One title is popping up quite a bit throughout tech startup social media proper now, and also you would possibly’ve heard it: Soham Parekh. On X, individuals are joking that Parekh is single-handedly holding up all fashionable digital infrastructure, whereas others are posting memes about him working in entrance of a dozen completely different screens or filling in for the thousands of those that Microsoft simply laid off.
From what social media posts counsel, Parekh is definitely a software program engineer who appears to have interviewed at dozens of tech startups over time, whereas additionally juggling a number of jobs on the similar time. A number of startups had this revelation on July 2nd, when Suhail Doshi, founding father of the AI design device Playground, posted a PSA on X, saying:
PSA: there’s a man named Soham Parekh (in India) who works at 3-4 startups on the similar time. He’s been preying on YC firms and extra. Beware.
I fired this man in his first week and advised him to cease mendacity / scamming individuals. He hasn’t stopped a 12 months later. No extra excuses.
Doshi’s put up was shortly flooded with replies that included related tales. “We interviewed this man too, however caught this throughout references checks,” Variant founder Ben South said. “Seems he had 5-6 profiles every with 5+ locations he truly labored at.” When requested what tipped him off about Parekh, South advised The Verge that his suspicions arose throughout Parekh’s interview, prompting his group to do a reference test sooner than they often would. “That’s after we realized he was working a number of jobs,” South mentioned.
Parekh’s resume and pitch email look good at first look, which helps him garner curiosity from a number of firms. “He had a prolific GitHub contribution graph and prior startup expertise,” Marcus Lowe, founder of the AI app builder Create, advised The Verge. “He was additionally extraordinarily technically sturdy throughout our interview course of.”
Simply in the future after this all unfolded, Parekh got here ahead in an interview with the daily tech show TBPN. Parekh confirmed what many tech startup founders had suspected: he had been working for a number of firms on the similar time. “I’m not happy with what I’ve carried out. That’s not one thing I endorse both. However nobody actually likes to work 140 hours per week, I needed to do it out of necessity,” Parekh mentioned. “I used to be in extraordinarily dire monetary circumstances.”
Parekh appears to have made a superb first impression on many individuals. Digger CEO Igor Zalutski said his firm “practically employed him,” as he “appeared so sharp” throughout interviews, whereas AIVideo.com cofounder Justin Harvey similarly mentioned that he was “THIS near hiring him,” including that “he truly crushed the interview.” Vapi cofounder Jordan Dearsley said Parekh “was the most effective technical interview” he’s seen, however he “didn’t ship on his initiatives.”
The startups that did rent Parekh didn’t seem to keep him around for lengthy. Lowe mentioned that he seen one thing was off when Parekh saved making excuses to push again his begin date. After telling Lowe that he needed to delay working as a result of he had a visit deliberate to see his sister in New York, Parekh later claimed that he couldn’t begin working following the journey as a result of he was sick. “For no matter purpose, one thing simply felt off,” Lowe mentioned.
That’s when Lowe visited Parekh’s GitHub profile and realized he was committing code to a non-public repository throughout the time he was presupposed to be sick. Lowe additionally discovered latest commits to a different San Francisco-based startup. “Did some digging, seen that he was in a few of their advertising supplies,” Lowe mentioned. “I used to be like, ‘Huh, however he didn’t declare this on his resume. This feels bizarre.’” Create ended up letting Parekh go after he failed to finish an task.
It appears like Parekh even had a stint at Meta. In 2021, the company published a post highlighting his story as a contributor engaged on mixed-reality experiences in WebXR. Within the put up, Parekh mentioned that he discovered “that one of the simplest ways to get higher at software program growth is to not solely observe it however to make use of it to unravel actual world issues.” Meta didn’t instantly reply to The Verge’s request for remark.
Parekh’s purported scheme might have been uncovered, however his outlook won’t be all unhealthy — in case you consider him. Parekh claims he landed a job at Darwin, an AI video remixing startup. “Earlier at present, I signed an unique founding deal to be founding engineer at one firm and one firm solely,” Parekh posted on X. “They had been the one ones prepared to guess on me presently.”