Shreyans Parekh

Name: Shreyans Parekh

Business Name: Koyal Wholesale and Dress My Cupcake

Title: Co-Founder

Headquarters: Fullerton, CA

Business Type:

Koyal Wholesale is the world’s largest designer, manufacturer, distributor and retailer of wedding and special event supplies. Founded in 2003, Koyal offers over 50,000 products and has served hundreds of thousands of customers in over 100 countries worldwide. Koyal’s mission is to deliver the world’s best wedding and special event supplies through world-class customer service.

Dress My Cupcake is the world’s largest manufacturer of dessert table and party décor. Our dessert table décor has been featured in platinum weddings and events hosted by celebrity wedding planner David Tutera and the Four Seasons Hotel, and by corporate clients such as Google, AOL and CBS.

How and why did you get into the wedding and special events industry?

Koyal was founded by three siblings with the bold vision to revolutionize the wedding and special events industry using comprehensive eCommerce sites, fully optimized marketing, merchandising and supply chain management and best in class customer service. We saw an opportunity in the industry and wanted to serve as the premier destination for the full spectrum of couples planning their upcoming wedding to event professionals, luxury hotels and resorts.

Where were some of the challenges you faced as a company while developing your business and how did you overcome them?

Initially, some of the challenges we faced were with regards to tackling the learning curve of running two eCommerce companies, and keeping up with tremendous consumer demand. To tackle some of these challenges, we reached out to digital industry experts and learned best practices in other leading eCommerce companies.

We also recruited top style experts to monitor international designs, so that we could be at the forefront of changing trends within the industry. For example, we were the first event company in the US to introduce a full spectrum of over 30 vibrant colors of decorative charger plates, which are now the most popular items used by wedding and event planners.

What where some personal challenges you had to overcome?

My main challenge has been to maintain the balance of work and personal life, and keep friend and familial relationships strong. The pressures of the workplace often carry over to personal life, especially when your siblings were also co-founders and colleagues. From the professional side, the challenge for me has been to take into consideration the multiplicity of views and ensure that my ego does not prevent me from making the best decisions for the health of the companies.

You took a bit of an unusual career path, and recently you also started working for another company.

Why did you get a new job despite having two companies?

I am currently working as a Brand Manager at The Clorox Company. I continue to act as an active advisor to both companies, but gaining experience at a Fortune 500 company has helped me to broaden my experience and skill-set while leanring how to properly how to grow and develop a company.

How has Jainism played a role in your life and how has it impacted your management style?

Jain tenets have been instrumental in guiding my business decision-making and personal development as a manager. When managing the companies, I have to set expectations and be able to maintain a high level of engagement with suppliers, vendors and employees. Jainism helps me to keep calm and

maintain equanimity. Practicing Anekantvad has allowed me to think from multiple viewpoints and take

into consideration other perspectives.

What defines success for you?

I define success as not only growing our companies in terms of size and scope within the global wedding and events industry, but also ensuring that during this growth that we are exceeding the expectations of all of our stakeholders including our customers, employees, and community.

What do you love the most about your job?

I love the ability to fine tune and optimize our integrated processes at Koyal Wholesale and Dress My Cupcake, from optimizing our product selection based on evolving trends in the industry, to bolstering our level of service and commitment at each touch point of the customer experience. By interacting with our customers through tradeshows around the world, social media channels and feedback by phone, email and live chat, we are able to constantly stay abreast of new and innovative products, and revisit the form and function of these products with the help of this valuable feedback.

Gives us a key mantra to live life.

My key mantra to living a fulfilling life is to be extremely hardworking, curious, humble and resilient.