Soham Parekh, an Indian engineer, secretly held five to six full-time jobs at elite U.S. startups—earning up to $800,000 a year — by gaming remote hiring systems with fake resumes, false updates, and jaw-dropping technical skills.
Parekh’s unraveling began when Suhail Doshi, co-founder of Mixpanel and CEO of Playground AI, publicly exposed him on X, revealing that he had fired Parekh within a week for dishonesty. Doshi accused the engineer of moonlighting across multiple startups, including Y Combinator-backed companies, and said “90%” of his resume appeared falsified.
The engineer’s CV lists a bachelor’s from the University of Mumbai and a master’s from Georgia Tech. It also names roles at Dynamo AI, Union AI, Synthesia, and Alan AI — titles that helped him crack interviews but, according to founders, rarely translated into consistent output.
The allegations are staggering: holding three to six jobs at once, Parekh allegedly used overlapping timelines, misleading credentials, and “ghost work” excuses to juggle conflicting commitments. In some cases, he even used a US. shipping address operated by a relative to receive company laptops — despite living in India.
“He crushed interviews and then ghosted meetings,” said one founder, echoing the frustration voiced by at least five startup leaders.
Reports say Parekh employed tactics like vague progress updates, dodging video calls with time zone excuses, and possibly even automation tools to appear active.
The scandal, now dubbed “Soham-gate,” exploded on tech Twitter and LinkedIn, spawning memes and fiery debates. LinkedIn’s Reid Hoffman even joked about Parekh’s potential profile headline.
Not everyone is condemning him. Some users called him a “corporate majdoor who cracked the matrix,” pointing to burnout, underpayment, and remote work chaos as contributing factors. Still, industry leaders are demanding stricter hiring checks and better vetting of global remote hires.
As of now, Parekh has made no public statement — only a private message to Doshi, asking if his career is “sabotaged” and how he might come clean.
