In the last week, social media users have shared dozens of stories about encounters with Soham Parekh, a software engineer who seems to have been simultaneously working at multiple Silicon Valley startups — unbeknownst to the companies — for the last several years.
But who is Parekh, how did he pull off his career as a serial moonlighter, and why can’t Silicon Valley get enough of him?
Origins of virality
The saga all started when Suhail Doshi — CEO of image generation startup Playground AI — shared a post Tuesday on X that began: “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.”
Doshi claims that, roughly a year ago, he fired Parekh from Playground AI after he found out he was working at other companies. “[I] told him to stop lying/scamming people. He hasn’t stopped a year later,” Doshi wrote.
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
That post from Doshi received roughly 20 million views and prompted several other founders to share their run-ins with Parekh as well.
Flo Crivello, the CEO of Lindy, a startup that helps people automate their workflows with AI, said he hired Parekh in recent weeks, but fired him in light of Doshi’s tweet.
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