From hired to fired, tech founder reveals how Soham Parekh operated and hints at how he fooled companies
One such founder, Dhruv Amin, co-founder of AI startup Create, shared his experience with Parekh in an X thread that quickly went viral. Dhruv explained that Soham had joined his team in San Francisco as engineer number five, on the back of a recruiter's recommendation and an impressive pair-programming interview. 'Yes, we hired him He was eager and crushed our in-person pair programming onsite. I believe he's actually a good engineer,' Dhruv wrote.
But the enthusiasm quickly turned into frustration.After accepting the job, Parekh said he'd be away in New York and would begin a week later. When Monday rolled around, he texted Dhruv excitedly, only to call in sick on his first day. 'He said he'd onboard from home. Gave an address to ship the laptop,' Dhruv noted.From there, things only got weirder. Parekh missed meetings, delayed deliverables, and made excuses. It all unravelled when Dhruv's team discovered he was actively working at another company, Sync, at the same time.'When we called Soham up, he denied it to the end. Said Sync guys were just friends,' Dhruv recalled. But the real kicker came when Sync published an 'Employee of the Month' video, featuring none other than Soham Parekh himself.His contract was swiftly terminated. 'He dipped,' Dhruv said, assuming he was just a young engineer who had made a bad call. But when the wider story broke, Dhruv's embarrassment turned to amazement. 'Then I was pissed. Then impressed Still not sure how he pulled it off for so long with in-person startups and long hours, but appreciated the hustle. Hope he had a good reason. Feels like a stressful way to make money.'Soham Parekh's side of the storyadvertisementAs the tech world demanded answers, Parekh finally spoke out in an interview on The Backchannel podcast (TBPN), confirming what many had suspected. 'It is true,' he said, calmly owning up to the deception. 'I'm not proud of what I've done. But, you know, financial circumstances, essentially. No one really likes to work 140 hours a week, right? But I had to do this out of necessity. I was in extremely dire financial circumstances.'He added that he completed all the work himself -- no shortcuts, no AI, no external help -- and maintained that his output met expectations.Parekh claimed the hustle began in 2022, after postponing graduate school and enrolling in an online programme from Georgia Tech. But that detail raised more questions when a Georgia Tech spokesperson confirmed there was no record of his enrolment, casting further doubt on the timeline and fuelling speculation around how far the deception may have gone.Despite the storm, Parekh has already landed on his feet. He's now joined a San Francisco-based AI startup named Darwin, and has promised to leave his multi-job days behind. 'I won't be taking up any more additional jobs,' he said.While his story has raised ethical questions about moonlighting and transparency in remote hiring, it's also exposed deeper vulnerabilities in the startup hiring culture, especially in the fast-moving world of venture-backed tech, where background checks are often minimal and pressure to scale is high. Love him or loathe him, Soham Parekh's name is now etched into Silicon Valley lore.- Ends
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