Last week, social media users have shared dozens of stories about meetings with Soham Parekh, a software engineer who seems to work at the same time in multiple newly established Silicon Valley companies – without knowing companies – in recent years.
But who is Parekh, how did he have his career as a serial moon and why can’t he get enough of Silicon Valley?
Origin of sacredness
Saga started when Suhail Doshi – CEO of Generation Image start Playground AI – shared a Post Tuesday in x This started: “PSA: There is a guy called Soham Parekh (in India) who works in 3-4 newly established businesses at the same time, has passed on YC companies and much more.”
Doshi claims that, about a year ago, he shot Parekh from the AI ​​playground after discovering that he was working in other companies. “[I] He told him to stop lying/scam people. It has not stopped a year later, “Doshi wrote.
This post by Doshi received about 20 million views and prompted several other founders to share their run-ins with Parekh.
Flo Crivello, its CEO of Lingera boot that helps people to automate their work flows with AI, he said hired Parekh in recent weeksBut he threw him in the light of Doshi’s tweet.
Matt Parkhurst, the CEO of Antagonistica starting that uses AI to reduce the costs of business clouds, confirmed that Parekh was the first mechanical lease of the company In 2022 he said that the antimato quickly let Parekh go after realizing that he looked like other companies.
Console It also seems to have worked Sync labsA boot that makes a Lip Ai synchronization tool, where he even starred in an advertising video. Eventually he let go.
At some point, Parekh applied to several newly established companies supported by Y. Haz Hubble, his co -founder AIA boot supported by Y Combinator that creates a “AI relationship management platform”, he says offered Parekh a founding mechanical role. Adish Jain, co-founder of YC-Backed Mosaic – A video editing boot – said Parekh interview For a role, too.
TechCrunch arrived at these companies for comments, but did not respond immediately.
It turns out that Parekh did quite well in many of these interviews and received offers, mainly because he is a talented software engineer.
For example, RoosterA founding start -up engineer supported by YC told TechCrunch that an interview with Parekh for a role and was a strong candidate. Pandy, who is no longer with the start, says Parekh was one of the first three performers in an interview focusing on the algorithms they gave to the candidates.
Pandy said the ReWorkD team suspected something was far away with Parekh. At that time, Parekh told ReWorkd that he was in the US – a requirement for the job – but the company didn’t believe him. These ran an IP recorder in a zoom link by Parekh and found him in India.
Pandy recalled that other things Parekh said often was not added, and some of Github’s contributions and the previous roles made no sense. This seems to be a shared experience when dealing with Parekh.
Adam SilvermanA co -founder of the start of Ai Agent’s observation, he told Techcrunch that his company interview with Parekh. Silverman said Parekh sent him a cold DM for a job that opens up and set up a meeting. Parekh had to reschedule this meeting five times, according to Silverman and Parekh emails that TechCrunch saw.
Silverman says he was also impressed by Parekh’s technical ability, but in the interview, he insisted on working remotely. As with Reworkd, it was a red flag for the service.
Roy Lee, CEO of “Cheat on Everything” Ai Startup, Cluely, tells TechCrunch that interview with Parekh twice for a role. Lee said Parekh interviews quite well and “seemed to have strong knowledge of reactions”, citing a popular Javascript library for the construction of user interfaces.
Lee says Cluely did not end up hiring Parekh. However, several other companies did clearly.
Parekh’s perspective
Parekh made an appearance on the Podcast Brother Technology network (Tbpn) On Thursday to tell the co-operators John Coogan and Jordi Hays side of the story and explain why he worked in so many companies.
Admitted to working in multiple jobs at the same time by 2022. Parekh claims that he does not use AI tools or hiring software engineers to help him with his workload.
All the job has done Parekh much better developer, he believes, but notes that he has got a tax.
Parekh said he was infamous among his friends because he is not sleeping. He repeated several times throughout the interview that he works 140 hours a week, which comes in 20 hours a day, seven days a week. This seems to be impossible – or, at least, extremely unhealthy and unsustainable.
Parekh also said he took a lot of jobs because he was in “financial risk”, implying that he needed all the income he could get from his various employers. He claims to be postponed to a postgraduate school program where he was accepted and decided to work in several newly established businesses at the same time.
In particular, Doshi shared a Copy of Parekh’s resume This claims to have received a Masters Degree from the Agriculture Institute of Technology.
When TBPN compatriots asked why Parekh did not just ask a company to increase his salary and help with his financial struggles, Parekh said he liked to keep a limit between his professional and privacy. (But he had also chosen low wages and high shares in all his jobs, which does not add enough with the history of the financial crisis. However, Parekh refused to share more about it.)
Parekh told the hosts that he really loved his work and was not exclusively for money. He says he was very lined with the missions of all the companies where he worked.
He also admitted that he was not proud of what he did and does not support it.
What now?
Some call Parekh an artist scam and a liar, but in classic Silicon Valley fashion, Parekh seems to try to turn his viral time into a business.
Parekh announced his newest employer, who claims to work exclusively in: Darwin studioA startup that works for a AI video reconstruction.
However, Parekh quickly delete the post after announcing itLike the founder and chief executive of the start, Sanjit Juneja.
TechCrunch has arrived at Parekh asking an interview with this article, however, it has not yet accepted. Instead, a representative who represented him sent TechCrunch a statement from Darwin’s chief executive.
“Soham is an incredibly talented engineer and we believe in his skills to help bring our products to the market,” Juneja said.
We have seen countless newly established businesses converting viral, often controversial, moments in business last year. One of the most famous is Cluely, which is known to create challenging marketing campaigns. It is a bait of rage, but it is attention, and it was enough to land the $ 15 million cluely by Andreessen Horowitz.
Perhaps Parekh will land on similar property in the future.
