Her Story
About Annika
Annika Mills is an entrepreneur based in Phoenix, Arizona, who co-founded a Mahjong company in December 2025 dedicated to fostering community connections through in-person events and relationship building across the Valley. Prior to this venture, she built her career in various technology organizations where she managed customer experience, post-sale relationships, and associated revenue streams. Her educational background includes studies at the University of Arizona in business and communication, as well as completion of an art program focused on marketing and retail at the Art Institute of California in San Francisco. Mills serves on the board of the North Central Parenting Group in a community outreach role for her second year, having previously led the organization's education efforts. She attributes much of her approach to success and navigating challenges to lessons learned from her mother during family moves across countries and early adversity. Mills emphasizes values of community, caring for people, kindness, respect, and doing the right thing, and she advises aspiring professionals to recognize that everything is solvable with the right resources and team while encouraging young women to pursue opportunities without waiting to feel fully ready.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Annika
01What do you attribute your success to?
A lot of it stems from my mother, especially the way that she approached tough situations and early adversity that we faced with moving to different countries, and how to navigate those. A lot of those lessons come from her, even as I'm navigating my career now, as a business owner and as an employer.
02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
You're capable of anything. There's everything is solvable, and figureoutable, I guess, with the right resources and the right team around you.
03What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
Don't wait for you to be ready, go for it. You're never going to be 100% ready, but just go for it, and you will figure out a way.
04What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
There's a lot of opportunity just being together more. The more people do that in person, the stronger we can be together to understand each other. Technology is a big barrier with people on their phones, and it's so critical for us to move away from it in a way. It's so important for us to still maintain that real connection, and understand each other, and hear each other's stories, and continue to be open-minded.
05What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
Value of community is important, and what that looks like is caring for people, being kind, being respectful, and just doing the right thing.
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