From A Workplace At Home To A Big Office In Texas: A Remarkable Journey Of Entigrity, A Home-Grown Offshore Accounting Firm

Founded in 2015 by the Parikh brothers, Shalin (Shawn) and Valay, Entigrity started its journey from a home office in Ahmedabad, India. Shawn began his career while he was still in college. He was selling insurance, mutual funds & retirement plans. Later in 2007, he then became a Chartered Accountant. He believes that his insurance selling background helped a lot in building his own offshore accounting firm.

Shawn had a successful start serving small and mid-size businesses, providing them with consulting and advisory services. Eventually realizing that joining a corporate firm would help propel his career even further. So, to become a part of the corporate world, he sold his practice and took on an assignment with a pharmaceutical company as a Manager in Finance & Accounts. As a manager, he had an opportunity to work with the CEOs of companies and gained much knowledge over the next 4-5 years. Every experience teaches us something, and from there, Shawn now understood how to run a business on his own.

In a candid conversation, Shawn mentioned how they obtained their first client, sharing this rather emotional experience he states, "People used to say that, during Christmas, no one will meet you and there will be no responses. But as we say, "hard work pays off," Entigrity got its 1st client on New Year's Eve, 31st Dec 2015 in Orlando, Florida." With that first client, Entigrity kept expanding. Today, they serve over 600 accounting firms across North America with an exceptional 96% client retention rate! Its clientele list comprises accounting & tax firms ranging from sole practitioners to mid and large-sized firms with hundreds of employees. "When I joined the organization five years ago, the company was around 45 people and never thought about where we're 1000+ today, and we're still counting....wow! The organization Entigrity has supported their employees, and thanks to our clients who have trusted us, I think we have indeed marked our presence in the accounting industry," says Mukund Patel, says a proud employee.

Headquartered in Sugar Land, TX, Entigrity has five offshore offices located across India; 3 of them in Ahmedabad and one each in Mumbai and Vadodara. They are an ISO 27001:2013 certified organization for information security and ISO 9001:2013 certification for quality management. They exceed the standard compliances for best business practices in terms of information security and quality management. Entigrity has provided consultation/advice to over 3000 accountants and assisted them in converting some of their core challenges into opportunities.

Apart from running an offshore accounting firm Shawn Parikh has founded my-CPE, the fastest-growing global continuing education platform, and Entigrity Foundation. Both of which are bridging the gap between illiteracy and minimum education.

Honour that matters: 20 under 40!

The CPA Practice Advisor awarded Shawn Parikh as 20 under 40 Honouree for the year 2020 and also 2021, consecutive 2 years in a row for helping Accounting Professionals to Advance in their field. This award recognizes 20 professionals leading the way in developing the constantly evolving technology and firm processes that allow practitioners to become more productive, efficient and profitable, as they build practices that will endure and thrive. "When we started Entigrity, the first problem we wanted to solve was staffing for an accounting firm, and what we saw was Big 4, and large firms were building their offices and teams in India. We thought we could bring the same benefits to small and mid-size accounting firms without them having to invest anything in infrastructure, overheads, offices, etc., and have access to a global talent pool. And I am happy that in our endeavour, today we are helping 600+ accounting firms globally in building their offshore team," says Shawn Parikh.

"We had a lot of ups and downs in the early stages, but we had a great team that supported us and fulfilled our clients' expectations. It's all the result of team efforts we're achieving right now," says Valay Parikh.

"When I joined the organization five years ago, the company was around 45 people and never thought about where we're 800+ today, and we're still counting. The organization Entigrity has supported their employees, and thanks to our clients who have trusted us, I think we have indeed marked our presence in the accounting industry," says Mukund Patel
 

Believes in giving back to society: Launch of Entigrity Foundation

During the tough times of the pandemic, where India was facing huge job losses and high unemployment rates, Entigrity Foundation came forward to help the underprivileged. Entigrity helped thousands of people during the lockdown through their food distribution drives. During the lockdown period, Entigrity Foundation came up with an idea to serve the underprivileged section of the society with food and utilities. By splitting the teams into two or more, they distributed packets of uncooked food items and cooked meals to people living on the streets and going door to door and cautiously abiding by the Covid guidelines set forth by the Indian government. "The best part of our food distribution system was that we were going door to door and providing individuals and families freshly cooked food packets while following social distancing and lockdown norms," says Shawn Parikh.