For decades, the glitzy front offices of the top American sports and media companies shared a common, unwritten rule: your resume matters, but your rolodex matters more.

For Parul Khosla, a South Asian woman navigating these male-dominated corridors for over a decade, that “hidden” job market wasn’t just a hurdle, it was a call to action.

As a former talent leader at The Walt Disney Company and Madison Square Garden, Khosla saw firsthand how merit often took a backseat to “warm intros.” Now, as the Co-Founder and CEO of Arena, she is using technology to dismantle the gatekeeping she once faced. Arena is a curated, referral-driven ecosystem designed to turn high-stakes networking into measurable career breakthroughs for sports and media professionals across North America.

Khosla also serves as the Executive Director of South Asians in Sports, where she champions visibility for a community that has historically been sidelined in the industry. Recently named a 2024 LinkedIn Top Voice, she is now pivoting from corporate executive to startup trailblazer, proving that in the game of professional mobility, it’s time to level the playing field. Here are some highlights of our interview with Parul Khosla.

What was the specific “gap” in the sports and media industry that sparked the idea for Arena?

Parul Khosla: The original inspiration for Arena came from my early experience trying to break into the sports and entertainment industry without any personal connections or insider contacts. I also knew, from my experience as a recruiter at some of the top sports and entertainment brands in the world, that so many opportunities are largely hidden behind who you know. Whether it’s jobs, consulting gigs, speaking opportunities, investment, or partnerships, those that got the opportunity already had an in with someone at the company. Yet, I was meeting amazing individuals who were equally deserving of opportunities but would get passed over just because they didn’t have that same access.

What sets Arena apart is our curated, referral-driven model that brings intentional networking and measurable results to executives and creatives across the sports, media, and entertainment ecosystem. We realized that while the industry runs on “warm intros,” there was no tech-forward infrastructure to facilitate them at scale. We built Arena to bridge that gap, moving professional mobility away from “who you know” and toward a system defined by merit and verified trust.

How does Arena move beyond “digital handshakes” to create actual career breakthroughs?

Parul Khosla: People are craving intentionality. I love conferences, but everyone knows that they take so much time and are costly. We’re also very active on LinkedIn, but it’s easy to feel overwhelmed with unwanted messages. Arena filters that noise so you only meet the people you actually want to meet. It is community-centered by design, built for leaders who are ready to take charge of their professional lives and are open to connections that can be mutually productive.

Arena provides a vetted infrastructure that empowers professionals to take the next steps in their professional, entrepreneurial, or executive journeys, with access to roles and relationships that are rarely available publicly. Whether a member is seeking their next co-founder, a strategic investor, a career-defining job opportunity, or a seasoned mentor, Arena is the primary destination for these high-stakes connections. We turn a simple “meeting” into a measurable breakthrough by ensuring every introduction is backed by mutual intent and professional alignment. 

What is the biggest challenge in moving from a corporate executive role to a startup CEO?

Parul Khosla: The biggest challenge is the risk. You’re walking away from the comfort of a steady paycheck, benefits, and structure for a dream that may or may not work. That decision comes with real sacrifices such as financial stability, time, and sometimes even closeness with family and friends. Personal goals get paused, and there’s a constant mental load that comes with betting on yourself.

In corporate roles, you have resources, budgets, and teams to support you. In a startup, you have to be scrappy and make every dollar and hour count. You also go from having one role you can perfect to wearing every hat imaginable. As a startup CEO, I’m doing everything from product and finance to marketing, legal, sales, HR, and customer support, often all at once.

You’re moving fast, juggling a hundred decisions, and figuring things out as you go. It’s exhausting, humbling, and deeply personal, but it’s also incredibly rewarding because every small win feels earned, not given.

How do you curate a high-level network without it becoming an “exclusive club” that shuts people out?

Parul Khosla: Arena is built to be an intentional community of mid- and senior-level professionals in sports, media, and entertainment. We’re application-based because we care deeply about the quality of the networking experience for our members. People want exclusivity and they crave more meaningful interactions. That is what we are able to provide with a vetted, more exclusive system in place. While we’ll continue to open up to more members as we grow, we want our core users to know they will be surrounded by peers who have similar career goals. Where the noise of the outside world is shut out and they are only meeting high-impact individuals who will help change their lives.

Based on your time at the NFL and Disney, what is the #1 mistake pros make when networking?

Parul Khosla: The #1 mistake professionals make when networking is doing it without intention. Too often, people reach out without being clear about what they actually want from the relationship, and that makes it hard for anyone to help them. Whether you’re job searching, promoting a business, or looking for partnerships, you should be honest about your goals. If someone can’t help you directly, they may know someone who can. That’s how doors actually open. At the same time, you can’t ask for things right away. The first interaction should always be about getting to know each other – who they are, what they care about, and where your goals or interests align. That relationship-building phase matters.

Asking for favors like an introduction, a referral, or a follow-up meeting comes later. People don’t want to feel solicited, and they’re far more willing to help when they genuinely know you and understand your story. The strongest networks are built on real connections, not transactional asks.

How do you see the “human element” of networking surviving in an AI-driven job market?

Parul Khosla: Arena’s proprietary tools use technology to supercharge, not replace, the human element of networking. Our algorithm handles the heavy lifting of the search, filtering out the noise of cold outreach so members can skip the “digital abyss” and get straight to the human collaboration that matters. Through weekly curated introductions and a mutual opt-in model, we ensure every connection is backed by 100% intent, allowing a leader’s network to grow consistently without having to spend hours upon hours on outreach. All we are doing is making sure you keep networking consistently by doing the manual parts of it for you. The meetings and relationships that are built are still 100% genuine and human-driven.

The market response in our first week of launch has been strong! We’ve had over 400 paid users join and an incredible 95% of mutual matches converting directly into meetings booked on the calendar. This proves that our process is working.

Are there plans to bridge Arena’s network with the booming sports and media markets in India?

Parul Khosla: While Arena is currently based in the U.S. and our early focus is on the North American market, we absolutely see India as a key growth opportunity. India has a thriving and fast-growing sports, media, and entertainment ecosystem, and it’s an exciting market to build in.

Our goal is to expand into international markets like India in the coming months and years. The core problem Arena is solving – career opportunities being gatekept behind relationships – exists everywhere. In sports, media, and entertainment, especially, who you know often matters as much as what you know, regardless of geography.

That’s what makes Arena so scalable. The need for access, community, and trusted connections is universal, and our mission applies in any country where talent is looking for a fair shot and a clearer path forward.

How did being a South Asian woman shape your experience in the male-dominated “front offices” of the NHL and MSG?

Parul Khosla: It was incredibly lonely. Being a woman in male-dominated front offices already comes with a constant feeling of having to prove yourself, but as a South Asian woman, that sense of invisibility was even stronger. I rarely saw leaders who looked like me, and that absence created a persistent imposter syndrome that’s hard to shake, no matter how much you accomplish.

Women carry an emotional and mental weight in these environments that men often don’t. You’re expected to be confident but not intimidating, ambitious but not “too much,” and agreeable while still delivering results. You’re navigating being talked over, underestimated, or scrutinized more closely – all while managing the exhaustion of always needing to be on.

That pressure pushed me to move faster and work harder than everyone else. I always felt behind, like I needed to do more just to keep up. In many ways, that’s why I grew so quickly. It made me adaptable, resilient, and willing to take risks for a bigger reward.

I also had to unlearn a lot. As South Asian women, we’re often taught to listen, wait our turn, and not rock the boat. I had to learn to trust my instincts when people told me no, said I was doing too much, or doubted my vision. It took years (and is still a work in progress) to remind myself that I belong here.

That’s why community matters so much. I joined South Asians in Sports right after college and was blown away to see hundreds of people who looked like me working across the industry. I just didn’t know they existed. That community became a safe haven and played a huge role in my personal and professional growth. Today, I lead the organization as Executive Director, focused on helping more South Asian professionals be seen, heard, and supported in sports.

How has your heritage influenced your approach to risk-taking and entrepreneurship?

Parul Khosla: Entrepreneurship was modeled for me long before I ever had language for it. Both my father and grandfather were entrepreneurs, and growing up, I learned by watching them – how they took risks, solved problems, and kept going when things were uncertain. At the time, I didn’t realize it, but they were instilling qualities like resilience, adaptability, and comfort with uncertainty that now shape how I lead and build.

That mindset goes back even further. My grandparents made the decision to leave India and move to the U.S., which was the ultimate act of risk-taking. They left behind family, community, and the comfort of a life they knew, without any guarantee it would work out. When they arrived, they had to start over completely, rebuilding careers from scratch, facing racism and discrimination, and proving themselves in environments that didn’t always welcome them.

When I think about entrepreneurship, I see a direct line between their story and mine. Building a company means betting on a future you can’t fully see, sacrificing stability for the possibility of something greater. Remembering what my family risked, and endured,  gives me perspective. It reminds me that taking risks isn’t something new to me. It’s part of my inheritance.

What is your advice for the next generation of South Asians looking to break into sports management?

Parul Khosla: Just do it! If you truly love sports and it’s what you’re passionate about, go for it, fully. This is one of the hardest industries in the world to break into, and it’s not always fair. You will have to work harder than everyone else, but if you stay committed, you will get there and it will be worth it.

Don’t let anyone chip away at your confidence or box you into stereotypes about who belongs in sports. Take up space. Make people pronounce your name correctly. Let your presence be known.

And once you’ve earned your seat at the table, don’t stop there. Look back, reach down, and help pave the way for the South Asians coming behind you. Representation matters but access and advocacy matter even more.

Do you have any advice for our readers, specifically South Asian women entrepreneurs?

Parul Khosla: Give yourself grace. You don’t have to do everything perfectly, and you will make mistakes. I know that idea can go against how many of us were raised, but failure is part of building something real. Your first idea or product probably won’t work and that’s okay. What matters is learning quickly, truly understanding your users, and constantly reassessing what’s working and what isn’t.

People will doubt you. They’ll label you, pre-judge you, and make assumptions about how you got here. I’ve had people assume I was wealthy, self-funded, or backed by my parents, when in reality I’m bootstrapping the real way, no funding, just perseverance and a belief in what I’m building.

Let that doubt slide right off you. It’s noise. None of it will matter once you’ve built something you’re proud of. Trust yourself, keep going, and don’t let anyone else define what success looks like for you.

What’s next for Arena? What do you hope to achieve with your startup?

Parul Khosla: What’s next for Arena is redefining how opportunity is created. We’re building the infrastructure for relationships and deal flow in sports, media, and entertainment, something that has never truly existed before. Not networking for the sake of networking, but a system that consistently leads to hires, interviews, referrals, introductions, partnerships, and investments.

I started Arena because I experienced the problem firsthand. In this industry, careers are built behind closed doors, through informal relationships and access most people never get. Arena is about breaking that open. We’re combining technology, data, and human connection to make trust faster, access fairer, and outcomes real.

We believe the future of work is not online-only or transactional—it’s experiential. That’s why we’re leaning heavily into in-person, live matchmaking at scale, where the right people meet at the right moment, and real decisions get made in real time. Arena turns rooms into engines of opportunity.

My hope is that Arena becomes a category-defining company. One that doesn’t just help people grow their careers, but reshapes how industries operate. By unlocking more connections and accelerating real deal flow, we can bolster the overall economy of sports, media, and entertainment, creating more opportunities, more mobility, and more pathways to success for everyone involved. If we get this right, Arena becomes more than a platform, it becomes the engine behind how opportunity, equity, and growth are created in this industry.

Discover more at New India Abroad.