From code to controversy: Soham Parekh’s Silicon Valley storm

Accused of moonlighting across multiple startups, Soham Parekh breaks his silence.

Transcript

00:00The 22-year-old engineer from Gujarat who moonlighted his way through Silicon Valley's

00:03biggest startups has just landed another job. Despite the outrage, despite the allegations,

00:08Soham Parikh is now a founding engineer at an AI video startup called Darwin Studios.

00:12Let's rewind. Last week, Soham went viral in tech circles when founders accused him

00:17of secretly working full-time for three startups at once. Rewind, Metaphor, and Levels. At first,

00:22everyone was impressed. Fast work, great code. But then the cracks showed. Missed deadlines,

00:28repeated sick leads, and some wild excuses, like claiming he was near a drone strike when he was

00:32actually in Mumbai, all made up just to justify his slow pace. One founder even said, Soham guilt-ripped

00:38him using messages like, drone shot down 10 minutes away during Operation Sindur to justify slow work.

00:43In an interview, Soham admitted it all. Yes, he worked multiple jobs. Yes, he put in 100 to 140

00:49hours a week. But he insisted it was all him, no outsourcing. And despite knowing his history,

00:53Darwin Studios has decided to give him another shot. The episode has reignited questions

00:57about remote work. Should startups tighten background checks, invest in better ways to

01:01catch fraud, or is this just the new face of hustle culture?