Who is Soham Parekh, techie behind ‘Soham-Gate' who allegedly juggled multiple startup jobs and fooled YC founders
Doshi claimed that Parekh, believed to be operating out of India, has been quietly collecting paychecks from as many as four to five startups, many of them funded by Y Combinator, at the same time. The revelation has not only raised eyebrows over hiring practices in the remote work era, but also sparked larger concerns about how easy it is to slip through the cracks in the startup world.
'PSA: there's a guy named Soham Parekh (in India) who works at 3-4 startups at the same time. He's been preying on YC companies and more. Beware,' Doshi warned, sharing what he said was Parekh's CV–an impressive-looking document that, according to Doshi, is mostly smoke and mirrors. 'Probably 90% of it is fake,' he alleged, pointing out that many of the listed links no longer even exist.
What makes the situation even more confounding is that despite multiple red flags and formal complaints, Parekh reportedly continued to land new roles with little difficulty. In a follow-up, Doshi added, 'I want to also say that I tried to talk sense into this guy, explain the impact and give him a chance to turn a new leaf because sometimes that's what a person needs. But it clearly didn't work.'
Probably 90% fake and most links are gone. pic.twitter.com/h9bnLc8Cwj
— Suhail (@Suhail) July 2, 2025
Parekh's career path, as outlined by an AI industry executive, reflects an impressive academic and professional trajectory. He earned a Master's degree in Computer Science from Georgia Tech in 2022, following a Bachelor's in Computer Engineering from the University of Mumbai in 2020.
Professionally, Parekh has held a string of senior roles, mostly remote. His résumé features stints such as a Senior Software Engineer (contract) at DynamoAI starting January 2024, a Senior Fullstack Engineer at Union.ai for a year before that, and similar roles at Synthesia and Alan AI. He also participated in GitHub's Open Source Fellowship during the summer of 2020.
There aren't any confirmed photos of Parekh in the public domain, but screenshots from Zoom calls—shared by frustrated employers—have surfaced online. One founder, upset by what they called misleading hiring practices, wrote: 'He lies about his location. We thought we were hiring someone in the US. Even sent a laptop to a US address. Got it back! Allegedly it was sent to his 'sister'.' This allegation, coupled with the growing conversation around remote work transparency, has sparked a fresh round of questions in the startup ecosystem—especially around international hiring at high-profile accelerators like Y Combinator.
He lies about his location. We thought we were hiring someone in the US. Even sent a laptop to a US address. Got it back! Allegedly it was sent to his 'sister.'
— Suhail (@Suhail) July 2, 2025
Founders who've interacted with Parekh echoed similar stories. Flo Crivello, founder of Lindy, tweeted, 'Fired this morning. He did so incredibly well in interviews, must have a lot of training.' Nicolai Ouporov, CEO of Fleet AI, said Parekh had worked with them too, noting 'he's been doing this for years.' Michelle Lim of Warp added that her team hired Parekh for a trial, but cancelled it immediately after learning of the accusations.
Joke aside, the real lesson from Soham is we as an industry ought to do way more public shaming
I personally know 4 people(!) who got scammed by him
We'd have gone for another month if it wasn't for @Suhail
So: I will now post publicly when I'm screwed over by someone in a way…
— Flo Crivello (@Altimor) July 2, 2025
We just signed him up for our work trial next week. Saw this tweet. Cancelled work trial. Thank you for sharing!
— Michelle Lim (@michlimlim) July 2, 2025
Suhail also wrote, 'Not a joke. This is happening real time. This is the 3rd DM today about someone firing him.' and called the entire thing as, 'Soham-gate.'
Not a joke. This is happening real time. This is the 3rd DM today about someone firing him.
soham-gate pic.twitter.com/Ize0JgN4IG
— Suhail (@Suhail) July 2, 2025
Until now, Parekh has stayed silent publicly, but Suhail Doshi revealed that he had reached out to him in private. In a message Doshi shared, Parekh seemed remorseful and uncertain about his future, asking, 'Have I completely sabotaged my career? What can I do to improve my situation?' He also added that he was willing to 'come clean.'
Soham has reached out. His primary question:
'Asking this as genuine advice since I do really love what I do, have I completely sabotaged my career? What can I do to improve my situation? I am also happy to come clean'
Vox Populi, Vox Dei
— Suhail (@Suhail) July 3, 2025
An X account under the handle @realsohamparekh has surfaced, claiming to be the genuine Soham Parekh and actively commenting on the controversy.
There's a lot being said about me right now, and most of you don't know the full story.
If there's one thing to know about me, it's that I love to build.
That's it. I've been isolated, written off, and shut out by nearly everyone I've known and every company I've worked at.…
— Soham Parekh (@realsohamparekh) July 3, 2025
However, as of now, the identity behind the account–and even the real identity of Parekh himself–remains unverified.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Hindustan Times
21 minutes ago
- Hindustan Times
Full CV of Soham Parekh, Indian techie accused of working at multiple US startups simultaneously
Jul 03, 2025 07:20 PM IST Soham Parekh, an Indian tech professional, is at the centre of a storm in Silicon Valley after being accused of moonlighting or quietly working for multiple startups at once — all without telling the companies involved. Soham Parekh was accused by Suhail Doshi, co‑founder of Mixpanel and Playground AI, of working for multiple startups at the same time.(X/@mhadifilms) The controversy erupted after Suhail Doshi, co-founder and former CEO of analytics platform Mixpanel, took to X (formerly Twitter) to call out Soham Parekh's alleged actions. Suhail Doshi claimed that Soham Parekh had been simultaneously involved with three to four early-stage startups, misleading founders and teams who had no idea he was dividing his time — and loyalty — elsewhere. Doshi said 90% of his resume seems fake, and most links are gone. "I want to also say that I tried to talk sense into this guy, explain the impact, and give him a chance to turn a new leaf because sometimes that's what a person needs. But it clearly didn't work," the entrepreneur added. Here is full CV of Soham Parekh as shared by Suhail Doshi: SOHAM P. EDUCATION Georgia Institute of Technology Sept 2020 - May 2022 M.S. Computer Science Deep Learning, Natural Language Processing, Advanced Operating Systems, Distributed Computing, Computer Networks University of Mumbai Aug 2016 - May 2020 B.E. Computer Engineering Overall GPA: 9.83/10 Applied Mathematics, Discrete Mathematics, Algorithms, Databases, Machine Lemming, Artificial Intelligence, Natural Language Processing, Cloud Computing, Distributed Computing EXPERIENCE DynamoAl Remote Senior Software Engineer (Contract) Jan 2024 - Present Designed and implemented an interactive dashboard utilizing D3 and visx libraries, providing users with a comprehensive tool for evaluating prompts across various metrics. Engineered a CQRS-based system on the backend using enabling asynchronous generation of prompts and enhancing system scalability and maintainability. Implemented model loading utilizing LoRa, optimizing the efficiency and performance of the application's machine learning components. Spearheaded engineering efforts related to AWS Marketplace and Sagemalcer integration, facilitating seamless deployment mid management of machine learning models. Streamlined deployment processes using Pulumi, contributing to a more efficient and reliable deployment pipeline, including the development of a full self-serve deployment solution. Played a key role in addressing security vulnerabilities (CVEs), reducing their count from 609 to 2 through diligent analysis and proactive mitigation measures. Developed agentic-evaluation framework using foundation open-source models. Remote Senior Fullstack Engineer Jan 2023 - Jan 2024 Worked on Flyte and Union Cloud Console, a performant workflow orchestration platform that seamlessly unifies data, ML and analytic stacks written in Go, Python and React. Implemented gRPC services for supporting complex real-time workflow visualizations and executions over DAG Implemented custom parsers mid plugins for quick-compilation of run-tune inputs built on top of JSON schema spec. Designed and implemented a highly optimized KDTree based algorithm for Distribution and Alignment snapping of workflow elements Programmed observability metrics for Union Cloud platform for real-time monitoring of logs and important metrics such as GPU. CPU utilization, live streaming of workflow execution logs Revamped Union Cloud Platform design using Atomic Design Synthesia Remote Senior Fullstack Engineer Dec 2021 - Dec 2022 Worked on Synthesia Studio, a performant in-browser video editor written in with serverless Flask API with PostgresQL and MongoDB. Implemented support for complex real-time collaboration mid presence detection in Synthesia Studio in React using Conflict-free Replicated Data Types (CRDT) Implemented custom plugins and mark wrappers using Tiptap and Prose-mirror to restructure the speech input and add support for Synthesia specific nodes to annote events in videos like gestures, micro-gestures, timeline markers. etc. Designed mid implemented a highly optimized KD'Ree based algorithm for Distribution and Alignment snapping of canvas elements for Synthesia Studio Extended Synthesia's internal SSML parser with support for customised tags for tuning video animation with voice script Revamped Synthesia STUDIO Editor design using Atomic Design Alan AI Remote Founding Software Engineer Jan 2021 - Dec 2021 Developed several internal visualization tools for tracking machine learning pipelines and models using and Implemented end-to-end Alan STUDIO, a based browser environment for allowing users to train Alan's AI bot right within their own browser Built a synthetic dataset sampler to train Alan's entity-recogniser, improving accuracy by 4.6% • Added multilingual support for Alan's entity-recogniser Dockerized existing scripts for running model training on cloud Worked on and Apollo GrapliQL to develop a performant GraphQL backend server Integrated a robust queue system using BullMQ for processing heavy background jobs Impact Improved server query response time by 72% by restructing API and optimizing database queries Led efforts for Alan Studio, a cloud-based service that let's users train and test Alan's capabilities in less than 30 seconds Reduced reporting API endpoint response times from several minutes to fewer than 7 seconds by rewriting the API using Nestjs, SQL query optimization and caching Built a group of microservices to automate infrastructure management for Alan Platform using Nestjs, Caddy proxy. Terraform, Google Cloudrun, Google PubSub Github Open Source Fellow Remote May 2020 - Aug 2020 Remodelled existing code on NVM to rollout support for Windows-based systems
Mint
22 minutes ago
- Mint
Check out 3 upcoming cars that might just steal your heart
The Indian car market is set to see multiple new car launches in the coming weeks. Several automakers will introduce vehicles across various segments, including both electric models and those with internal combustion engines (ICE). Some of these have already been showcased at the Bharat Mobility Global Expo 2025. Here's a preview of the most eagerly awaited cars arriving in India soon. The upcoming highlight on Indian roads is the MG Cyberster, an electric sports car unveiled at the Bharat Mobility Global Expo 2025. It claims to be the most powerful electric roadster from MG, featuring scissor doors, LED petal-shaped daytime running lights (DRLs), LED headlamps, arrow-shaped LED taillights connected by an LED light bar, and 20-inch alloy wheels. Inside, it boasts a four-screen setup: dual 7.0-inch screens, a 10.25-inch touchscreen infotainment system, and a standalone digital display for climate controls. Safety features include six airbags and Level-2 ADAS. Powered by a 77 kWh battery and dual electric motors driving all four wheels, it offers a claimed range of 443 km. Another highly anticipated electric vehicle is the MG M9, a luxury MPV that was also unveiled at the Bharat Mobility Global Expo 2025. It sports a boxy design, projector LED headlights, eyebrow-shaped LED DRLs, electric sliding doors, 19-inch alloy wheels, and networked LED rear lights. The interior features double digital displays, a single sunroof for front passengers, a panoramic sunroof for rear occupants, a three-zone climate system, 64-colour ambient lighting, and powered, ventilated seats with massage functions. It will also feature a 360-degree surround view camera, front and rear parking sensors, and a Level 2 ADAS system. Expect it to be equipped with a 90 kWh battery and a front-mounted electric motor, offering a full-charge range of up to 430 km. The new generation BMW 2 Series Gran Coupe was globally unveiled in October 2024 and is scheduled for launch in India in July 2025. It will serve as BMW's entry-level model for this lineup. The latest version features a redesigned kidney grille, 18-inch alloy wheels, and other updates. Inside, it includes a 10. 25-inch digital driver's display, ambient lighting with six colour options, and electrically adjustable front seats.
Mint
22 minutes ago
- Mint
Sonata Software stares at revenue dent as Microsoft eyes direct licence sales
A global technology giant's attempts to sell its software licences directly to clients might lead to an unexpected casualty in Sonata Software Ltd, which counts that tech company as one of its five largest customers. Sonata Software, which entered Indian IT's $1-billion annual revenue club last year, is expected to get less business selling Microsoft licences, according to at least three people with knowledge of the matter. According to experts, the IT services company gets more than $500 million from selling Microsoft product licences, making it one of the only large IT outsourcers to sell such licences. This translates to almost half of its $1.2 billion revenue in FY25. 'Microsoft has talked about, or they're considering at least, going directly to a few large customers," said Samir Dhir, managing director and chief executive of Sonata Software, in an interview with Mint on 26 June. He said that the Bengaluru-based company considers this possible move as a threat. 'Is that a threat we see? The answer is, yes. Is that giving us sleepless nights? Perhaps not. It's something that we're watching cautiously. It might have a one or two quarter bump here and there," said Dhir. Analysts said Microsoft's move is aimed at cutting costs. 'Microsoft is saying that for large clients who require more than 10,000-plus licences, they will go for direct billing because it is one way of cutting costs and they probably do not want the IT outsourcers to keep the extra cut that comes from selling these licences," said Amit Chandra, IT analyst at HDFC Securities. 'This will be a gradual decision but Sonata is also de-risking it and focusing on selling more licences of other partners," said Chandra. Microsoft did not respond to Mint's queries. This move by Microsoft comes on the back of the tech company giving fewer tech services work to Indian outsourcers, including LTIMindtree Ltd, because of its own AI capabilities, according to Mint's report on 4 May. In a rare instance, Dhir called out lower revenue from one of its top clients, in a 16 April stock exchange, which Mint's report revealed to be Microsoft. He added that this is not the first time that Microsoft is trying to deal with clients directly. 'They have tried this model in the past as well. Okay, it hasn't worked. So they're trying again. It might work this time, it might not go this time," said Dhir. Sonata Software gets about 30% of its business managing back-end IT infrastructure for international businesses and the remaining 70% from selling software product licences to companies. Microsoft's licence reselling business makes up most of that business followed by Google, Oracle and other such licences. Sonata has about 7,000 employees, according to the company's management. This translates to each employee fetching around $171,428 for the company, which is the highest amongst the country's largest IT outsourcers. If indeed there is a hit in Microsoft's licensing business, it will likely dent Sonata's revenue per employee as three-fourths of the company's business comes from selling software licences that need fewer people. A second analyst attributed Microsoft's move to client sensitivity. 'Microsoft is dealing with large clients directly because these are sensitive customers and Microsoft wants to keep its own dedicated sales and support staff for such accounts," said a Mumbai-based analyst on the condition of anonymity. For now, Sonata is not perturbed and is looking to widen its client base. 'We have anticipated this. We have been working on de-risking the business in multiple ways," said Dhir. 'So we're not the top 10 Indian companies' reseller. We are a top, I would say, probably about 400 to 500 companies' reseller in India. And also, we have broadened the pyramid where we were selling (licences)," said Dhir. He added that the company is also selling software licences of other companies including AWS, Oracle and Google. Sonata has counted Microsoft as its client for more than 30 years and is among the top 1% of Microsoft's partners, according to its FY24 annual report. Microsoft, which follows a July-June financial year, ended its previous financial year with $245 billion in revenue. In other words, Microsoft is almost four times the size of Accenture Plc., the world's largest IT services company, by revenue. Lower business from Microsoft serves as a wake-up call for Sonata, which is now expected to lose business from its IT outsourcing unit to the licence reselling unit. Homegrown IT services companies work with Microsoft in two ways. One, as system integrators for Microsoft's software products. If a burger chain wants to use Microsoft's software to manage its sales and billing infrastructure, it can purchase the software from IT outsourcers like Sonata Software. Sonata will not just give the burger chain access to Microsoft's software, but will also fit the software in its computers and earn extra money. Secondly, IT service providers send engineers to Microsoft to manage its software products. These engineers ensure the functioning and backend requirements of Microsoft's software sold to companies such as the ice cream chain. For Sonata, both businesses from Microsoft are now under pressure.
