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Hindustan Times
17 hours ago
- Business
- Hindustan Times
How Soham Parekh managed to juggle work between startups without getting caught?
Soham Parekh, an India-based software engineer, has made headlines after admitting to secretly working across dozens of US startups at the same time. 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 surfaced after entrepreneur Suhail Doshi, in a series of posts on X, called Parekh a 'scammer' who had tricked several startups, including those backed by the Y Combinator accelerator. "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," San Francisco-based Suhail Doshi posted on X. He added that Parekh worked briefly at one of his companies and was fired within his first week. It was later revealed that Parekh juggled roles at around 34 different companies, including Alan AI, Synthesia, DynamoAI and often with overlapping job periods. Also Read: Soham Parekh breaks silence: Indian engineer admits to working at multiple startups, says it wasn't to scam anyone Ever since the post on X went viral, more companies shared their story showing how Parekh turned up for a job interview and how he managed to fool them. How Soham Parekh operated? Dhruv Amin, co-founder of AI startup Create, took to X to share the story of how his firm hired Soham Parekh as engineer number five and that he was recommended by a recruiter. Parekh called in sick on the very first day of the job and said he would onboard from home, and gave his address to ship his laptop. "Yes, we hired him. we're building an AI agent in SF. he was eng #5.- recommended by a recruiter, which lent legitimacy. He was eager and crushed our in person pair programming onsite. I believe he's actually a good engineer...I gave offer while waiting for responses for the first (and last) accepted same evening. said he had an nyc trip planned, then would first day at 9:30 am he calls in sick (strange). said he'd onboard from home. gave an address to ship laptop," Dhruv said in a post on X. The first red flag, Dhruv said, was the shipping address. Instead of home, Parekh asked for his laptop to be shipped to a San Francisco office building. Also Read: Why is Indian coder Soham Parekh being accused of 'scamming' US startups? Explained Dhruv, who happened to be on a visit to a doctor, checked the place, which housed industrial spaces and Sync Labs, a YC-backed startup. Meanwhile, Parekh called in sick in the first week, while his GitHub account showed late-night activity on private repositories. Over the days, things got even weirder with Parekh missing meetings, delayed deliverables and made excuses. "He then spent 2 days saying he was working on something from home we knew should have taken him 1/2 a day max. always almost ready, just testing something. Finally it started blocking the main thread. So my co-founder asked to take over his branch to get it done. Almost nothing had been done," Dhruv added. When the firm found out that Soham was working for Sync Labs, they confronted him, only to get a denial. Eventually, when the co-founder called Sync Labs and asked if Soham was working there, the response from the YC company was that he was working from home that day. Dhruv added that Parekh was a good engineer, but the "biggest mistake was lying repeatedly." Soham Parekh responds Soham Parekh, who is at the center of the online storm, has publicly admitted to working for multiple startups full-time. Parekh said that the allegations against him were true and he did it due to his financial circumstances. Also Read: Arrested terrorist, influenced by Zakir Naik, a 'big fish' in bomb-making: Andhra Police 'It is true. I'm not proud of what I've done. But, you know, financial circumstances, essentially. No one really likes to work 140 hours a week, right? But I had to do this out of necessity. I was in extremely dire financial circumstances," he said during an interview to tech show TBPN. The controversy has raised concerns on the growing trend of 'overemployment' where people take multiple remote jobs without disclosing them. It has also raised concerns over the hiring culture, especially among the tech startups, that hire people without adequate background checks.
Time of India
21 hours ago
- Business
- Time of India
Who is Soham Parekh? Silicon Valley's secret star, who juggled multiple jobs without anyone knowing
Soham Parekh, the serial moonlighter Silicon Valley startups can't stop hiring- Soham Parekh, a software engineer based in India, has recently become one of the most talked-about names in Silicon Valley — not for launching a billion-dollar startup or raising VC capital, but for secretly holding jobs at multiple startups at the same time. Over the past week, his story has exploded across social media, after several startup founders came forward to share how Parekh managed to get hired, perform well in technical interviews, and juggle several roles — all while none of the companies knew he was moonlighting. The scandal began when Suhail Doshi, CEO of Playground AI, posted a warning on X (formerly Twitter), revealing Parekh had worked at 3–4 startups simultaneously and allegedly lied about it. Doshi's tweet has since garnered over 20 million views, sparking a wave of revelations from other startup founders who had similar experiences. But who exactly is Soham Parekh, how did he pull this off, and why are startups still hiring him? How did the Soham Parekh story go viral in silicon valley? The entire saga kicked off with a viral X post on Tuesday, July 2, by Suhail Doshi. Doshi warned other tech founders, writing: '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 claimed that he fired Parekh a year ago from Playground AI after finding out he was working other jobs. Despite confronting him and warning him to stop 'scamming people,' Doshi alleged that Parekh continued the behavior. That post opened the floodgates. Dozens of startup CEOs and founders began sharing their own stories of hiring Parekh — many from Y Combinator (YC)-backed companies — only to later discover red flags. Among them: Live Events Flo Crivello, CEO of Lindy, hired Parekh recently and fired him after Doshi's post. Matt Parkhurst, CEO of Antimetal, said Parekh was their first engineering hire in 2022 but was let go in early 2023. Sync Labs, an AI lip-sync startup, also reportedly fired him after he appeared in one of their promo videos. Pally AI and Mosaic, both YC-backed, reported that Parekh either applied or was offered roles. Agency and Cluely, two other AI startups, interviewed Parekh and later raised concerns. Why did startups keep hiring Soham Parekh despite red flags? The most surprising part of the story is that Parekh consistently did well in technical interviews. Founders say he came across as talented, skilled, and driven. For instance, Rohan Pandey, formerly at Reworkd (a YC startup), told TechCrunch that Parekh performed among the top three candidates in algorithm tests. However, the team became suspicious when Parekh claimed he was in the U.S. — a requirement for the role — but an IP logger from a Zoom invite placed him in India. Adam Silverman, co-founder of Agency, said Parekh initially seemed like a solid candidate but kept rescheduling meetings. In total, Parekh postponed five different interview slots. Though technically impressive, he refused to relocate or even reveal his actual location, which raised doubts. Similarly, Roy Lee, CEO of Cluely, noted Parekh 'seemed to have strong React knowledge' during interviews but wasn't hired due to concerns that eventually surfaced. Who is Soham Parekh and how did he respond to the allegations? Soham Parekh finally addressed the controversy in an interview with the Technology Business Programming Network (TBPN) . In a conversation with hosts John Coogan and Jordi Hays, he admitted to working multiple jobs at the same time since 2022. He denied using AI tools or outsourcing the work and instead claimed he managed the workload himself — working 140 hours a week, or 20 hours a day, seven days a week. He described himself as sleep-deprived, obsessed with coding, and motivated by a financial crisis. According to Parekh, he turned down a master's degree program he had been accepted to, in favor of earning through jobs at various startups. Ironically, a resume shared by Doshi claims Parekh already earned a master's degree from Georgia Institute of Technology. When asked why he didn't just ask for a raise instead of juggling multiple jobs, Parekh said he liked keeping his personal struggles private. However, this conflicted with the fact that he chose lower salaries and high equity at his jobs — which doesn't quite align with the idea of financial desperation. He also said, 'I'm not proud of this. I don't endorse it,' and emphasized that he genuinely cared about the mission of the companies he worked for. Is Soham Parekh facing consequences or capitalizing on the attention? While many call Parekh a scammer or liar, some in the startup world are treating the episode as yet another moment of viral tech culture. In a Silicon Valley ecosystem where controversy can lead to capital, Parekh seems to be attempting a rebound. Soon after the TBPN interview, Parekh announced on X that he's now working exclusively at a startup called Darwin Studios, focused on AI video remixing. However, both Parekh and Darwin CEO Sanjit Juneja deleted the announcement post shortly after. Still, Juneja issued a statement to TechCrunch through a representative: 'Soham is an incredibly talented engineer and we believe in his abilities to help bring our products to market.' This follows a recent trend in tech — where companies like Cluely, known for its controversial marketing and 'cheat-on-everything' AI tagline, managed to raise a $15 million seed round from Andreessen Horowitz despite its provocative reputation. Will Soham Parekh become a cautionary tale or silicon valley's next controversial hire? Soham Parekh's story is still unfolding. With multiple firings, red flags, and a trail of skeptical startup founders behind him, he remains a controversial figure. Yet, in a tech ecosystem that often rewards attention — even negative attention — Parekh could still land on his feet. Startups are increasingly looking for standout talent who can hit the ground running. In a world of remote-first work, high-speed development cycles, and experimental hiring, Parekh's saga raises an important question for Silicon Valley: Where do we draw the line between hustle and deception? Whether he ends up building the next viral AI product or fades from the scene, Soham Parekh's name is now embedded in one of 2025's most bizarre tech stories — a strange blend of hustle, deceit, and raw engineering skill. FAQs: Q1: Who is Soham Parekh in Silicon Valley tech? Soham Parekh is a software engineer who secretly worked at multiple startups at the same time. Q2: Why is Soham Parekh called a serial moonlighter? He's called a serial moonlighter because he held several jobs across different startups without informing them.
Yahoo
a day ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Who is Soham Parekh, the serial moonlighter Silicon Valley startups can't stop hiring?
In the last week, social media users have shared dozens of stories about encounters with Soham Parekh, a software engineer who seems to have been simultaneously working at multiple Silicon Valley startups — unbeknownst to the companies — for the last several years. But who is Parekh, how did he pull off his career as a serial moonlighter, and why can't Silicon Valley get enough of him? The saga all started when Suhail Doshi — CEO of image generation startup Playground AI — shared a post Tuesday on X that began: '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 claims that, roughly a year ago, he fired Parekh from Playground AI after he found out he was working at other companies. '[I] told him to stop lying/scamming people. He hasn't stopped a year later,' Doshi wrote. That post from Doshi received roughly 20 million views and prompted several other founders to share their run-ins with Parekh as well. Flo Crivello, the CEO of Lindy, a startup that helps people automate their workflows with AI, said he hired Parekh in recent weeks, but fired him in light of Doshi's tweet. Matt Parkhurst, the CEO of Antimetal, a startup that does automated cloud management, confirmed that Parekh was the company's first engineering hire in 2022. Parkhurst tells TechCrunch that Antimetal let Parekh go in early 2023 after they realized he was moonlighting at other companies. Parekh also seems to have worked at Sync Labs, a startup that makes an AI lip-synching tool, where he even starred in a promotional video. He was ultimately let go. At some point, Parekh applied to several Y Combinator-backed startups. Haz Hubble, the co-founder of Pally AI, a Y Combinator-backed startup building an 'AI relationship management platform,' says he offered Parekh a founding engineer role. Adish Jain, the co-founder of YC-backed Mosaic — an AI video editing startup — said he interviewed Parekh for a role, too. TechCrunch has reached out to these companies for comment, but they did not immediately respond. It turns out that Parekh did quite well in many of these interviews and received offers, largely because he's a gifted software engineer. For instance, Rohan Pandey, a founding research engineer of the YC-backed startup Reworkd, told TechCrunch that he interviewed Parekh for a role and he was a strong candidate. Pandey, who is no longer with the startup, says Parekh was one of the top three performers on an algorithms-focused interview they gave candidates. Pandey said the Reworkd team suspected something was off with Parekh. At the time, Parekh told Reworkd he was in the U.S. — a requirement for the job — but the company didn't believe him. They ran an IP logger on a Zoom link from Parekh and located him in India. Pandey recalled other things Parekh said often didn't add up, and some of his GitHub contributions and previous roles didn't quite make sense either. That seems to be a common experience when dealing with Parekh. Adam Silverman, co-founder of the AI agent observability startup, Agency, told TechCrunch his company also interviewed Parekh. Silverman said Parekh sent him a cold DM about a job opening at Agency, and they set up a meeting. Parekh had to reschedule that meeting five times, according to Silverman and emails from Parekh viewed by TechCrunch. Silverman says he was also impressed by Parekh's technical ability, but in the interview, he insisted on working remotely. Much like with Reworkd, that was a red flag for Agency. Roy Lee, the CEO of the 'cheat on everything' AI startup, Cluely, tells TechCrunch he interviewed Parekh twice for a role. Lee said Parekh interviews quite well and 'seemed to have strong react knowledge,' referencing a popular JavaScript library for building user interfaces. Lee says Cluely did not end up hiring Parekh. However, several other companies clearly did. Parekh made an appearance on the Technology Business Programming Network (TBPN) on Thursday to tell co-hosts John Coogan and Jordi Hays his side of the story and explain why he's worked at so many companies. He admitted that he's been working at multiple jobs simultaneously since 2022. Parekh claims he was not using AI tools or hiring junior software engineers to assist him with his workload. All that work has made Parekh a much better programmer, he believes, but notes that it's taken a toll. Parekh said he's notorious among his friends for not sleeping. He repeated several times throughout the interview that he works 140 hours a week, which comes out to 20 hours a day, seven days a week. That seems to be borderline impossible — or at the very least, extremely unhealthy and unsustainable. Parekh also said he took multiple jobs because he was in 'financial jeopardy,' implying he needed all the income he could get from his various employers. He claims he deferred going to a graduate school program he had been accepted to, and instead decided to work at several startups simultaneously. Notably, Doshi shared a copy of Parekh's resumé that claims he received a masters degree from Georgia Institute of Technology. When TBPN's co-hosts asked why Parekh didn't just ask one company to raise his salary and help with his financial struggles, Parekh said he liked to keep a boundary between his professional and private life. (But he had also opted for low salaries and high equity at all his jobs, which doesn't quite add up with his financial crisis story. However, Parekh declined to share more about it.) Parekh told the hosts he genuinely loved his work, and it was not solely about the money. He says he was very invested in the missions of all the companies where he worked. He also admitted that he's not proud of what he's done, and he doesn't endorse it. Some are calling Parekh a scam artist and a liar, but in classic Silicon Valley fashion, Parekh appears to be trying to turn his viral moment into a business. Parekh announced his newest employer, which he claims to be exclusively working at: Darwin Studios, a startup working on AI video remixing. However, Parekh quickly deleted the post after announcing it, as did the founder and CEO of the startup, Sanjit Juneja. TechCrunch has reached out to Parekh requesting an interview regarding this article, however, he has not yet accepted. Instead, a spokesperson representing him sent TechCrunch a statement from Darwin's CEO. 'Soham is an incredibly talented engineer and we believe in his abilities to help bring our products to market,' said Juneja. We've seen countless startups turn their viral, often controversial, moments into businesses in the last year. One of the most famous is Cluely, which is known for creating provocative marketing campaigns. It's rage bait, but it's attention-grabbing, and it was enough to land Cluely a $15 million seed round from Andreessen Horowitz. Perhaps Parekh will land a similar fortune in the future. Update: This story has been updated to reflect TBPN's current name and include additional comments from Antimetal.
Gulf Insider
a day ago
- Business
- Gulf Insider
Indian Engineer Caught Secretly Working Up To Five Tech Jobs Simultaneously, Offered New Gig At "Cheat On Everything" Startup
A Silicon Valley hiring scandal has erupted around an Indian software engineer accused of secretly working for as many as five technology companies simultaneously, exposing vulnerabilities in startup recruitment practices and reigniting debates over remote work accountability. Soham Parekh, based in India, faces mounting allegations from multiple Y Combinator-backed startup founders who claim he misrepresented his employment history while juggling concurrent positions. Suhail Doshi, founder of artificial intelligence startup Playground AI, first exposed the alleged scheme in a series of posts detailing how his company discovered Parekh's simultaneous employment at three to four other firms. Playground AI terminated Parekh within a week of hiring him in 2024, Doshi said. 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.I fired this guy in his first week and told him to stop lying / scamming people. He hasn't stopped a year later. No more excuses. — Suhail (@Suhail) July 2, 2025 Probably 90% fake and most links are gone. — Suhail (@Suhail) July 2, 2025 'His resumé was 90% fake,' Doshi wrote, sharing documentation that listed previous positions at prominent AI companies including Dynamo AI, Union AI, and Synthesia. The founder also published what he claimed was a private message from Parekh expressing remorse: 'Have I completely sabotaged my career? What can I do to improve my situation? I am also happy to come clean.' The allegations quickly snowballed as other tech executives came forward with similar experiences. Fleet AI CEO Nicolai Ouporov claimed that Parekh had worked for his company and suggested the behavior was systematic. This Soham guy is devious! Proud so say we only worked with him for 1 week. I have friends who employed him for years. — Nicolai Ouporov (@nicolas_ouporov) July 2, 2025 Matthew Parkhurst, CEO of cloud cost optimization startup Antimetal, described firing Parekh after discovering his multiple concurrent positions. Despite calling the engineer 'really smart and likeable,' Parkhurst quipped that 'hiring Soham is a new rite of passage' in the startup community. Funnily enough, Soham was our first engineering hire in 2022Really smart and likable; enjoyed working with himWe realized pretty quickly that he was working at multiple companies and let him goI can't imagine the amount of equity he's left on the table — Matt (@mprkhrst) July 2, 2025 Yet, the controversy surrounding Parekh shouldn't take anyone by surprise. In 2024, research from found that one-third of remote workers maintain multiple jobs, compared to 20% of in-person workers and 17% of hybrid workers. 25% of employees hold multiple positions, averaging 50 hours per week across their roles. 'Remote workers are increasingly working multiple jobs due to the rising cost of living in recent years,' Kevin Thompson, finance expert and CEO of 9i Capital Group, told Newsweek. 'Additionally, many remote roles are relatively easy to manage, allowing workers to take on additional jobs without a noticeable drop in productivity.' The controversy has even attracted opportunistic job offers, with Cluley CEO Roy Lee, whose AI tool helps users 'cheat on everything' from job interviews to sales calls, reaching out to Parekh with a job offer. will report back soon — Roy (@im_roy_lee) July 3, 2025
India Today
2 days ago
- Business
- India Today
Why Soham Parekh, the startup scammer, isn't the only one to blame
He had a catchy resume, whizzed past interviews and landed jobs at not one, but over 15 Silicon Valley startups. However, Indian techie Soham Parekh's only blip was that he was working at all of those startups at once - a moonlighting saga that has made him famous overnight and earned him an avalanche of how did Soham manage to pull it off in an age where background checks can be done with a simple click? Experts pointed out that it may be more than it meets the Soham's flight of fancy was busted by Suhail Doshi, co-founder of Playground AI, the founders of the startups where Soham worked wasted no time in coming out and accused him of deception and resume fraud. Yes, he might have exploited the loopholes of remote work culture, but how did he get past the verification process? Several users on X questioned how the startups did not even verify his location."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 wrote while outing Soham's modus PROCESS?The US Tech Workers, a non-profit organisation operating under the Institute for Sound Public Policy, raised a pertinent question. How did Soham get past the I-9 employment eligibility verification process?As per rules, employers in the US have to mandatorily fill Form I-9 to verify an employee's identity and legal authorisation to work in America. It has to be substantiated using documents such as a valid visa and Social Security Number (SSN).SSN is a nine-digit number issued to US citizens, permanent residents, and temporary or working case raises questions about whether the startups that hired him diligently followed the verification process or bypassed it completely in a bid to hire talent media users pointed out that the startups might have remained silent as it was a win-win situation - get talent without having to break the bank."We all know the reason why - the amount paid would have been much less than what others based in the US would have demanded. So, the companies who are just blaming it on the employee are either being too naive or just plainly deflecting the blame on the weakest link," a user tweeted, "Now, it's managers who want to delegate before they can afford, so they hire cheap foreign labour so they can sit back and post about how great their startup is."Moreover, none also bothered to verify his resume. Sharing Soham's CV, the Playground AI founder pointed out that 90% of the content was fabricated, and the provided links were no longer WORK FRAUDadvertisementHowever, the story doesn't end the magnitude of the deception started unravelling, another US-based entrepreneur mentioned how the Indian techie used the tensions between India and Pakistan during Operation Sindoor to "guilt-trip" AI co-founder Arkadiy Telegin, who shared screenshots of his chats with Soham, claimed that the Indian techie pretended to be in a conflict zone during the hostilities and cited it for the delay in completing his said the Soham Parekh story was just "the tip of the iceberg", exposing a growing trend of remote work fraud.A viral LinkedIn post by Deedy Das, a tech investor, has detailed how several such Soham Parekhs were exploiting the remote model - using mouse jigglers (a tool with which one can simulate the movement of a mouse) and outsourcing his post, the investor cited a Reddit thread where an engineer claimed to be earning USD 8,00,000 per year juggling five the row, Soham, in an interview, said his actions were driven by a financial crunch and suggested that he worked 140 hours a Deedy Das suggested the claims to be misleading and fraud and pointed out flaws in his resume. "All this while saying he didn't want to 'center a div for 6hrs' in BigTech," Das tweeted.- EndsTrending Reel
