For Andrea Oh, entrepreneurship isn’t just a career—it’s a calling rooted in purpose. A former professional volleyball player turned serial entrepreneur, Andrea is now the co-founder and Chief Learning Officer of Savvy Knowledge, a company leveraging technology to transform how humans learn, grow, and perform.
“At Savvy Knowledge, we are designing technologies for human performance,” Andrea said. “Primarily in the space of skill mastery—fuelled by self-awareness we’re putting learning into action.”
Andrea’s fourth company, Savvy Knowledge, reflects a mission that’s long been personal: to rid the world of impostor syndrome. Her journey began with an internal struggle she recognized in herself early on: feeling like a fraud despite high-level accomplishments.
That feeling, she says, is all too common in the startup world.
“Every true entrepreneur is forging a path that has never been forged before,” Andrea explains. “Yet there’s this pressure to inauthentically ‘fake it till you make it.’”
Her entrepreneurial path has always been driven by four personal values: wisdom, equity, relationship, and joy. From building a telephony service for fitness clubs to co-creating movement-based gaming technologies, each venture has aimed to bring people closer to self-mastery and fulfillment. With Savvy Knowledge, she’s taken that ambition even further—commercializing cutting-edge research that helps individuals gain confidence and clarity through deliberate skill-building and meaningful conversations.
Her return to Calgary in 2014 marked a new chapter. What she found in the city’s innovation ecosystem surprised her: a collaborative, consistent, and deeply authentic community. “There’s a belief—not just a hope—that we’re on the right path,” she says. “Calgary is fertile soil.”
That belief is what draws her to the Social Innovation Hub, where Andrea is an active member, and was the featured guest at the Hub’s monthly Social Innovators Breakfast Club on March 3. During the session, she offered a behind-the-scenes look at Savvy Knowledge—sharing candid stories about its inception, mission, and the powerful personal experiences that drive its work.
She sees the Hub’s work as vital to the health and future of the city’s innovative landscape. “These hubs are perfect for people who know they can’t do it alone,” she says. “They offer consistency, support, and a place for founders to be vulnerable, to share, and to grow.”
Andrea believes that creating a supportive environment for early-stage founders is one of the most important things a city can do to ensure long-term success. “Alberta is taking a chance on us,” she says. “And we need to come up big on the other side.”
Unlike the cutthroat environments she’s encountered elsewhere, Andrea sees Calgary’s approach as grounded in long-term impact, mutual support, and shared growth. She compares the city’s innovation journey to growing up: “We’re maybe in elementary school—we have our own minds; we know the things we like and don’t like. There’s still a lot of learning to do.”
Andrea’s impact doesn’t stop at building companies. As a mentor and coach, she’s become a vital guide for newer founders navigating the emotional and practical challenges of entrepreneurship. It’s a role she once doubted she was qualified for until she realized that the hard-earned lessons from her own missteps could light the path for others.
“I’ve screwed up so much in my career,” she says with a laugh. “Those screw-ups better have a purpose in this world.”
For Andrea, mentorship isn’t about having all the answers. It’s about helping others find their own. “If I had a coach in the room when I was struggling, what would I have asked? What would I have needed to hear?”
It’s a perspective that resonates deeply in Calgary’s growing startup ecosystem, where mentorship, community, and shared experience are seen as essential. “Startups that seek mentorship, not just money—that’s already a sign of success,” she says.
As Calgary’s innovation landscape continues to evolve, voices like Andrea’s are shaping more than just companies—they’re shaping culture. And in her world, building better humans is always the goal.