Man goes viral after working for 4 startups on the identical time

Soham Parekh was the proper software program engineering candidate. The issue was that a number of tech startups thought so.

At the least 10 tech firm executives have mentioned publicly in latest days that they’d not too long ago employed Parekh, sparking a wave of web dialogue concerning the tech trade’s distant work practices and the comparatively latest phenomenon of tech workers’ surreptitiously holding a number of jobs directly.

Parekh’s title first started to flow into after Suhail Doshi, the previous CEO of the analytics startup Mixpanel, wrote a submit Wednesday warning these within the tech trade that Parekh was attempting to work at a number of startups on the identical time. Parekh didn’t reply to emailed requests for remark.

“PSA: there’s a man named Soham Parekh (in India) who works at 3-4 startups on the identical time. He’s been preying on YC corporations and extra. Beware,” he wrote on X, referring to startups which have obtained funding from the accelerator Y Combinator.

“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,” wrote Doshi, who didn’t reply to a request for remark.

Individuals within the feedback shared related tales.

“We simply signed him up for our work trial subsequent week. Noticed this tweet. Cancelled work trial. Thanks for sharing!” a person wrote underneath the submit.

“LMFAOOO I INTERVIEWED THIS GUY YESTERDAY BRO IM DYINGG,” wrote one other.

As claims about him circulated, Parekh started to present interviews.

Parekh admitted working at a number of startups directly in an interview Thursday with the net day by day tech present “TBPN.”

“I’m not pleased with what I’ve achieved,” Parekh mentioned. “That’s not one thing that I endorse, both. However, you realize, monetary circumstances, primarily. Nobody actually likes to work 140 hours every week, proper? However I had to do that out of necessity. I used to be in extraordinarily dire monetary circumstances.”

Parekh mentioned that to tug off having a number of jobs directly, he’s a “serial nonsleeper” and doesn’t “do something outdoors coding.” He additionally shot down on-line rumors that he had a group of engineers working for him or that he was utilizing synthetic intelligence instruments to accumulate extra jobs.

The share of individuals in america with a number of jobs not too long ago elevated from 5.3% and 5.5%, in accordance with The Wall Road Journal.

In an X dialogue with Andriy Mulyar, the CEO of Nomic AI — one other startup that Parekh labored at — Parekh mentioned probably the most jobs he had at a single time was 4, no less than a number of of which had six-figure salaries. He estimated that he was bringing in $30,000 to $40,000 per 30 days. Mulyar confirmed to NBC Information that the account within the X dialogue belonged to Parekh and that Parekh was beforehand employed at Normic AI.

Parekh mentioned within the “TBPN” interview that he started juggling a number of jobs in 2022. He re-emphasized that he did so out of economic necessity, including that he had deferred a suggestion to graduate faculty and opted for an internet diploma. An image of his résumé posted by Doshi, which Lowe confirmed was the one he had obtained, says he attended Georgia Tech from September 2020 to Could 2022. A spokesperson for the varsity mentioned in a press release to NBC Information that it had no report of a scholar by that title.

“There’s lots being mentioned about me proper now, and most of you don’t know the total story,” Parekh mentioned on his X account, which he confirmed to be his within the “TBPN” interview. “If there’s one factor to find out about me, it’s that I like to construct. That’s it. I’ve been remoted, written off and shut out by almost everybody I’ve identified and each firm I’ve labored at. However constructing is the one factor I’ve ever really identified, and it’s what I’ll hold doing.”

Marcus Lowe, the founding father of the tech startup Create, shared an expertise just like these of different employers who spoke out on-line. Lowe confirmed to NBC Information that Parekh was the particular person featured within the “TBPN” video.

Lowe mentioned Parekh aced his in-person interview again in February and even outperformed most candidates. However as his first day of labor approached, increasingly points saved arising.

Whether or not it was that he was sick or that he had household visiting, Lowe mentioned, Parekh would give you excuse after excuse for why he couldn’t present as much as work. He mentioned that initially they appeared plausible, till he started to look into Parekh’s GitHub account.

“I occur to note, truly, on his GitHub profile that he was truly committing code the prior two weeks, too, together with the week that he was sick,” Lowe mentioned. “So it was just a little odd to me — I imply, perhaps you’re offline when you’re sick. Usually you’re not committing a ton of code.”

Lowe added that when he did some looking, he discovered that Parekh was committing code to a different firm referred to as sync.so. He despatched a message to the corporate’s founder, who confirmed to him that Parekh was working there, as nicely.

“This was an enormous waste of time for us, a giant distraction. We’re a small firm,” Lowe mentioned. “We’re attempting to outlive, and simply such direct immoral habits felt value talking out about.”

Parekh may be seen at sync.so in a number of posts by workers on the firm, in addition to in movies featured on its YouTube channel. An worker confirmed that Parekh was employed at sync.so however declined a request for an interview.

Parekh now says he signed a deal to work at “one firm and one firm solely.” He advised “TBPN” that he can be working at one other startup referred to as Darwin.

Sanjit Juneja, its founder and CEO, mentioned in an emailed assertion: “At Darwin, we’re solely targeted on constructing probably the most revolutionary software program merchandise for each manufacturers and content material creators. Soham is an extremely proficient engineer and we consider in his skills to assist deliver our merchandise to market.”