New Delhi: In a week packed with big $$$ AI hiring and tech layoff news, one name has managed to take over every tech timeline. Soham Parekh, a software engineer from India with a solid academic background and work experience across several US startups, is now at the centre of an explosive moonlighting controversy. What started with one viral tweet has now snowballed into a collective outrage in the startup world, with five CEOs calling him out for allegedly working multiple jobs at the same time.
The issue kicked off after Suhail Doshi, co-founder of Mixpanel, posted on X (formerly Twitter), warning founders to avoid Parekh. “He’s been preying on YC companies and more. Beware,” Doshi wrote, sharing that he had fired Parekh in his first week. That post has since clocked over 10 million views.
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
Soham Parekh references: A long list of angry CEOs
After Doshi spoke up, other startup founders began to share similar stories. At least five different startups came forward claiming they had unknowingly hired Parekh while he was working at other companies too. One company was about to start a trial run with him but scrapped the plan after seeing Doshi’s post.
Flo Crivello, founder of Lindy, said Parekh joined their team only a week before the controversy exploded. During his interview, he said he had left his previous job at Antimetal because of time zone issues and internal shifts in the company. But Crivello later found out that Parekh hadn’t disclosed his involvement with other firms.
Antimetal’s CEO Matthew Parkhurst confirmed that Parekh was their first engineering hire back in 2022. “Bright and well-liked,” was how he remembered him. But he too discovered the moonlighting pattern and fired him.
Similar statements came from other companies like Fleet AI, Mosaic, and Warp. Michelle Lim from Warp said they cancelled Parekh’s work trial as soon as the allegations came out. Tech founder Nicolai Ouporov also confirmed that Parekh was juggling jobs while working with them.
Probably 90% fake and most links are gone. pic.twitter.com/h9bnLc8Cwj
— Suhail (@Suhail) July 2, 2025
From top grades to troubling behaviour
On paper, Parekh is everything a founder would want. His resume says he scored a GPA of 9.83 out of 10 in computer engineering at the University of Mumbai, then completed a Master’s in Computer Science at Georgia Tech. That background helped him land roles at startups like Dynamo AI, Union AI, Synthesia, and Alan AI.
But multiple anonymous accounts on Hacker News told a different story. One founder claimed Parekh gave excuses and missed meetings after the first week. Another person said he often left midway during the day citing lawyer appointments or personal work. Someone else spotted multiple concurrent job listings on his LinkedIn and only later realised they were all active.
Soham Parekh’s aura is unmatched.
– clears interviews like they’re nothing.
– has 20 devs & interns working for him.
– does not work.bro found a loophole in the hiring system. pic.twitter.com/7TnxF7tQCe
— sui dev (@birdabo404) July 3, 2025
The silent centre of the storm
Soham Parekh has not yet released any public statement. Doshi said Parekh reached out privately and expressed regret, but didn’t share further details. When asked why moonlighting was a problem, Doshi replied that Parekh “got nothing done” and “made up constant lies.”
This whole episode has now sparked a wider debate across tech circles about trust, remote hiring, and background checks. For now, Parekh’s name is everywhere. Not for his code, but for being Silicon Valley’s biggest red flag of the week.
