A Silicon Valley tech founder has publicly shared his frustrating experience of hiring Soham Parekh, the now-viral engineer accused of moonlighting across multiple US-based startups. Dhruv Amin, co-founder of Create—an AI “text-to-app” builder—claimed Parekh drained his startup’s time, resources, and morale through misleading behavior and repeated absences.
In a detailed post on X (formerly Twitter), Dhruv revealed that Parekh joined Create as engineer #5 and initially showed promise. “He crushed our in-person pair programming onsite. I believe he’s actually a good engineer,” Amin wrote. Parekh came with recruiter backing and references, which gave Dhruv’s team confidence in the hire.
However, things soon took a strange turn. Parekh delayed his start date citing a trip to New York, only to go dark the following week. On his first official workday, he called in sick and asked to onboard remotely. “He gave an address to ship the laptop but rarely showed up or delivered projects,” Amin claimed.
Suspicion grew when the team found out Parekh was actively working with another company, Sync, which later released an “Employee of the Month” video featuring Parekh. Despite being confronted, Parekh denied working with any other firm, calling the Sync team “just friends.”
“We were out,” Amin said, recounting how they had to let him go. “It was embarrassing until yesterday when I realised how widespread it was. Then I was pissed. Then impressed.”
In a viral video, Parekh later admitted to juggling multiple jobs, saying financial desperation forced him into the arrangement. “No one really likes to work 140 hours a week, right? But I had to do this out of necessity,” he said, adding he never used AI or help from other engineers.
Despite the controversy, Parekh has now joined a new AI startup, Darwin, in San Francisco. He has assured the public that he will not be taking on any additional jobs going forward.
The incident has sparked intense debate across tech communities about hiring practices, remote work trust, and employee ethics in the fast-paced world of startups.
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