About
The person, and the business.
The business
About Hinata Creative
| Trade name | Hinata Creative |
|---|---|
| Business structure | Sole proprietorship |
| Founded | 2023 |
| UBI number | 605-326-516 |
| Certifications | Japan Good Agricultural Practices instructor, 2022 |
| Location | Seattle, Washington |
| Serving | United States and Japan |
| Languages | English and Japanese |
| Contact | [email protected] |
The person
About Rio
I started my engineering career in 2018 at Recruit Holdings (parent company of Indeed) in Japan, working for Japan’s biggest real estate platform. Since then, I worked with multiple clients, ranging from a founding technical hire to a part of a gov-funded project. I moved to Seattle in 2022 with my partner and a golden retriever, Perry! I’m an immigrant from Japan and a proud non-binary.
How I got here
2013
Miyazaki Nishi High School, Japan
Won a silver medal at the International Biology Olympiad 2012 in Singapore.
2017
Wesleyan University
Graduated Phi Beta Kappa. Won a $10,000 grant from Yale University for a healthcare entrepreneurship project.
2018
Recruit Technologies, Tokyo
My first engineering job, on SUUMO, Japan’s biggest real estate platform. I worked on the build and deploy systems, and helped run an offshore development team in Vietnam from the Tokyo side.
2019
International Biology Olympiad 2020, Nagasaki
Deputy Director at the Japan Science Foundation, coordinating with about 90 countries on a government-funded event. When the in-person competition became impossible, we moved the whole thing online.
2021
First technical hire at an agriculture startup
I proposed, designed and built their core system, then hired and led the team that runs it.
2023
Hinata Creative
Founded in Seattle, after running a smaller practice in Japan since 2021.