A sizzling potato: Soham Parekh, a software program engineer from India has develop into the main focus of a sweeping controversy in Silicon Valley after admitting he secretly held a number of full-time jobs at tech startups, typically juggling as many as 4 roles without delay. The episode has uncovered vulnerabilities in distant hiring practices and ignited debate over the ethics of “overemployment” within the tech sector.
The story first gained traction when Suhail Doshi, co-founder and former CEO of Mixpanel, issued a public warning on X. “PSA: there is a man named Soham Parekh (in India) who works at 3-4 startups on the identical time. He is been preying on YC corporations 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 additionally shared Parekh’s résumé, questioning the authenticity of his credentials. The submit shortly went viral, prompting different startup founders to come back ahead with related experiences.
Founders describe a sample: Parekh would excel in interviews – typically outperforming dozens of different candidates – and safe profitable affords, some as excessive as $200,000 per 12 months.
“He actually crushed my interview. I interviewed round 50 individuals within the two weeks prior, and he handed, by far, all of them,” one founder advised Fortune.
But as soon as employed, Parekh’s precise output was minimal. He reportedly provided a collection of dramatic excuses for missed deadlines, together with floods, sickness, and even claiming that his constructing had been broken by a drone strike throughout a regional battle,regardless of being removed from the affected space.
In some circumstances, Parekh’s employers solely found the deception after noticing exercise on his public coding profiles during times when he claimed to be unavailable.
“I observed on his GitHub profile that he was committing code through the two weeks prior, together with the week he claimed to be sick,” mentioned Marcus Lowe, co-founder of Create. Lowe later discovered Parekh was concurrently working for an additional startup, sync.so, and confronted him, however Parekh denied the overlap till a group video surfaced displaying his involvement.
The total extent of Parekh’s actions turned clear as extra founders in contrast notes. Inside one Y Combinator cohort, a number of corporations realized that they had every employed or trialed Parekh – typically on the identical time. “At some dinner occasions, anyone would begin saying, ‘Oh, I am interviewing this cool man – he crushed my interview,’ after which individuals would say in unison, ‘Oh, is it Soham?'” one founder recalled.
Parekh himself has not shied away from the allegations. In an interview on the TBPN tech present, he admitted, “It’s true. I am not happy with what I’ve executed. That is not one thing I endorse both. However nobody actually likes to work 140 hours per week, I needed to do it out of necessity.” He attributed his actions to “extraordinarily dire monetary circumstances,” insisting, “I did what I needed to do to get out of a tricky scenario.”
The controversy has additionally raised questions concerning the effectiveness of background checks and distant hiring protocols. A number of founders admitted they didn’t confirm Parekh’s location or employment historical past, typically transport tools to a US deal with he claimed belonged to his sister, solely to later be taught he was working from India.
After the revelations, Parekh introduced he had accepted an unique function at a single startup. “Earlier in the present day, I signed an unique founding deal to be founding engineer at one firm and one firm solely. They have been the one ones prepared to wager on me at the moment,” he posted on X.
Sanjit Juneja, founder and CEO of Darwin, confirmed Parekh’s new function, stating, “Soham is an extremely proficient engineer and we consider in his skills to assist convey our merchandise to market,” in a press release to Fortune.
The incident has sparked a broader reckoning throughout the tech trade concerning the pressures of startup tradition, the challenges of overseeing distant groups, and the rising phenomenon of staff quietly holding a number of jobs. As one founder put it: “It was embarrassing till yesterday after I realised how widespread it was. Then I used to be pissed. Then impressed. Nonetheless unsure how he pulled it off for therefore lengthy with in-person startups with lengthy hours, however appreciated the hustle. Hope he had a great cause. Looks like a disturbing approach to earn money.”
Picture credit score: Monetary Categorical
