The Post Game Podcast #79: Parul Khosla, Co-founder of Arena Talent - Inside Sports Recruiting & AI Job Matching
Parul Khosla is the co-founder of Arena Talent, an AI-powered recruiting platform for sports and entertainment.
She has previously worked in talent acquisition at the NFL, NHL, Disney, and Madison Square Garden, specializing in diversity initiatives and connecting underrepresented groups with career opportunities.
Parul holds an MBA from Rutgers and is a LinkedIn Top Voice. She helped launched Arena in November 2024 to solve the access problem in sports hiring, where qualified candidates often get lost in overwhelming application volumes.
What You'll Hear About:
- Why Parul is passionate about connecting people to careers and her journey from NFL recruiting to entrepreneurship
- What is an ATS system in hiring? The hidden filtering process that determines who gets seen
- Real challenges job seekers experience . Why 300+ applications per job creates an impossible system
- Behind the scenes recruiting. How hiring actually works vs. what candidates think happens
- Best places to build relationships / In-person networking vs. LinkedIn reality
- How Arena's AI works and the Revolutionary matching technology for sports careers
Timestamps:
(0:00) - Intro to Parul
(2:30) - Parul's upbringing & early career in sports
(9:30) - How does hiring happen behind the scenes?
(11:10) - What is an ATS system and why it matters?
(15:40) - How do candidates break through the noise?
(18:05) - Networking & warm introductions that work
(19:10) - LinkedIn Top Voice program explained
(21:05) - In-person events for networking success
(22:50) - LinkedIn's 8% response rate problem
(25:00) - What is Arena and its mission?
(27:25) - How they incorporate AI matching technology
(28:40) - Is LinkedIn TOO available? The spam problem
(32:40) - Building real relationships on Arena's platform
(34:50) - How do you maintain community quality?
(36:25) - Not a social media platform - focused networking
(37:25) - Biggest entrepreneurship challenges faced
(39:40) - Bootstrapping reality and raising money
(43:40) - Where to find Parul and Arena
Links:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/parul-khosla/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/arenatalent/
https://arenatalent.com/
The Post Game Podcast:
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Email me: joe.poduslenko@gmail.com