A Mumbai-based engineer who excelled in interviews reportedly held multiple Silicon Valley startup jobs at once, often disappearing after landing offers of up to $200K. Soham Parekh impressed on paper, but founders say most of his resume was fake.

As TechCrunch reports, Soham Parekh, who reportedly aced technical interviews and was offered salaries of up to $200,000, became the center of a startup-world cautionary tale last week when Playground AI founder Suhail Doshi posted a viral warning: “There’s a guy named Soham Parekh (in India) who works at 3–4 startups at the same time. He’s been preying on YC companies and more. Beware.”

PSA: there’s a guy named Soham Parekh (in India) who works at 3-4 startups at the same time. He’s been preying on YC companies and more. Beware.

I fired this guy in his first week and told him to stop lying / scamming people. He hasn’t stopped a year later. No more excuses.

— Suhail (@Suhail) July 2, 2025

As KRON4 reports, Doshi, who said he fired Parekh after just one week, called his resume “90% fake” and claimed he “made up constant lies,” including listing a master’s from Georgia Tech. The university told Fortune it has no record of his enrollment.

Probably 90% fake and most links are gone. pic.twitter.com/h9bnLc8Cwj

— Suhail (@Suhail) July 2, 2025

More than a dozen founders have since come forward with similar stories. At Antimetal, Parekh was reportedly the first engineering hire in 2022. “Really smart and likable,” said CEO Matt Parkhurst, but “we realized pretty quickly that he was working at multiple companies and let him go.”

Funnily enough, Soham was our first engineering hire in 2022

Really smart and likable; enjoyed working with him

We realized pretty quickly that he was working at multiple companies and let him go

I can’t imagine the amount of equity he’s left on the table https://t.co/vXGlHxF1QH

— Matt Parkhurst (@mprkhrst) July 2, 2025

At Create, Marcus Lowe said Parekh showed up once, pushed back his start date twice, and was eventually caught working for a competing startup while on Lowe’s payroll. When confronted, he ghosted.

As Fortune reports, Leaping AI co-founder Arkadiy Telegin nearly hired Parekh full time after a standout interview, offering $160K–$200K plus equity. “He really crushed my interview. I interviewed around 50 people in the prior two weeks before talking to him and he passed, by far, all of the people I interviewed,” he told Fortune. “He also was a very likeable person.”

Telegin went on to add that immediately upon being hired, Parekh started acting strangely and making excuses for why he wasn’t producing code, including drone strikes, floods, and electricity outages. He never signed a contract or sent an invoice.

In some cases, multiple Y Combinator startup founders realized after the fact they’d all been “dating the same guy,” as Telegin put it.  At least 10 companies hired and fired Parekh, and others say they rejected him after odd interview behavior or suspicious GitHub activity.

In a TBPN podcast interview, Parekh confirmed he had been working at several startups at once, sometimes up to 140 hours a week. “I’m not proud of what I’ve done,” he said. He cited financial hardship and claimed he genuinely cared about the mission of each company. Still, he admitted his actions took a toll and said, “That’s not something I endorse.”

Parekh recently announced on X that he’s now working exclusively at Darwin Studios, but both he and the CEO deleted the posts shortly after. In a statement to TechCrunch, Darwin’s founder called Parekh “an incredibly talented engineer” and said the team believed in his ability to help bring products to market.

BREAKING 🚨 Soham Parekh has officially joined Darwin Studios as founding engineer, a AI video company based in California.

Darwin video remixing harnesses real-time generative models across text, audio, image, and video.

Their product, Wayve I, allows anyone to upload a video… https://t.co/OcGssRLK24 pic.twitter.com/ixji8CKEx3

— Prashant (@Prashant_1722) July 3, 2025

Some see Parekh as a symptom of overemployment in remote tech culture. Others call him a scammer who’s burned founders, wasted time, and undermined trust in hiring. One developer tallied at least 10 confirmed jobs, eight rejected offers, and “likely many, many more.”

Whether Parekh’s next move is redemption or rebrand remains to be seen.

Image: RachaStock/Getty Images

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• Sen. Amy Klobuchar said authorities believe suspected gunman Vance Boelter remains in the Midwest following a politically motivated shooting that killed Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband Mark and critically injured Sen. John Hoffman and his wife. The Hortmans leave behind a son and daughter, and Hoffman's wife Yvette reportedly jumped in front of the couple’s daughter to protect her during the shooting. [MSNBC, People]
• A hit-and-run driver was apprehended by San Francisco police Saturday afternoon after allegedly striking a pedestrian near the city’s massive “No Kings” protest. While NBC News initially reported that multiple protesters may have been hit and that the act could have been intentional, SFPD has so far confirmed only one victim and described the incident as isolated. [SFGate]
• A Fremont man who vanished during what was supposed to be a two-day hike in the Himalayas has been found alive after nine days. Samuel Vengrinovich, 44, left his tent and belongings at a campsite near Dharamshala before setting out with a group of hikers he just met, unprepared for the harsh conditions. [SFGate]
• One person was killed and two others were injured in a shooting early Saturday in the East Bay’s Bay Point, with the fatal victim found in a front yard on Mendocino Drive. [Bay Area News Group]
• A small fire in the Mission District Saturday evening was sparked by a charging scooter using an aftermarket charger, with the homeowner treated for smoke inhalation after trying to move the burning device outside, according to SFFD. [KRON4]

Stay tuned for more No Kings coverage!

Image: Leanne Maxwell/SFist

• San Francisco-based GVA Capital has been fined $215 million for managing investments on behalf of sanctioned Russian oligarch Suleiman Kerimov through shell companies and proxies. The venture firm used some of the funds to back startups and purchase a former Russian Hill church for a failed “Startup Temple” project. [SF Standard]
• A former Nvidia fraud prevention manager has been charged with submitting 167 fake insurance claims totaling over $100,000 to the company’s health plan. Prosecutors say she altered documents and fabricated services over a three-year period. [NBC Bay Area]
• A Flywheel taxi flipped onto its roof Friday morning near Van Ness and Fell in San Francisco’s Civic Center. The driver and passenger escaped without serious injuries, and police say no drugs or alcohol were involved. [Chronicle]
• Deshaun Mays, 43, has been charged with murdering Sir Jewel Brooks during a May 23 brawl in East Oakland. Mays has prior convictions, and Brooks had previously survived a 2022 shooting on a BART train and was a witness in another East Oakland homicide that same year. [East Bay Times]
• Sunday Streets launches its new season this Sunday in the Tenderloin, transforming Golden Gate Avenue into a car-free community celebration with live music and performances and family friendly activities. [KTVU]

• Once valued at up to $3 million, some California cannabis retail licenses are now being given away for free as market oversaturation, high fees, and competition from illegal sellers render them virtually worthless. [SFGate]

National:

• Four detainees escaped from the Delaney Hall ICE facility in Newark, New Jersey, during a revolt over hunger and poor conditions—a detainee at the facility told his wife a fight broke out because they hadn’t eaten in 20 hours. Legal visits with migrants have been indefinitely suspended at the facility. [BBC]
• Viswashkumar Ramesh, the sole survivor of the Air India crash that killed over 240 people, says he simply “walked out” after finding a gap in the wreckage near his seat. Though badly injured, Ramesh escaped the burning plane on instinct—while his brother, who was sitting just across the aisle, did not survive. [NPR]
• Anker is recalling over 1.1 million PowerCore 10000 portable chargers due to fire and explosion risks linked to overheating lithium-ion batteries, with reports of injuries and property damage. [CBS News]

Video of the Day:

• YouTubers Sam and Victor recently visited San Francisco and shared some top-notch scenes from their five action-packed days here, including stops at the de Young Museum, Amoeba Records, Transamerica Pyramid, Heath Ceramics, and lots of cafes.

Need Last Minute Plans?

• Check out Last Week, This Week for a couple suggestions, plus there’s the Juneteenth Father’s Day Festival in Bayview on Sunday, the weekend-long SF Jazz Festival, and the tail-end of National Parks Week.

Image: Leanne Maxwell/SFist

An Air India flight with an unknown number of Americans onboard had to make an emergency landing in Russia on Tuesday, and this could very easily become an international crisis.

The 777 wide-body aircraft, bound from Delhi to San Francisco, landed in Russia's Far East on Tuesday, after being forced to divert due to trouble with one of its engines. Reuters reports that the plane's 216 passengers and 16 crew members were being offered "support on the ground and accommodated in local hotels for the night."

The exact airport and city where the plane landed have not been reported.

While it's not known how many Americans might have been onboard, U.S. State Department deputy spokesman Vedant Patel told Reuters that it was "likely" there were some.

"We are aware of a U.S.-bound flight that had to make an emergency landing in Russia and are continuing to monitor that situation closely," Patel said in a statement.

The emergency landing comes just a day after United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby, speaking at an aviation conference in Istanbul, warned international carriers of the hazards of flying over Russian airspace.

"What's going to happen if an airline lands in Russia with some prominent U.S. citizens on board?" Kirby asked, per Reuters. "That is a potential crisis in the making. I think we should solve it before the crisis happens."

U.S. airlines have already been flying around Russian airspace, having been banned from flying over it since March 2022. Newly approved Chinese flights between China and the U.S. have also been routing around to avoid Russian airspace.

This is a developing story.

Top image: Law enforcement officers wait to board an Air India jetliner at John F. Kennedy International Airport after authorities determined that a suspicious passenger was aboard February 28, 2002 in New York City. The passenger was questioned by authorities in New York and later released. The plane, flying from London to New York, was followed by Canadian and American fighter jets on its way to New York. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)

We hear it again and again, especially in the comments of reports regarding Bay Area tech workers: just because you're working for a local tech company doesn't mean you're making Zuck money. But Fremont company EFI took that sentiment to the next level, paying staffers on their IT team as little as $1.21 an hour as they worked as much as 122 hours per week.

According to Susana Blanco, district director of the U.S. Labor Department's wage and hour division in San Francisco, the Department got an anonymous tip that Electronics for Imaging had brought eight employees to Fremont from Bangalore, India to set up the company's computer network and systems from September 8, 2013 through December 21, 2013, as part of the company's move from Foster City to Fremont.

Though the workers were working in the US, they were paid roughly $1.21 per hour, in rupees, for 122 hour work weeks, without any regard for California minimum wage or overtime laws.

EFI, which, according to the Associated Press, "earned $109 million last year and awarded CEO Guy Gecht with a pay package valued at nearly $6 million, including more than $1.2 million in salary and bonuses," claimed ignorance of federal laws requiring those working on US soil to be paid following US regulations.

According to Beverly Rubin, EFI's VP of HR, during the move "we unintentionally overlooked laws that require even foreign employees to be paid based on local US standards," the Merc reports.

"This was discovered through an anonymous tip, and we need that kind of information to discover these sorts of illegal situations," Blanco said. According to Michael Eastwood, a Department of Labor assistant district director, EFI's violations were "worse than anything that I ever saw in any of those Los Angeles sweatshops," he told the AP.

Following the Department's investigation, EFI was ordered to pay the eight workers more than $40,000 in back wages, as well as a fine of $3,520.

According to Rubin, EFI will work to make sure that this type of "administrative error" won't happen again. For her part, Blanco isn't quite buying the "it was a mistake!" rap, telling the Merc Wednesday that "it is appalling that foreign labor is being brought in under these circumstances."

Congratulations, LGBTQ ilk of India, you are now free to engage in acts of same-sex sex at your leisure. You see, an Indian court just turned a 148-year-old, colonial-era law that "declared gay sex an 'unnatural offense' and made it punishable by up to 10 years in jail," the BBC reports. The court ruled that the 150-year statute violated the rights of citizens by criminalizing consensual acts. India's gay rights campaigners hailed the decision as 'India's Stonewall,' but warned that gays still face widespread persecution." Exactly like the state of California, people in India "regard same-sex relationships as illegitimate." Also, much like the state of California should know, international human rights groups "have long argued that the law contravened human rights." Ashok Row Kavi, editor of India's first gay magazine, tells the BBC, "The social stigma will remain. It is [still] a long struggle. But the ruling will help in HIV prevention. Gay men can now visit doctors and talk about their problems. It will help in preventing harassment at police stations." So, have at it, queer folk of India. (Protip: It only hurts the first few times, gentlemen.) UPDATE: This applies to New Delhi, not the rest of India. Alas.

As if Don Fisher doesn't have enough on his hands, now this: in addition to environmental carelessness and No-on-A-isms, the Gap founder can now add human right violations and child labor abuse to Gap Inc.'s growing list of fires to put out.

San Francisco-based Gap Inc. has been caught in a child labor scandal after Dan McDougall's report in The Observer informed the world that kids in India are used to make Gap Inc.'s kids line at one of the factories that they use. On top of the kids having to sleep on the roof of said factory, as well as having oily cloths shoved into their mouths, McDougall offers up such insight as:

Jivaj, who is from West Bengal and looks around 12, told The Observer that some of the boys in the sweatshop had been badly beaten. 'Our hours are hard and violence is used against us if we don't work hard enough. This is a big order for abroad, they keep telling us that.

'Last week, we spent four days working from dawn until about one o'clock in the morning the following day. I was so tired I felt sick,' he whispers, tears streaming down his face. 'If any of us cried we were hit with a rubber pipe. Some of the boys had oily cloths stuffed in our mouths as punishment.'

In the Grand Lake district, we now have a Flavors of India restaurant, second outpost -- the first opened in Rockridge in 2006.

It's not great Indian food. We'll be the first to admit it. You want GREAT and in the East Bay, head to Breads of India (which recently relocated to a beautiful and cavernous new space in the ever-reviving Old Oakland area); or the East Bay outpost of Taste of the Himalayas in North Berkeley (which arguably and elegantly hovers between Tibetan and Indian cuisines); or try the plethora of regional Indian restaurants and cafés that line either side of University Avenue in West Berkeley; or follow Alice Waters to her favorite chaat spot, Vik's.

At Flavors, the décor is warm and pleasant, the tables usually packed -- we're not the only ones in the neighborhood glad for the new addition, and the service young, and slow; verrrrry slow.

We were dismayed, on our second visit, to discover how many of the "flavors" we were reasonably enjoying came out of a can or box -- as the entire pantry is on display for diners who navigate the labyrinthine path to the bathrooms.

That all said, we find Flavors of India to be a decent local option, and a cut above the other types of Asian foods available in the immediate four-block area (we usually call over to Piedmont Avenue for take-out/delivery Chinese, or head downtown for Vietnamese).

Exploring San Francisco through the lens of city blocks, Blocker is a weekly series by Charles Hodgkins. Look for it on SFist each Wednesday, around the lunching hour.

View the map of all published Blocker episodes.

Blocker, No. 13: Innes Ave. in Hunters Point / India Basin

Question: Innes Ave. is in which area of San Francisco?

A) Hunters Point: San Francisco’s notorious waterfront/hilltop ghetto, adjacent to a naval shipyard-cum-Superfund site.

B) India Basin: Hardscrabble home to industrial businesses galore.

C) India Cove: Cozy-sounding name marketed by area developers.

D) Hunters Point / India Basin Historic District: Once “India Cove” takes root, the little brown “Historic District” signs won’t be far behind.

E) All of the above.

Answer: E, or at least that’s what we think. Few San Francisco streets rival the 800 block of Innes Ave. between Arelious Walker and Griffith for wide-ranging Blocker fodder.

We found Thomas Swick's traveling-abroad tips in this Sunday's Chronicle both cute and informative. But since we're stricken with a crippling fear of any existence east of (the) 5, we were left starving for a few answers as to why.

Such as:

-- In Japan, don't blow your nose.
-- In Spain, don't pick up your paper napkin if you drop it at the bar.
-- In Vatican City, don't correct the pope. (Impossible.)
-- In India, don't look to your left before crossing the street.
-- And whatever you do, wherever you go, never say you don't like soccer. (What is this soccer we keep hearing about?)

Any help with the above would be greatly appreciated. Also, Swick had some minor but glaring omissions:

-- In every country, Tevas are an affront.
-- If you're visiting abroad from Vanderbilt or ASU, don't feel required to blow every guy at your youth hostel.
-- If you're from the USA, do whatever the hell you want.

Total number of people pictured in this week's Swells society column: 67.

Total number of people pictured whom we recognize: 4 (including Molly Sims and her BFF Jennifer Siebel.)

Minority count: 4 (5.8%).

Getty v. Traina: 1-0 (counting Gavin's sister as a Getty)

Number of countries visited by Denise Hale to celebrate her April birthday: 3 (India, Serbia, Italy).

The age of children being compared to "a natural phenomenon where a river comes in and turns back upon itself": 16 and 17.

Number of Gavin sightings: 0.

Number of Stanlee Gatti sightings: 0.

Number of Charlotte Maillard Shultz sightings: 0.