Soham Parekh, an Indian techie has sent shockwaves through Silicon Valley after it emerged that he has been moonlighting at several different companies. The allegations against him were first made by Playground AI founder Suhail Doshi, who accused the Indian techie of working at three to four companies simultaneously.
“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 yesterday. He added that Parekh had worked briefly at one of his companies last year before his duplicity came to light and he was fired within his first week.
(Also read: US founder calls out Indian techie Soham Parekh for ‘scamming’ multiple startups: ‘I fired this guy in 1 week’)
The allegations against Soham Parekh
Since then, at least five other companies have come forward to accuse Soham Parekh of scamming them. Many agreed that he came across as knowledgeable in his interviews and managed to fool them initially.
Flo Crivello, founder and CEO of Lindy, said that he had hired Soham Parekh a week ago and acknowledged that he did “incredibly well” in interviews.
“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 wrote.
Crivello shared notes from Parekh’s interview where the Indian techie mentioned that he had left Antimetal due to time zone differences and because it was “turning into a finops company” and he wasn’t sure he wanted to be a part of it.
(Also Read: Who is Soham Parekh? Indian techie accused of scamming multiple startups in the US)
Reactions from the tech community
Antimetal CEO Matthew Parkhurst also confirmed that Soham Parekh had worked for them. He described Parekh as “really smart” but said he was fired for working at multiple other companies.
“Funnily enough, Soham was our first engineering hire in 2022. Really smart and likable; enjoyed working with him,” Matthew said on X. “We realized pretty quickly that he was working at multiple companies and let him go.”
“Hiring Soham is a new rite of passage tbh. Any great company should go through it,” the CEO of Antimetal joked.
Nicolai Ouporov, co-founder and CEO of Fleet AI, also confirmed that Parekh works at multiple startups at any given time. Parekh’s CV – shared publicly by Suhail Doshi – lists Fleet AI as one of the companies where he has worked.
Adish Jain, the San Francisco-based founder of Mosaic, also ‘confirmed’ Doshi’s account. He also said that Soham Parekh did “great” in interviews.
Michelle Lim, head of product at Warp, said that Parekh had been hired for a work trial before the allegations came to light. The trial has now been cancelled, Lim said.
Soham Parekh responds
Soham Parekh, the man at the centre of this storm, has not addressed the fallout publicly. However, according to Doshi, he reached out to him in private.
Doshi shared the gist of what Parekh told him, which amounted to the Indian techie expressing regret.
“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 told Doshi.
(Also Read: LinkedIn CEO joins meme-fest on Soham Parekh, Indian techie who rocked Silicon Valley)
