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CNBC
14-07-2025
- Business
- CNBC
Recruiter: I interviewed serial moonlighter Soham Parekh — here are my top 3 takeaways
When one recruiter received Silicon Valley's notorious serial moonlighter Soham Parekh's job application two years ago, he was immediately impressed. This was two years before the young Mumbai-based engineer was exposed for working remotely at several Silicon Valley startups simultaneously. "I was looking at his resume, and his resume was so good that even my CEO at the time pinged me and was, like, 'Russ, this guy looks awesome. let's talk to this guy,'" Russell Pompea, recruiting manager at AI video startup Topaz Labs, told CNBC Make It. Pompea said Parekh sent his application via the company's career page for a software engineering position on June 2, 2023, and that he decided to interview the young engineer over a phone call on June 12. CNBC Make It verified Parekh's interview with Topaz Labs via screenshots. At the time, Parekh listed AI-video startup Synthesia, as well as a lesser-known AI company, as previous employers on his resume. Pompea said this combination of companies made him a really attractive candidate, so interviewing him was a no-brainer. "I remember him being a very good communicator," Pompea recalled from the initial screening. "That was one of my first notes: 'Soham is a great communicator.' I've talked to 1,000 software engineers or something over the last year, and they're not usually very good at communicating." However, during the interview, Pompea picked up on a few red flags that ultimately stopped him from progressing Parekh to the next round. "I think he learned some lessons from this interview, " Pompea said. In an interview on tech show TBPN on Thursday, Parekh admitted that it was true he was working for multiple startups at once and wasn't proud of what he had done. "No one really likes to work 140 hours a week, but I had to do this out of necessity," Parekh said in the show. "I was in extremely dire financial circumstances." Topaz Labs did not verify whether Parekh worked at the firms mentioned on his resume at the time as he did not progress to this stage of the screening process. When Pompea tried to dig into the details of Parekh's experience in the interview, he identified what he thought were "three major problems" with his responses. "It looked like an amazing profile, even if it was someone who was relatively junior, but then he was missing a fair bit of actual details in the products that he built," Pompea said. When he pressed him about his work for Synthesia, Parekh was vague. "People usually have great command of the details," Pompea noted. Pompea also spotted that the dates between Parekh's experience at Synthesia and overlapped, and he wasn't able to come up with an adequate explanation for why. "He told me that he was working at both full-time and that there was an overlap in his notice period ... I wrote it down, like, this is a big red flag," Pompea said. Parekh's decision to leave Synthesia also didn't make sense to Pompea. The engineer claimed the company was growing too fast and he felt "pigeon-holed," according to Pompea's recollection. "I asked him, 'Did you try going to another team or another function?' And he just totally skirted the question ... you don't usually just leave a top-tier, super high-paying company because you're frustrated. You try to find another job [in the company] first." Topaz Labs requires employees to work on-site at its headquarters in Dallas, Texas. Parekh glossed over details about whether he was going to move to Dallas and said he was in New York at the time, according to Pompea. In early July, two years after Pompea interviewed Parekh, Suhail Doshi, the founder of Playground AI, took to X to warn other startups about the moonlighting engineer who he said is "preying on YC [Y Combinator] companies and more." Several startup founders then came forward about hiring Parekh, saying they fired him after seeing Doshi's post. Parekh said he started moonlighting in this way in 2022, and the grueling lifestyle meant he became a "serial non-sleeper." He added that he "cared about these companies" and "greed wasn't an incentive," despite his financial situation. He said he always took the lower pay, higher equity offer at companies. For Pompea, it was a relief that Topaz Labs did not hire Parekh. "I think I was glad that we were not one of those companies that came out and said that we hired him and had to fire him. I would much rather be somebody who saw through it," he said. "That being said, I actually feel a little bad for a lot of these companies, because these are people working in good faith." Pompea said people like Parekh make the job of a recruiter harder — but also emphasize the importance of vigorous screening. As a hiring manager, Pompea said soft skills like teamwork and collaboration are just as crucial as technical skills — and sometimes fast-moving startups overlook these human qualities. "What I've discovered [while] hiring for Topaz labs for two and a half years, but also lots of other similar companies, is that you almost never have to fire anybody because they can't learn a new software language, or they can't learn a new framework, or if there's some sort of technical problem," he explained. "The people that do end up getting fired have attitude problems, commitment problems, or work rate problems." He said that many of the AI startups that Parekh applied to work at are "moving at 1,000 miles per hour," and need to get products ready for launch within days. As a result, they may delay background checks until after the candidate is hired. "Some of these startups might hire you two days after you do your final interview, and they're like 'Hey, it's Thursday. Can you start Monday?'" Ultimately, Pompea said that if Parekh cleaned up his act, then he'd have a bright future ahead of him. In fact, a number of startups that employed the engineer praised his technical skills, even amid the backlash against him. "I also feel bad for the kid, too, like he's a very smart kid. I hope that he changes and ends up having a good career," Pompea added. Soham Parekh didn't respond to CNBC Make It's request for comment.
Mint
05-07-2025
- Business
- Mint
'Genius' Soham Parekh gets support from Redditor amid moonlighting row: 'Narayana Murthy's dream employee'
Amid vehement criticism against Soham Parekh for moonlighting at US startups, a Redditor has voiced their support for the Indian techie, calling him an 'absolute genius.' The Redditor added that while most people struggle to handle one job, Parekh managed to work "140 hours a week." 'What he did is not legally ethical, but whatever it is, he is an absolute genius! People are tired of one job, and that dude was juggling FIVE YC startups, working 140 hours a week. That's like Narayana Murthy's dream employee and worst nightmare at the same time. Watched his interview on TBPN. Hollywood should make a movie on him. He messed up once; I won't call him a scammer or anything. He deserves a second chance,' the Redditor said. Parekh has admitted to working at multiple US firms simultaneously due to financial constraints. In an interview with TBPN, he claimed to have worked for about 140 hours a week. Viral Reddit post. 'So an average day... an average week for you, it feels like basically you sleep for 6 to 8 hours, and you're programming for 12 to 14 hours every single day for seven days a week,' one of the interviewers asked. The software engineer has found a new full-time job opportunity with Darwin Studios, based in San Francisco. In this new role as a founding engineer, he will help build an AI-powered video remixing platform called Wayve. In a statement, Darwin's CEO and founder Sanjit Juneja commended the techie, who was accused of juggling multiple jobs at once, and suggested that there is 'something even greater to prove than just his love for software.' Calling Parekh a '10x engineer,' he defended his recruitment and said, "Soham is an incredibly talented engineer, and we believe in his abilities to help bring our products to market." He suggested that there is 'something even greater to prove than just his love for software.' Meanwhile, Soham Parekh admitted that he will no longer be taking on multiple jobs. Founder of AI company HyperSpell, Conor Brennan-Burke, also offered an engineering role to Parekh in his company and said that he believes in second chances. Sharing the email, Burke wrote, 'He's definitely learned his lesson now and is going to work insanely hard to prove everyone wrong. Massive opportunity to bring on top talent with a chip on their shoulder.'
CNBC
05-07-2025
- Business
- CNBC
Engineer caught juggling multiple startup jobs is a cautionary tale of ‘extreme' hustle culture, experts say
The tech industry is reeling after a software engineer was exposed as working at several Silicon Valley startups at the same time — and experts say it's a lesson on hustle culture gone too far. Soham Parekh, a software engineer from Mumbai, went viral on social media after being accused by Playground AI founder Suhail Doshi on X of working at a number of startups simultaneously. Doshi wrote: "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 [Y Combinator] companies and more. Beware. I fired this guy in his first week and told him to stop lying / scamming people. He hasn't stopped a year later. No more excuses." The post racked up 25,000 likes with more founders coming forward about hiring Parekh, including AI startup Lindy, which fired him after seeing Doshi's post. Soham Parekh did not respond to CNBC Make It's request for an interview. Matthew Parkhurst, founder of software startup Antimetal, said Parekh was the company's first engineering hire in 2022 and was smart and likable. "We realized pretty quickly that he was working at multiple companies and let him go," Parkhurst said on X. Other founders like Haz Hubble, the co-founder of social media scheduler Pally, also came forward about offering Parekh a founding engineer role. Doshi confirmed to CNBC Make It via email that Parekh worked at the company. "We realized he was working multiple jobs shortly after he joined, based on constant large fluctuations in his availability and the quality of his output. He also attended an off-site, where it became pretty clear," Doshi said. Lindy, Antimetal, and Pally did not immediately respond to CNBC's request for comment. In an interview on tech show TBPN on Thursday, Parekh admitted that it was true he was working for multiple startups at once and wasn't proud of what he had done. "No one really likes to work 140 hours a week, but I had to do this out of necessity," Parekh said in the show. "I was in extremely dire financial circumstances." Parekh said he only started doing this in 2022, and the grueling lifestyle meant he became a "serial non-sleeper." He added that he "cared about these companies" and "greed wasn't an incentive," despite his financial situation. He said he always took the lower pay, higher equity offer at companies. The tech community on social media is divided, however, with some questioning the ethics of secretly working multiple jobs, while others wonder how Parekh pulled it off. The tale of Parekh is not unique within the tech industry, with many tech workers covertly working multiple jobs in recent years in an effort to shield themselves from mass layoffs and job market uncertainty. A subreddit called "r/overemployed" was created in 2021, with users sharing advice on how they manage to balance multiple jobs without being detected. "During the peak of Covid, there was this rush from tech companies to fire talent, and there was this intense competition for talent," Alexandru Voica, head of corporate affairs and policy at AI company Synthesia, told CNBC Make It in an interview. "It caused, in some cases, this type of behavior to be more widespread than it was during non-pandemic times." Voica noted that the rise of remote work was instrumental in enabling this behavior amongst tech workers. "That led to obviously incredible benefits for hard-working people, but also allowed people who have maybe this type of attitude to, all of a sudden, get jobs that they wouldn't have before." Having at least two jobs is also common within India's IT sector. There was a 25-30% increase in moonlighting seen between 2020 and 2023, according to Randstad India, with workers citing factors such as low pay and remote work. While Parekh's grueling work hours are unusual — even in tech — it's a reminder of how deeply hustle culture is entrenched within the industry. "Silicon Valley's obsession with productivity metrics and fast hiring has created conditions where a person can juggle five roles — and not because it's efficient, but because no one is truly looking," Dmitry Zaytsev, founder of talent management company Dandelion Civilization, said to CNBC Make It. "What we're seeing is the extreme end of hustle culture: when work becomes performance, and identity becomes fragmented." Zaytsev explained that Parekh essentially passed multiple rounds of technical interviews because soft skills aren't as valued in tech. Qualities like commitment, reliability and team presence "are often overlooked until there's a crisis," he said. "Burnout is a predictable outcome when the workplace culture rewards overcommitment and treats exhaustion as a badge of honor. Soham's admission that he worked 140 hours a week is not just unhealthy, it's a reflection of a system that equates worth with output," he added. It comes as European tech startups face pressure from some VCs to adopt a more rigorous work schedule — such as China's "996" or Silicon Valley's 24/7, always-on culture — to better compete on a global tech stage. This has been met with backlash, with founders telling CNBC Make It that overwork can lead to a crisis of productivity, burnout, and even resentment. Suranga Chandratillake, general partner at Balderton Capital, said this debate came about due to "a fetishization of overwork" and a glorification of hustle culture in the tech and startup scene in Silicon Valley. Synthesia's Voica warned that workers who take advantage of flexible working policies risk painting other engineers in a bad light, and could have these benefits taken away. "Most of the engineers that I know are very hard working, very dedicated, very passionate, and then when you have this type of more cavalier behavior, it sets this tone that this is normal behavior in the community," Voica explained. This might cause employers to second-guess whether they should keep hybrid working policies in place, he said. "This is going to impact women. It's going to impact people with disabilities [and] the more vulnerable, who actually benefited from this [flexible] work arrangement, and now they're going to be impacted by this type of behavior," he added.
Business Insider
04-07-2025
- Business
- Business Insider
The job juggler the tech world can't stop talking about speaks out
A seemingly overemployed engineer has sparked a round of memes and self-reflection in tech this week. Indian software engineer, Soham Parekh, was accused online by a founder this week of working at three to four startups simultaneously. The founder's X post set off a firestorm in the industry, with other founders chiming in to say they, too, hired — and fired — him. Parekh appeared on the tech podcast "TBPN" on Thursday and confirmed he had juggled multiple jobs. "I wanna preface by saying that I'm not proud of what I've done. That's not something that I endorse either," Parekh said. "No one really likes to work 140 hours a week, but I had to do this kind of out of necessity. I was in extremely dire financial circumstances." Parekh spoke to "TBPN" hosts John Coogan and Jordi Hays about why he chose to work for multiple startups at the same time and how he got hired. On the podcast, he referred to himself as a "serial non-sleeper." He said that he did not hire a team of junior engineers to help him accomplish tasks at various jobs or use AI to get the work done. He said on the podcast that he worked for many of the companies prior to the boom in AI-assisted programming. "This was not a business to me. Every company that I've worked with, I deeply cared about," Parekh did not respond to Business Insider's request for comment. The brouhaha started when Suhail Doshi, the founder of Playground AI, posted on X on Tuesday about a former software engineer who he said previously worked for his company. He accused Parekh of moonlighting for multiple startups. 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. I fired this guy in his first week and told him to stop lying / scamming people. He hasn't stopped a year later. No more excuses. — Suhail (@Suhail) July 2, 2025 Founders of multiple companies confirmed with BI that a man named Soham Parekh had worked for or interviewed with them. Several said they quickly realized he was overemployed and let him go. Parekh did not discuss being fired on the podcast. Igor Zalutski, the CEO of Digger, told BI that Parekh passed his interviews "with flying colors" and said the company was "super excited for him to start" before the hiring process was halted on June 30 because of a background check issue. He did not elaborate on the specifics. "I think he's genuinely a brilliant engineer," Zalutski said, adding, "Soham seemed clearly one of the top 0.1%; anyone can learn to do coding puzzles, but very few can do technical problem solving entirely in their head, while keeping the user and business in mind." Kevin Wu, the founder and CEO of Leaping AI, told BI that Parekh was employed by the company briefly, but was let go for "his underperformance on the job" and after they found out he was employed by other startups. A spokesperson for Synthesia also confirmed to BI that Parekh was briefly employed at the company and said that part of the reason he was let go was that it suspected he was working other jobs. Matt Parkhurst, the CEO of Antimetal, wrote on X that Parekh is "really smart and likable," but he was let go after the company found out about his other jobs. Antimetal did not immediately respond to a request for further information. Though the timeline of when Parekh worked at which company is not entirely clear, a June 2021 blog post by Meta shows that Parekh was a WebXR contributor working on immersive AR/VR examples through the Major League Hacking (MLH) Fellowship at that time. In California, where most of these startups are based, there is no law against working for multiple companies simultaneously, even if they are competitors. It's unclear what Parekh had agreed to in his contracts. His job-juggling has sparked discussion around the phenomenon of similar overemployment. "There are 1000s of Soham Parekhs we don't know about," Deedy Das, a principal at Menlo Ventures focused on AI investments, wrote on X. "To be clear, this is a complete non-issue if your employment contract is okay with it." Overemployment grew in popularity during the pandemic, when some workers took advantage of fully remote opportunities to rake in multiple six-figure salaries. Tech leaders chimed in to offer thoughts, jokes, and memes about the situation. Reid Hoffman, the LinkedIn founder, mused on X, "What do you think Soham Parekh's LinkedIn header is?" Aaron Levie, the CEO of Box, said in a post Wednesday, "If soham immediately comes clean and says he was working to train an AI Agent for knowledge work, he raises at $100M pre by the weekend." The memes keep coming, including one shared by Flo Crivello, founder and CEO of Lindy, a San Francisco-based AI company, with a nod to "The Social Network." The meme read: "You can't get to 500 million jobs without making a few enemies."
India Today
04-07-2025
- Business
- India Today
Why did Soham Parekh work multiple jobs? Indian techie shares his reasons
Soham Parekh, the Indian tech professional based in the United States, who has been in the news for the past few days has spoken out about why he took up multiple jobs at the same time across US a recent interview, he admitted to the allegations but explained that his actions were driven by financial pressure, not ADMITS TO HOLDING MULTIPLE JOBSIn a candid appearance on a TBPN show, Parekh did not shy away when asked if the claims were true. 'It is true,' he said clearly. 'I would surely like to add colour to it, but it is true.'He confirmed that he worked at several companies simultaneously and misrepresented his location and employment status in the NOT PROFIT, SAYS PAREKHWhile many have accused him of wrongdoing for personal gain, Parekh insisted that his actions were not motivated by profit.'No one really likes to work 140 hours a week, but I had to do it out of necessity,' he explained. He said the decision was made during a difficult time, where survival and financial stability were his main asked whether he believed he had broken any laws, Parekh said he accepted full responsibility. 'I'm not proud of what I've done. It's not something I endorse either,' he said. 'I did what I had to do to get out of a tough situation.'He also denied accusations that he had taken advantage of junior developers while holding multiple jobs. 'That's simply not true,' he stated MEDIA REACTS TO VIRAL VIDEOParekh's interview has gone viral online, sparking strong opinions. Some supported him, saying companies today are unreliable due to frequent layoffs. 'There's nothing wrong in working for multiple companies at the same time if he's delivering results,' one user wrote. 'Everyone needs to have multiple jobs.'Another user commented, 'If anyone is going to be the first one-person unicorn, it'll be Soham Parekh.' A third added, 'Film directors are probably scrambling to get as much as they can out of this.' Others, however, were not convinced. 'Again putting people in a guilt trip citing his personal financial situation total BS,' one critic IS SOHAM PAREKH?Parekh is originally from Mumbai and had plans to move to the US in 2018 to pursue higher studies. But financial issues delayed his move. He finally shifted to the US in 2020. He earned his undergraduate degree in Computer Engineering from the University of Mumbai in 2020 and later completed a Master's in Computer Science from Georgia Tech in came into the spotlight after Suhail Doshi, co-founder of analytics firm Mixpanel, posted on social media accusing him of 'scamming US startups.' Doshi alleged that Parekh was employed at four to five startups at the same time, many of them backed by the startup accelerator Y Combinator, while actually working remotely from the criticism, Parekh says he has learned from his actions and does not plan to repeat the same mistakes. 'I was determined to change my situation, and I took action to help myself through it,' he said, taking full responsibility for the decisions he made.- EndsTrending Reel advertisement
