Meet Gaurav Parekh of Parsus in Scottsdale

Today we’d like to introduce you to Gaurav Parekh.

Gaurav, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
Born and brought up ten thousand miles away (in India), I ended up in Cleveland, Ohio for my Master’s. As an undergraduate with a concentration in Accounting, I thought I wanted to pursue a Finance degree, but instead was drawn to technology like a magnet. That’s when the journey to create sound technology solutions began.

After marrying Binita (Dr. Patel, a pediatrician), we lived in Michigan until the constant barrage of sunless skies, snowstorms and cold winds prompted us to move to Arizona in the late 90s (no offense to Michiganders).

In 2002, Binita started her practice, Desert Sun Pediatrics (www.desertsunpeds.com). That same year, I partnered up with Rahul Patel to form Parsus Solutions (www.parsus.com).

After spending years at large multinational consulting firms like IBM and KPMG, Rahul and I had witnessed a ton of good ideas and “best practices” in delivering solutions, but also a bureaucracy with layers upon layers of management. The emphasis at these companies was on timesheets and profits. Delivery of projects was fraught with unnecessary red-tape and paperwork. Smaller, low-priority projects were used as training grounds for novice developers. Hours were counted endlessly to enable mid-level paper-pushing managers to earn fat bonuses. Quality was compromised at the expense of time and money.

The idea of Parsus was born with a few simple philosophies:
• Create a culture that pushes the boundaries of thinking
• Promote progressive ideas that endorse creativity
• Encourage people to work smarter, not just harder
• Provide simple, effective, maintainable, affordable solutions
• Deliver top-notch quality

The idea of Parsus took shape with the philosophy based on Occam’s Razor; aka the Principle of Parsimony. The word “Parsus” is the root of the word Parsimony.

Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
We launched Parsus with a single client. Adidas. This multi-national, multi-billion-dollar empire trusted us. We put our heart and soul into delivering an incredible Point of Purchase (POP) distribution system for them. Slowly the word got out and we ended up doing work for local and out-of-state companies of all shapes and sizes.

For the most part, we have been lucky. However, in 2008-2009, we had a tough year. The recession prompted a lot of companies to cramp down on spending. Instead of cutting staff, we decided to invest in new ideas. We launched a platform called mobiFriendly and ended up launching more than ten thousand small mobile websites all over the globe. We had clients in all states of America and Canada, all countries in Europe and most countries in Asia (including Saudi Arabia) and many countries in Africa and South America. mobiFriendly still powers more than 1,500 mobile sites but is in the post-maturity phase of the product lifecycle.

Remember what the Dalai Lama once said, “…sometimes not getting what you want is a wonderful stroke of luck.”

Alright – so let’s talk business. Tell us about Parsus – what should we know?
Parsus specializes in custom software development. While we have successfully delivered dozens upon dozens of brochure-based websites, we specialize in complex, transaction-based solutions that need custom development. These solutions range from complex ecommerce solutions that seamlessly integrate with various enterprise applications to apps that track intake of medicine for chronic diseases. Solutions we deliver are security-compliant, scalable to take on thousands of simultaneous users and speed-sensitive to deliver content form global delivery networks.

We follow a simple framework that defines the vision and goals before outlining the business, marketing and technology strategy. In our experience, it is important to invest this time up-front before diving into the chasms of technology.

We have delivered solutions for well-known brands like Adidas (Oregon), Converse (Massachusetts), Microchip (Arizona), Mount Sinai Hospital (New York), Choice Hotels International (Arizona), Pink Adventure Tours (Arizona) and dozens of other private clients. We are also engaged with multiple departments of the State of Arizona, City of Durango (Colorado) and the Salt River Pima – Maricopa Indian Community.

We are proud of what our clients have to say about us. Here are some quotes:

“In working with Parsus, we felt that we garnered a partner rather than just a service firm. The level of technical competency was impressive as was the business savvy of the organization. Parsus took the time to truly learn our business and not only provided technical resources, but also contributed valuable business process inputs.” — Andy Mason CTO, Pink Adventure Tours

“The Parsus team consists of a cadre of highly skilled and competent developers who have been easy to work with and excited about software development. They have consistently demonstrated rigor, creativity, flexibility, and thoughtfulness to deliver our project.” — Jeffrey Weiss PhD, Mt. Sinai Hospital

Parsus is a family-friendly organization. We have a policy that prioritizes health and family. We have built Parsus on simple guiding principles: honesty, integrity, respect and trust. We don’t throw these words around lightly. Just talk to any of our existing or past team members. We keep in touch with our alumni and forever wish them well.

Parsus is an active company. We value fitness and believe that a healthy body and healthy mind leads to happiness. Many of our team members have run marathons and half-marathons. We have martial-arts experts, cricket players, basketball enthusiasts and triathletes in our mix. Our office houses a gym complete with cardio and weights, a putting-green and even a rock-climbing wall! We are an eclectic mix of technology nerds and athletes.

At Parsus, lunch conversation topics range from politics to sports to current events to relationships. This is not unusual. What is unusual (and cool) about these conversations is that there is an underlying undertone in every conversation at Parsus, “How can we make the world a better place?” Our culture is driven by this fundamental core value at Parsus.

Is there a characteristic or quality that you feel is essential to success?
What is success? Some people define success as accumulation of wealth, some define it as strength in relationships, and some define it as their own happiness-quotient. No matter how you choose to define success, you have to agree that you must cultivate habits to nurture your version of success. Introspection and self-perception are not easy. I work on these daily. It is easy to point fingers at others. It is also easy to become defensive when someone is giving you constrictive criticism. I can ramble on and on about how to become a better you (that’s a topic for another day). For now, I have achieved my version of success because I work incessantly on the following:

• Drive: A few years ago, on a whim and with no training, I ran the Arizona Rock-n-Roll half-marathon. Bands played and thousands cheered as runners of all shapes and sizes ran on. I was instantly hooked.

I graduated to marathons and made it my goal to run all six marathon majors. I ran these in 2015 (Boston, New York), 2016 (London, Berlin) and 2017 (Tokyo, Chicago). In the process, I also became a triathlete and completed an Ironman (Cabo San Lucas).

In order to succeed, drive is paramount!

• Passion: For the most part, passion comes naturally. I sincerely believe that if you are keenly interested in something, you will be better at that thing. If you are interested in dance, take it up as a career. Passion will drive you to do your best. On the other hand, if you are not interested in a field, don’t go for it simply because it is the hottest field, or it has the highest base salary!

I love technology, problem-solving and fitness. Since I am not a good enough athlete to compete on the world’s stage, I have taken up technology and problem-solving as a profession; and participating in endurance-events as a hobby. I believe this is an excellent compromise.

• Accountability: The best way to learn is from mistakes. It was Oscar Wilde who once said, “Experience is simply the name we give our mistakes.” If you want to learn from your mistakes, take accountability. Unless you realize your mistakes, you will never learn or evolve into a better, smarter person. I have made plenty of mistakes in my professional career. These range from making faulty investments to making bad decisions. Each one is a stepping stone to success. Each one!

• Relationships: Most successful people have strong relationships with their friends and family. Yes, there are exceptions but there are plenty of studies that show how important relationships are to health, happiness and success.

From a practical matter, I tend to build long-lasting, meaningful relationships with everyone around me. Building a strong relationship with an intern by doing a small favor twenty years ago pays off when she becomes the CIO of a fortune-500 corporation. I keep investing in relationships. I call it “sowing seeds.” Eventually, they germinate!

• Optimism, Intuition and Innovation: Henry Ford once said, “If I had asked my customers what they wanted, they would’ve told me, ‘A Faster horse!’” Steve Jobs was also a believer in intuition and optimism. He firmly believed that people don’t know what they want until they are shown the possibilities.

I’m certainly not comparing myself (or you) to Steve Jobs. However, the lesson here is to listen to your instincts and be an optimist about them. Society and logic will try to hold you back. However, some of the greatest inventions have come out of thinking outside the box.

• Patience: Patience doesn’t come easily to entrepreneurs. Most of us are type-A personalities. This makes us competitive, impatient and somewhat aggressive. We have to work on our patience and sometimes let things unfold instead of aggressively pursuing results. My self-talk on patience is somewhat humorous. If you could listen to it, you would hear a voice with an Indian accent say, “Hold your horses, cool your jets, take a chill-pill, and take a deep breath, count to 10!”

Patience is something I work on daily! You should too.

• Philanthropy: I got a late start on philanthropy. One day, by accident, I discovered that I have been selfish and have hardly done anything for anyone else. Things changed rapidly after this discovery and continue to evolve. For the past 3 years, I was on the board of Pipeline Worldwide (www.pipelineworldwide.org), a charity promoting sustainable change through clean water and kids’ causes in Africa. I continue to serve on their advisory board as the organization evolves. I am also involved in various other charitable causes including the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, National Multiple Sclerosis Society (local chapters) and various children’s causes in India.

Philanthropy has brought joy to my life, but more importantly, it has brought empathy and balance.

• Enjoy the Journey: They say that there are two certainties in life. Death and Taxes. It is meant to be a humorous quote but there is an element of truth in it. Notice that success is not a certainty. In fact, success is fleeting because it is an ever-moving target. Hence, the goal is to simply enjoy your journey. Sometimes, some of us forget this.

Contact Info:

• Address: 14358 N Frank Lloyd Wright Blvd
  Suite 15 Scottsdale, AZ 85255
• Website: www.parsus.com
• Phone: 480.614.9000
• Email: info@parsus.com

Getting in touch: VoyagePhoenix is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.