Rina Takikawa

Rina is a ballerina turned product designer, currently based in Los Angeles. She is one of the founding members at Mooch, a fintech startup in the crypto/defi space with a community of 450,000+ where she leads design and research. In the last 10 years before her career change into tech, she was training and dancing professionally as a ballerina— dancing around Singapore, the U.S, Japan, and Spain. Her notable honors from her ballet career include dancing on stages of the Barcelona Opera House and the Metropolitan Opera House, leading second senior prize at the 2017 U.S Ballet Competition, and working directly under world renowned dancers/directors. As a career changer herself, she loves to help empower other career changers whether that be helping craft their personal brand, and identifying their transferable skills. Rina’s story has been featured in press such as Business Insider and Built in, and she’s spoken at non-profits and institutions such as the University of Arizona, Triangirls UK, GirlGenius, CareerFoundry, and Ideate Labs. Currently outside of work, she is one of the 12 chosen mentors for a fellowship program, mentoring first generation WOC in college aspiring to work in tech.