Over the past week, social media users shared dozens of stories about meetings with Soham Parekh, a software engineer that seems to work in many startups from the Silicon Valley – without the knowledge of firms – for the last few years.
But who is Parekh, how did he make his profession as a serial moon and why can’t he get him Silicon Valley?
The beginnings of virality
The saga began when Suhail Doshi – a CEO of image generation AI playground – shared a After Tuesday on x It began: “Dog: There is a guy named Soham Parekh (in India), who works at 3-4 startups simultaneously. Leaded in YC companies and not only. Beware.”
Doshi claims that about a 12 months ago he released Parekh from Placeground AI after he came upon that he was working in other firms. “[I] He told him to stop lying/deceived people. He didn’t stop a 12 months later – wrote Doshi.
This post from Doshi received about 20 million views and prompted several other founders to share in Porek.
Flo Crivello, CEO LindyStart -up, which helps people automate the flows of work with AI, he said In recent weeks he hired ParekhBut he released him in the light of Tweet Doshi.
Matt Parkhurst, CEO Anti -metalStartup that uses artificial intelligence to cut back expenditure on company clouds, confirmed that Parekh was the first rental of the company’s engineering In 2022, he said that Antimetal quickly allowed Parekh to go away after they realized that he was illuminating the moon of other firms.
Parekh It also appears to be working on Sync LabsA startup that creates a tool for synchronizing AI lips, in which he even appeared in a promotional film. He was finally released.
At some point, Parekh applied to several start-ups supported by combinators Y. Haz Hubble, co-founder Pally AIBased on the startup combinator, building “AI relationship management platform”, he says he He offered Parekh the role of founder engineer. Adish Jain, co-founder of YC-Backed Mosaic “AI video editing startup,” he said he An interview with Parekh was conducted For the role too.
TechCrunch contacted these firms for comment, but they didn’t answer straight away.
It seems that Parekh was doing quite well in many of these interviews and received offers, mainly because he is a talented software engineer.
For example, Rohan PandeyFounding research engineer supported by YC Startup Revort, told Techcrunch that he had interviewed Parekh in search of a role and was a strong candidate. Pandey, who not has a startup, says that Parekh was one of the three best performers in an interview focused on the algorithms they gave to the candidates.
Pandey said that the processing team suspected that something was from Parekh. At that point, Parekh told Rebord that he was in the USA – a requirement for work – but the company didn’t consider him. They launched an IP recorder on the Zoom link from Parekh and positioned him in India.
Pandey remembered other things that Parek said that he was often not adding up, and some of his Github contribution and previous roles didn’t make sense either. It seems that this is a widespread experience in dealing with Parekh.
Adam SilvermanCo -founder of the AI agent’s remark startup, the agency, told Techcrunch that his company interviewed Parekh. Silverman said Parek sent him a cold DM about the opening of work in the agency, and organized a meeting. According to Silverman, Ie -Maila of Parekh, viewed by TechCrunch, Parekh had to vary this meeting five times.
Silverman says he was also impressed by Parekha’s technical skills, but in an interview he insisted on distant work. As in the case of Rebord, it was a red flag for agencies.
Roy Lee, General Director of “Cheat on Everything” Ai Startup, Clludy, says Techcrunch that he carried out Parekh twice in search of a role. Lee said Parekh was interviewing quite well and “it seemed that he had strong react knowledge,” referring to the popular JavaScript library to build user interfaces.
Lee says Cluely didn’t employ Parekh. However, several other firms clearly did it.
Parekha perspective
Parekh appeared in the programming network of technology (TBPN) On Thursday, to inform the co -host of John Cogan and Jordi, he has his side of history and explain why he worked in so many firms.
He admitted that he has been working concurrently in many works since 2022. Parekh claims that he does not use AI tools or employs younger software engineers to assist him with work.
He believes that each one this work made Parekh a much higher programmer, but notes that it has been on demand.
Parekh said he was known among his friends, that they weren’t sleeping. He repeated several times during the interview that he works 140 hours a week, which comes out 20 hours a day, seven days a week. It seems that this is inconceivable – at least extremely unhealthy and unbalanced.
Parekh also said that he took up many jobs because he was in a “financial threat”, which suggests that he needs all income he could get from various employers. He claims that he postponed the program for graduates to which he was admitted, and as an alternative decided to work concurrently in several startups.
In particular, Doshi divided Copy of CV Parekh This claims that he obtained a master’s degree at Georgia Institute of Technology.
When the co -host of TBPN asked why Parek not only asked one company to lift salaries and assistance in financial fighting, Parek said that he liked to maintain the border between skilled and private life. “
Parekh told the hosts that he really loved his work, and it wasn’t just about money. He says he was invested in the missions of all the firms in which he worked.
He also admitted that he was not proud of what he did and does not support it.
What now?
Some call Parekh a cheater and liar, but in the classic fashion of Silicon Parekh, it seems to try to rework your viral moment into business.
Parekh announced his latest employer, in which he claims that he only works: Darwin StudiosStartup working on AI video remixing.
However, Parekh He quickly removed the post after the announcementLike the founder and general director of the Startup, Sanjit Juuneja.
Techcrunch contacted Parekh, asking for an interview about this text, but he has not yet accepted. Instead, the spokesman representing him sent Techcrunch a statement of the Director General Darwin.
“Soham is an extremely talented engineer and we believe in his ability to launch our products on the market,” said Juuneja.
We saw countless startups that change viral, often controversial moments in enterprises in the last 12 months. One of the most famous is Clula, known for creating scary marketing campaigns. It’s rage, but it attracts attention, and it was enough to land a 15 million dollars round with Andreessen Horowitz.
Perhaps Parekh will land a similar fortune in the future.