A controversy is brewing in the tech industry after Soham Parekh, a software engineer from India, was exposed for allegedly working at multiple startups simultaneously. At least 10 tech company executives have come forward claiming to have employed Parekh recently, raising questions about remote work practices and the growing phenomenon of tech employees holding multiple jobs secretly.
The issue surfaced when Suhail Doshi, former CEO of Mixpanel, posted a warning on X (formerly Twitter) about Parekh’s activities. “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 wrote, referring to startups funded by Y Combinator.
Doshi further stated, “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.” This post sparked a wave of discussion online, with many sharing similar experiences with Parekh.
One user commented, “We just signed him up for our work trial next week. Saw this tweet. Cancelled work trial. Thank you for sharing!” Another wrote, “LMFAOOO I INTERVIEWED THIS GUY YESTERDAY BRO IM DYINGG.”
In response to the allegations, Parekh gave an interview to “TBPN,” admitting to working at multiple startups simultaneously. He attributed his actions to financial necessity, stating, “I’m not proud of what I’ve done… I was in extremely dire financial circumstances.” Parekh claimed to be a “serial nonsleeper” who doesn’t engage in activities outside of coding to manage multiple jobs.
Parekh’s claims were corroborated by Andriy Mulyar, CEO of Nomic AI, another startup that employed Parekh. In an X discussion, Parekh revealed that he had worked at four companies simultaneously, with at least some having six-figure salaries, earning between $30,000 to $40,000 per month.
However, discrepancies have emerged regarding Parekh’s background. A résumé posted by Doshi indicated that Parekh attended Georgia Tech from September 2020 to May 2022. However, a spokesperson for Georgia Tech stated that they had no record of a student by that name.
Marcus Lowe, founder of Create, a tech startup that had employed Parekh, shared a similar experience to others. Lowe reported that Parekh excelled in an in-person interview but continually made excuses for not showing up to work. Upon investigating, Lowe discovered that Parekh was committing code to another company’s project during the same period.
“This was a huge waste of time for us, a big distraction. We’re a small company trying to survive, and such direct immoral behavior felt worth speaking out about,” Lowe said.
Parekh has since claimed to have signed a deal to work at “one company and one company only” – Darwin, a startup led by CEO Sanjit Juneja. Juneja stated, “At Darwin, we are solely focused on building the most innovative software products… Soham is an incredibly talented engineer, and we believe in his abilities to help bring our products to market.”
