Soham Parekh: The Indian Techie at the Heart of a Multi-Startup 'Moonlighting' Storm

Over the past 48 hours, the name Soham Parekh has dominated tech gossip circles in India and abroad, sparked by explosive allegations of moonlighting at multiple US startups—many of them prestigious Y Combinator-funded companies.

The controversy erupted when Suhail Doshi, founder of Playground AI and ex-CEO of Mixpanel, publicly called out Parekh on X (formerly Twitter), warning other founders to beware of his hiring practices. Doshi alleged that Parekh, believed to be operating from India, was simultaneously collecting paychecks from up to four or five startups, and that much of his CV may be fabricated. Doshi claimed, "Probably 90% of it is fake," pointing out that many links in Parekh’s resume no longer exist[1][3].

According to his publicly posted CV, Soham Parekh holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Mumbai (with an outstanding GPA of 9.83/10) and a master’s in Computer Science from Georgia Tech in 2022. His work history includes senior roles at high-profile startups such as Dynamo AI, Union.ai, Synthesia, and Alan AI, as well as an Open Source Fellowship at GitHub. However, these credentials are now under intense scrutiny due to the allegations[3][5].

Startup founders, including Matthew Parkhurst (CEO of Antimetal) and Michelle Lim (Head of Product at Warp), confirmed recruiting Parekh, though his tenures were usually brief. Notably, Parekh allegedly sent a company laptop to a US address under the pretext of forwarding it to his "sister," raising further suspicions about his activities[1].

The incident has set off a firestorm of debate in the tech community about the challenges of remote hiring and background verification. Many founders and HR leaders are now calling for stricter vetting processes and better cross-company communication to prevent such incidents in the future[1][3][5].

As of today, July 3, 2025, Soham Parekh himself has responded on X, mentioning that he has signed an "exclusive founding deal," but has not addressed the allegations in detail[3]. The controversy continues to unfold online, with many Indian and global tech professionals weighing in on the implications for remote work and hiring best practices.