn’t pivot. We kept building,” she told Hypepotamus. “Dan drives for Lyft, DoorDash, Uber, Spark, Amazon Flex — you name it, he does it. That’s how we funded this. That’s how serious we are about this mission. While I was building the platform, my husband was out on the road making sure the lights stayed on. There is no doubt in my mind that man believes in what we’re building.”

O’Brien added that “Dan and I have a very intentional partnership. He secures our present. I build our future. That’s not just a nice thing to say — it’s a real agreement we operate by. He makes sure our family is okay today so I can stay locked in on what SkillZilla becomes tomorrow. That kind of trust is what makes this survivable.”

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Featured Photo by The Jopwell Collection on Unsplash. Other photos provided by SKillZilla.