A tech startup founder who hired Soham Parekh has shared his experience of working with the infamous Silicon Valley engineer who has gone viral for moonlighting at multiple US-based startups. Dhruv Amin, co-founder of Create, an artificial intelligence (AI) "text-to-app" builder, reflected on how hiring Soham was a costly decision that drained his startup's time, resources and energy.
"Yes, we hired him. We're building an AI agent in San Francisco. He was eng #5. Recommended by a recruiter, which lent legitimacy. He was eager and crushed our in-person pair programming onsite. I believe he's actually a good engineer," wrote Dhruv on X (formerly Twitter).
While Parekh provided references, Dhruv offered him the job, awaiting responses from the previous employers. He also briefly perused Parekh's LinkedIn, GitHub, open source commits and blog posts to get an idea about the employee they were onboarding.
After accepting the job offer, Parekh said he had a New York trip planned and that he would start after a week.
"He went dark the next week (strange) but texted on weekend excited for Monday. His first day at 9:30 am he calls in sick (strange). Said he'd onboard from home. Gave an address to ship the laptop," said Dhruv.
our soham parekh story:
— Dhruv (@dhruvtruth) July 3, 2025
- yes, we hired him. we're building an AI agent in SF. he was eng #5.
- recommended by a recruiter, which lent legitimacy.
- he was eager and crushed our in person pair programming onsite. i believe he's actually a good engineer.
- some have said "this…
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'I was pissed'
What followed was an elaborate gaslighting scheme where Parekh frequently excused himself from turning up at the office and delayed shipping the projects. Dhruv and his colleagues also found that Parekh was working at another company.
"When we called Soham up, he denied it to the end. Said Sync guys were just friends. Either way, we were out. In an ironic twist of fate Sync dropped an employee of the month video the same day that featured none other than Soham."
After terminating his contract, Parekh simply 'dipped' as per Dhruv, who assumed he was a young kid who had made a mistake.
"It was embarrassing until yesterday when I realised how widespread it was. Then I was pissed. then impressed. Still not sure how he pulled it off for so long with in-person startups with long hours, but appreciated the hustle. Hope he had a good reason. Feels like a stressful way to make money."
After the controversy snowballed, Parekh responded, saying, "I'm not proud of what I've done. But, you know, financial circumstances, essentially. No one really likes to work 140 hours a week, right? But I had to do this out of necessity. I was in extremely dire financial circumstances". He also added that he did all the work without the assistance of AI or other engineers.
Parekh has also announced that he has taken up a job at an AI firm, Darwin, a new startup based in San Francisco in the United States. He also clarified that he will not be taking up any more additional jobs
from NDTV News- Special https://ift.tt/qf0N5dU
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