Silicon Valley Startups Rocked by Serial Moonlighter Soham Parekh

Who is Soham Parekh, the serial moonlighter Silicon Valley startups can't stop hiring? | TechCrunch

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 uses AI to cut down on enterprises' cloud spending, confirmed that Parekh was the company's first engineering hire in 2022. He said Antimetal quickly let Parekh go 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 comment. 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 Brother Podcast 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.

An engineer was caught secretly working for multiple Silicon Valley startups at once

A single software engineer has become the most-hired person in Silicon Valley. The engineer, Soham Parekh, has admitted that he had been working across multiple up-and-coming Silicon Valley startups at the same time after he went viral on social media. Startup founders told Fortune that Parekh would ace early interviews, land high-paying jobs, and then ghost employers when work began. They say Parekh came up with creative excuses for late or poor quality work, before they discovered that he was simultaneously working for multiple tech companies. He'd been offered salaries of up to $200,000 per year in base compensation by founders. The saga began on Wednesday when Suhail Doshi, co-founder and former CEO of Mixpanel, issued a warning about him on X. "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," Doshi wrote in a post on X. The post was quickly flooded with replies from fellow founders with similar stories, including a few who claimed to still have Parekh on their payroll. Doshi shared the engineer's CV in a follow-up post, which listed multiple companies, work experience, and a master's degree from Georgia Institute of Technology in computer science. However, the institute told Fortune in a statement that they were "unable to find any record of enrollment at Georgia Tech for a person with that name." In an interview on the daily tech show TBPN, Parekh confirmed the claims he was holding down multiple jobs at the same time, saying: "I'm not proud of what I've done. That's not something I endorse either. But no one really likes to work 140 hours a week, I had to do it out of necessity." He added he made the choice because he was "in extremely dire financial circumstances." When reached for comment, Parekh referred Fortune to Sanjit Juneja, Founder and CEO of Darwin, who shared this statement: "At Darwin, we are solely focused on building the most innovative software products for both brands and content creators. Soham is an incredibly talented engineer and we believe in his abilities to help bring our products to market." Arkadiy Telegin, co-founder of AI startup Leaping AI, wasn't surprised when he saw the now-infamous engineer was trending on X. Telegin told Fortune he'd made Parekh a job offer in April after being blown away by the engineer in the interview process. "He really crushed my interview. I interviewed around 50 people in the prior two weeks before talking to him and he passed, by far, all of the people I interviewed," he said. "He also was a very likeable person." "I offered him a salary range of $160,000 to $200,000 per year base compensation plus equity ranging from around 0.7% to 1.1%, he chose the middle of the cash and middle of the equity," Telegin said. "I told him to come to San Francisco and we could sign the papers." Telegin said Parekh told him he was in the process of getting his O-1 visa -- a type of visa reserved for individuals who possess extraordinary ability in the sciences, arts, education, business, or athletics -- but wanted to contribute remotely while he was still in India. However, almost immediately after the company onboarded him, Parekh started behaving strangely. "He produced and wrote code, but he was insanely slow. And there were always these excuses like a flood or the electricity went out, and then the [Indo-Pakistan conflict] happened -- but he was so far away from the conflict," Telegin said. Parekh had told Telegin he was based in Mumbai, more than a thousand miles away from the fighting near Jammu and Kashmir, but later claimed a drone had damaged the building he lived in. Telegin said he assumed Parekh was picking up some work on the side and decided to formally pay him for his time, with the aim of locking in the engineer exclusively with a formal full-time employment contract which he would sign when he got to San Francisco, where the role was full-time, in-office. "I thought if I pay him, then it's officially ... he's going to contribute and commit, but he never sent an invoice. In the end, I didn't transfer him a single dollar, which is the most confusing part of it all, because other people seem to have paid him." A month later, when Telegin was visiting a fellow founder from his Y Combinator cohort, the pair got chatting about their AI hiring woes. The war for AI talent is particularly tough on startups right now as tech companies are competing for an increasingly small pool of talent. Big Tech companies are shelling out eye-watering salaries, making it difficult for startups with fewer funds to compete. "Hiring is the biggest problem for any YC company, including us and including them," he said. "We've been chatting about our hiring pains while describing people we've been talking to, and then we both started describing Soham to each other. Then the next moment it was like: 'Wait, are we dating the same guy?'" Later, Telegin realized that his friend was merely the tip of the iceberg. Within his YC batch, Soham had interviewed or worked with three other companies. "It was just surreal ... At some dinner events, somebody would start saying: 'Oh, I'm interviewing this cool guy, he crushed my interview' and then people would say in unison: 'Oh, is it Soham?' And then the person telling the story would freak out, because what the hell is going on? It's like a dream," he said. "I don't think anybody hired him in my batch," he added. "But he was definitely paid for work trials." Marcus Lowe, co-founder of Create, also had Parekh on the payroll as a full-time independent contractor for around two weeks earlier this year, during which the engineer made one appearance in the office and shipped almost no code. "He's just a really strong engineer and he crushed the interview," Lowe told Fortune. "But about a week before he was scheduled to start, he texted us saying he needed to go to New York to visit his sister and needed to push the start date back." "Then the day before he was supposed to start, he texted us saying he was feeling sick and wasn't able to come in, so we pushed back the start date again," he said. "By this point, it was actually two weeks late before he came into the office for one day and he did good work ... then the excuses started again." Lowe had signed Parekh up as an independent contractor in a deal that included five days of in-office work and a base compensation of $150,000. Lowe only saw him in the flesh for one day. Suspicious, he went to Parekh's GitHub profile to investigate, saw he had committed code to another San Francisco-based startup. He went down to the offices to ask if Parekh worked there. He was told the engineer did, but was out sick. "Long story short, we kept pushing him to come into the office, but he never did again. Eventually, we just gave him a performance conversation and said you're not shipping enough code, we need you to actually deliver," he said. Parekh never did and was later terminated. Another Silicon Valley-based founder told Fortune he hired Parekh for a work trial in 2024 but decided not to move forward with him after it became clear he couldn't move to the US. He also said there were issues with his performance and a string of what he came to believe were habitual lies. He paid Parekh $2,400 for the week. All of the founders Fortune spoke to said they had heard of multiple other incidents where the engineer was working more than one job at once, some as long as three years ago. In a post on X, Gergely Orosz, a software engineer and author of the"The Pragmatic Engineer" newsletter, said he had "confirmed 10 companies where [Parekh] was hired and fired for doing nothing (but lying to them.) And another 8 that interviewed him but rejected him (many feel they have wasted their time.) There are likely many, many more."

This YC Engineer Might Have Just Killed Remote Work | AIM

Following the 'moonlighting incident, concerns around remote work, especially involving hires from India, have sharply intensified. Soham Parekh, the Indian engineer accused of holding multiple jobs at once, shot to infamy, becoming an internet sensation in no time. The man, who has been under fire for serial moonlighting, has finally responded to the controversy. In an interview with TBPN, he admitted, "It is true." Parekh said he was not proud of his actions. "That's not something I endorse either," he added, explaining that working 140 hours a week wasn't a choice he enjoyed ."I had to do it out of necessity." He said that he had been in "extremely dire financial circumstances," which pushed him to juggle between three to five startups simultaneously. Parekh revealed that he will now be working exclusively with Darwin Studios, an AI startup working on an AI-driven video platform. "This is the only thing I'm going to focus on," he said. "I have a lot to prove." He explained that he handled all the work on his own and never hired junior developers, noting, "I wish I had the money [to do that]." He also rejected claims of using AI tools, saying he began taking on multiple jobs in 2022, "before the CoPilot boom". Interestingly, he also clarified that he's not using the viral AI startup tool Cluely. "I would love for the founder to go on record and say if I'm a paying customer, but I'm not," he said. Meanwhile, Cluely released a video suggesting that Parekh used their tool to crack multiple interviews, a claim that Parekh refuted. It turned out to be a marketing gimmick. The CEO also confirmed that Parekh had applied to their company, but they ultimately did not hire him. Unlike the popular perception that it was AI behind all this, it turned out that a real person was making real mistakes and trying to own up to them. The saga unfolded when Suhail Doshi, founder of Mixpanel and Play, publicly accused Parekh of working simultaneously at multiple startups by misrepresenting his identity and location. Doshi issued the warning on X, advising startup founders to exercise caution when hiring. "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," Doshi wrote. "Beware." Based on his CV shared by Doshi, Parekh has worked at multiple AI startups, including Dynamo AI, Union.ai, Synthesia, Alan AI and Fleet AI. Many of these are backed by Y Combinator. He claims full-stack expertise across UI with Next.js, backend with Python, Node.js and Go, and cloud infrastructure using AWS, GCP and Kubernetes. According to Doshi, Parekh misled companies into believing that he was based in the US. "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'," he said. Doshi claims he fired Parekh within his first week at Play. "I fired this guy in his first week and told him to stop lying/scamming people. He hasn't stopped a year later," he posted, adding, "No more excuses." Despite confronting Parekh directly, Doshi said the situation did not improve. "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." Doshi's allegations sparked concern within the startup community, particularly among early-stage companies vulnerable to remote hiring fraud. Menlo Ventures' Deedy Das believes Parekh is just the tip of the iceberg. Citing a Redditor who claims to earn $800,000 a year across five jobs, he pointed to the 500,000-strong r/overemployed community, where such tactics are openly discussed. "There are thousands of Soham Parekhs we don't know about," he said. Saurabh, a leadership coach at Bizsquad, told AIM that remote workers are more likely to engage in moonlighting when compared to those who come to the office. According to him, the rise in remote work during the pandemic fuelled this trend. "The word [moonlighting] came into existence only after the pandemic... when people were working in the US, so while it was day there, it was night here." He also raised certain red flags to help determine if an employee is moonlighting. "You should be watching for sudden drops in productivity, missed deadlines, repeated errors, or a general decline in output," he said. "It's rarely about someone being brilliant in two jobs. It's about someone performing poorly in one while hiding the second." He pointed out that one of the most powerful tools to check for such malpractices is the Universal Account Number or UAN, which most Indian companies already have access to for employee provident fund contributions. "Use UAN verification to check how many PF contributions are being made. If someone is receiving two full-time salaries, both with PF deductions, it'll show up." He further added that the employment contract must spell out that outside employment during full-time hours is strictly prohibited. There should be clauses for IP protection, confidentiality, non-solicitation, and non-compete, and the consequences of violating these clauses should be explicit, including termination. "But policies alone won't save you. You also need discreet social media screening," he said. "Candidates sometimes post pictures from company events. If someone's showing up at two company parties, that's a sign." Regular reference checks are crucial. He urged startups to go beyond the HR department and speak directly with the candidate's former reporting managers. "Handle it professionally. Don't start with accusations. Gather evidence, have a conversation, and involve legal counsel if needed." After Doshi's post, startup founders began to connect the dots. Cluely CEO Chungin Lee joined the chorus and said he too had interviewed Soham in the past. "Without the YC community, this guy would still be operating and would have maybe never been caught. The startup guild of YC is a necessary invention to help founders be more successful than they would be alone," Tan wrote in a post on X. Following the Parekh incident, concerns around remote work, especially involving hires from India, have sharply intensified. Varunram Ganesh, head of growth at Warp, wrote, "Pretty sure very few YC startups will hire remote Indians now," calling it a "classic case of one guy exploiting a high-trust society," which risks damaging opportunities for everyone else. Alex Cohen, co-founder of Hellopatient, echoed similar views, arguing that Parekh's actions prove "why you should build an in-person culture and not a remote-first company". He further added that it is kind of crazy that Parekh was making more annually than the amount of revenue each of the startups he worked for actually generated. "This is wild and a wake-up call for every startup hiring remotely. Here's how one dev allegedly scammed multiple YC-backed companies, crushed interviews, faked locations, and still got fired again and again," said Vikas Sharma, software engineer at Siterax. But not everyone is on the same page with the outrage surrounding Parekh. Ash Arora, partner at LocalGlobe VC, asked why moonlighting was even considered wrong. "If he aced the interviews and was the best, you hired him," she said, "so, what's the problem? As long as he meets all deliverables on time with the right attitude..." The divide highlights an ongoing debate in startup culture on whether trust and availability should matter more than output and performance, especially in a remote-first world. The controversy has also prompted calls for more structured safeguards in the hiring process of startups. Immad Akhund, founder of Mercury, suggested that startups need a system to weed out repeat offenders. "We (startups) need to create a system that tries to find people who do this," he wrote, proposing that companies should KYC all hires, automate reference checks using AI, and maintain private records of individuals attempting to hold multiple jobs under false pretences. He added that Mercury might consider building such a tool and giving it away for free.Meanwhile, another techie questioned YC's background screening process, asking, "Wouldn't background checks happen for YC startups before a new employee joins?" "These are not common," replied Tan.

Soham Parekh: How Indian techie fooled 10+ cos, earned over Rs 2L per day or Rs 7 cr a yr; Even CEOs called him 'really smart'

Soham Parekh, an Indian engineer, is under fire after Suhail Doshi, co-founder of Mixpanel, accused him of secretly working at multiple startups at once. At least five US founders have echoed similar experiences, warning others about Parekh's tactics. Allegations include faked credentials, overlapping jobs, and excuses that stretched team trust thin. The controversy has raised questions about startup hiring filters and the 'overemployment' trend that uses remote work and AI to juggle several paychecks at once.An Indian software engineer is facing serious allegations of moonlighting after several US startup founders accused him of secretly working at multiple companies at the same time. Soham Parekh, whose CV claims a master's degree from Georgia Tech, has come under scrutiny after Suhail Doshi, co-founder and former CEO of Mixpanel, publicly warned others about him. "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 posted on X. He added that Parekh briefly joined his company, Playground AI, but was fired within a week when his duplicity came to light. Doshi did not stop at the warning. He posted Parekh's CV online, pointing out companies like Dynamo AI, Union AI, Synthesia, Alan AI, and Fleet AI where Parekh allegedly held simultaneous roles. Doshi claimed the CV was "probably 90 per cent fake". "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," Doshi wrote. He said he had cross-checked his claims with more than six companies before making them public. The allegations quickly gained support. Nicolai Ouporov, co-founder of Fleet AI, said, "He has been doing this for years and works at more than 4 startups at any given time." Flo Crivello, CEO of Lindy, echoed the frustration. "Holy sh*t. We hired this guy a week ago. Fired this morning. He did so incredibly well in interviews, must have a lot of training. Careful out there," Crivello posted, sharing that Parekh cited time zone issues and company changes to explain past exits. Matthew Parkhurst, CEO of Antimetal, confirmed Parekh had been his company's first engineering hire in 2022. "Really smart and likeable; enjoyed working with him. We realised pretty quickly that he was working at multiple companies and let him go," Parkhurst said. The revelations have pushed the spotlight onto a wider trend: 'overemployment'. Deedy Das, an AI investor, called Parekh "the tip of the iceberg" and said thousands might be doing the same. Das outlined tricks overemployed people use -- mouse jugglers to keep their cursor active, blocking calendars as 'focus time', outsourcing tasks, keeping cameras off and delivering work just enough to pass. Screenshots from Reddit forums show self-claimed overemployed workers boasting of salaries crossing $800,000 a year through multiple jobs. "No job should take too much effort (time) relative to the return," one user wrote. "Interviews should be gamified. Lie, cheat, and steal. Use AI." Despite repeated terminations, Parekh's skill at interviews made him hard to detect. Startup founders said he came across as sharp, presentable and convincing. "I was THIS close to hiring him. The craziest part is he actually crushed the interview," Justin Harvey, co-founder of AIVideo, said. Adish Jain, founder of Mosaic, agreed. "Can confirm. This guy wasted our time for a month. did great in interviews. but he's a liar." Michelle Lim, product head at Warp, added that Parekh had been hired for a trial before the allegations surfaced and the engagement was cancelled. Deedy Das shared screenshots from Reddit where a data expert claimed to make $800,000 (₹6.85 crore) a year by holding five jobs at once. The same user said they earn over $3,000 (₹2.5 lakh) daily by avoiding office visits, calling themselves a "consultant", and handling only key tasks. According to this user, strong skills, smart planning and keeping meetings to a minimum helped them manage multiple jobs for three years. The row has triggered a debate about startups' hiring and vetting. Some argue that lean hiring and quick interviews leave blind spots that skilled candidates can exploit. Others say the problem runs deeper -- remote work made multiple roles possible, while AI tools made it easier to juggle tasks. Many on LinkedIn blamed founders too. "This trend is often a symptom of failed leadership, not just deceitful employees," wrote one user. Another pointed out, "With efficiency boosts with AI up to 10x and not much change in expectations by employers, this seems to be bound to happen." Soham Parekh has not made any public statement but did reach out privately to Doshi. "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," Parekh reportedly told Doshi. Meanwhile, questions linger. How did so many startups miss the red flags? Could this happen again? As remote hiring continues, founders might be rethinking trust, checks, and the fine line between flexibility and fraud. (Disclaimer: This article is based on a user-generated post on social media. ET.com has not independently verified the claims made in the post and does not vouch for their accuracy. The views expressed are those of the individual and do not necessarily reflect the views of ET.com. Reader discretion is advised.)

Did 'scammer' techie Soham Parekh land another lucrative job offer? Startup founder says he's looking for 'greedy' engineers

Amidst online criticism for allegedly working multiple jobs, software engineer Soham Parekh received a job offer from HyperSpell's founder, Conor Brennan-Burke, who saw it as an opportunity for redemption. Parekh, acknowledging his actions, secured a position at Darwin Studios. Despite mixed reactions, the incident sparked debate about second chances and professional ethics within the tech community.In the midst of an online uproar targeting Indian software engineer Soham Parekh, who has been accused of clandestinely working for several U.S.-based startups at the same time, one entrepreneur has gone against the tide by offering him employment. While digital platforms were flooded with criticism over Parekh's alleged misconduct, Conor Brennan-Burke, the founder of AI company HyperSpell, extended an olive branch instead. As online commentators condemned Parekh's actions, Brennan-Burke adopted a more forgiving stance. He viewed Parekh's situation as a chance to recruit talent under pressure to redeem itself. The AI startup head shared publicly that he believed Parekh had likely realized the gravity of his decisions and was now highly motivated to prove skeptics wrong. In Brennan-Burke's view, this made him an ideal candidate -- someone with both experience and something to prove. Brennan-Burke also published the email he sent to Parekh. In the message, he referenced Parekh's previous work with well-known startups and mentioned that HyperSpell was actively hiring engineers. He invited Parekh for an informal conversation, indicating an openness to reintegrate him into the industry rather than shut him out. "Burke also shared the email he wrote to Parekh, inviting him to be a part of his tech team. "Hi Soham, Saw that you've worked with quite a few successful startups and heard you might be on the market. We're hiring engineers right now. Let me know if you're open to a casual chat next week," the e-mail read. Sharing the e-mail, Burke tweeted, "Be greedy when others are fearful." Despite Brennan-Burke's attempt at rehabilitation, he received pushback from others in the tech community. Critics warned against employing individuals accused of lacking professional ethics. One user even described Parekh as someone of questionable integrity. In response, Brennan-Burke stood firm, arguing that everyone should be allowed the opportunity to make amends. He encouraged others to support what he called Parekh's potential comeback story. Following the wave of attention, Parekh revealed in a now-removed social media post that he had accepted a position with another AI company, Darwin Studios. This marked his first public acknowledgment of the allegations. During an interview with The Big Programming Network (TBPN), Parekh admitted his actions had not been commendable and expressed regret. He stressed that he managed all the workload himself and never outsourced tasks to junior coders. He further clarified that he had not used artificial intelligence tools to perform his duties and stated he began balancing multiple jobs in 2022 -- well before AI tools like GitHub Copilot became mainstream. Soham Parekh is a software developer from India with an impressive academic background. He earned his undergraduate degree in computer engineering from the University of Mumbai, graduating with an exceptional GPA of 9.83 out of 10. He then pursued further education in the United States, obtaining a Master's in computer science from the Georgia Institute of Technology. The allegations against him first surfaced when Suhail Doshi, co-founder of Mixpanel and Playground AI, issued a warning to other founders on X (formerly Twitter). Doshi accused Parekh of deceiving several startups into hiring him simultaneously and specifically stated that Parekh had been exploiting companies backed by Y Combinator. Since then, at least six tech executives have come forward, acknowledging that Parekh was on their teams and had been dismissed once his dual employment became known. Though the incident has left Parekh's professional reputation in question, the gesture from Brennan-Burke and the job offer from Darwin Studios signal that redemption may not be out of reach.

Soham Parekh confesses to working for multiple startups: 'Not proud of what I've done' - The Economic Times

Appearing on technology show TBPN, Parekh said, "It is true. I am not proud of what I have done. I do not endorse this either, but I had to do it due to financial circumstances." He added that no one likes to work 140 hours a week, and he was tired of his simultaneous jobs, but financial problems forced him to do it.Indian techie Soham Parekh has admitted to secretly working for four to five Silicon Valley startups at the same time, claiming that financial struggles pushed him into the controversial decision. Appearing on technology show TBPN in his first public interview since the revelations, Parekh said, "It is true. I am not proud of what I have done. I do not endorse this either, but I had to do it due to financial circumstances." He confessed to working up to 140 hours a week, describing the period as exhausting but necessary to overcome monetary hardships. Parekh's story went viral on Wednesday after entrepreneur Suhail Doshi warned startup founders on X (formerly Twitter) about him, alleging that Parekh was "preying" on multiple Y Combinator-backed startups simultaneously. Following Doshi's post, several startup founders shared similar experiences of working with Parekh and later firing him for moonlighting. Some employers reportedly terminated him immediately after seeing the viral warnings. In a separate post on X, Parekh defended his passion for engineering: "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. But building is the only thing I've ever truly known, and it's what I'll keep doing." Parekh said he has now joined "one company and one company only" as a founding engineer. "They were the only ones willing to bet on me at this time. The team is cracked, they back misfits, and they're building something absolutely insane in the video AI space," he said.

Who is Soham Parekh? Silicon Valley's secret star, who juggled multiple jobs without anyone knowing

"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. "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.

Who is Soham Parekh? The viral Indian techie who worked 3-4 startup jobs at once

Social media has been buzzing with posts about an Indian software engineer named Soham Parekh, who has left a trail of confusion and frustration across Silicon Valley. According to several tech founders, Parekh has been secretly working at multiple startups simultaneously for the last few years, without informing any of them. Parekh's story has stunned the tech world because of how many companies he allegedly juggled and how well he covered his tracks. Founders of startups are now sharing their experiences, saying he scammed their teams by pretending to be fully committed, while working three to four jobs at once. So, who exactly is Soham Parekh, how did he pull this off, and why can't Silicon Valley stop talking about him? Keep reading to find out. According to TechCrunch, the buzz began when Suhail Doshi, CEO of AI image startup Playground AI, posted on X: "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 said he fired Parekh about a year ago after learning he was working other jobs. "Told him to stop lying/scamming people. He hasn't stopped a year later," he added. His post gained nearly 20 million views, and soon after, more startup founders came forward with similar stories. Flo Crivello, CEO of Lindy, said he hired Parekh recently but let him go after seeing Doshi's post. Matt Parkhurst, CEO of Antimetal, shared that Parekh was their first engineering hire in 2022 but was fired soon after they found out he was moonlighting. Other startups like Sync Labs, Pally AI, Mosaic and Cluely also had interactions with Parekh, either hiring or interviewing him. Most were initially impressed by his skills but grew suspicious due to inconsistencies in his behaviour, such as rescheduling interviews often or lying about his location. Also read: Former SpaceX manager sues Elon Musk's space tech company over harassment and retaliation Parekh addressed the situation on the Technology Brother Podcast Network. He admitted to working multiple jobs since 2022, claiming it was due to financial problems. He denied using AI tools or hiring junior engineers to help, saying he worked around 140 hours a week, or 20 hours a day. When asked why he didn't simply request a salary hike from one company to ease his financial struggles, Parekh explained that he prefers to maintain a clear boundary between his professional and personal life. He also said he genuinely cared about the work he did and wasn't proud of how he handled things. Interestingly, he often preferred equity over salary. Also read: Apple accuses former employee of stealing Vision Pro secrets before joining Snap Soham Parekh recently claimed he's now working exclusively at Darwin Studios, a startup focused on AI video remixing. However, both he and Darwin's CEO later deleted their announcements.