Suhail Doshi’s PSA Sparks Widespread Tech Community Uproar
An explosive allegation by Suhail Doshi, co-founder of Mixpanel and Playground AI, has pulled back the curtain on an alleged web of deception spun by Soham Parekh, an India-based software engineer who reportedly held full-time roles at over 30 startups simultaneously—without disclosure.
Doshi called Parekh a “scammer” in a widely circulated thread on X (formerly Twitter), warning YC-backed startups and other founders to be cautious. Doshi claimed Parekh was briefly employed at one of his ventures but was fired within a week after raising suspicions.
Juggling 30+ Jobs Across Startups, Silently
It later emerged that Parekh had stints—often overlapping—at companies including Alan AI, Synthesia, DynamoAI, Union.ai, and many others. Multiple founders came forward with similar stories of hiring him through referrals or recruiters, only to find red flags within days.
Among the most detailed accounts came from Dhruv Amin, co-founder of AI startup Create:
- Parekh aced the in-person technical interview and was hired as engineer #5.
- He called in sick on Day 1, requesting the work laptop be sent to a shared San Francisco workspace, raising the first suspicion.
- GitHub logs showed activity during unusual hours, and his code progress was minimal, despite multiple days of delay.
- When confronted about possibly working at Sync Labs, he denied it, but Sync Labs later confirmed he was “working from home.”
A Trend of Excuses, Missed Deadlines & Ghosting
Other startups noted a pattern of excuses: missing meetings, unproductive stand-ups, vague task updates, and shifting deadlines. One founder said, “He always claimed he was ‘almost done, just testing’—but nothing was ever delivered.”
The bombshell came when founders cross-checked each other’s records and discovered overlapping employment dates and emails—sometimes active in more than 5 companies simultaneously.
Soham Parekh Admits It: “I Had No Choice”
In a surprising twist, Soham Parekh admitted to working multiple jobs on a tech podcast. He expressed remorse, claiming financial desperation:
“It’s true. I’m not proud of what I’ve done… I had to do this out of necessity. I was in extremely dire financial circumstances. No one really wants to work 140 hours a week.”
Despite the confession, many in the tech community remain outraged, calling for stricter due diligence in remote hiring, especially in early-stage startups where time and trust are limited assets.
The Broader Problem: Overemployment in Remote Work
The Parekh episode has put a spotlight on “overemployment”, a growing trend where remote employees—especially engineers—secretly hold multiple full-time jobs. It’s a gray area in tech ethics, where some argue it’s resourceful hustle, and others call it fraud.
This case has now become a cautionary tale—not just about moonlighting, but about blind spots in remote hiring and the trust deficit it may cause across the startup ecosystem.
