Digital
Online gaming in India is among the world’s most vibrant, says MoS I&B Dr L Murugan at Storyboard18 DES 2025
From Scandal to Second Chance! Moonlighting engineer Soham Parekh breaks silence, joins AI startup
Parekh addressed the allegations that he held roles at several startups simultaneously, including Y Combinator-backed firms, accusations that drew ire across the tech ecosystem. “It’s true,” Parekh admitted in the conversation. “I’m not proud of what I’ve done. But I wasn’t trying to scam anyone, I was trying to survive.”
Parekh has now resurfaced with a new opportunity, joining a stealthy AI startup, Darwin Studios, which is building a video-first platform for AI-driven user-generated content. (Photo: Unsplash)
Soham Parekh, the Indian engineer at the center of Silicon Valley’s most talked-about moonlighting controversy, has finally spoken out, acknowledging his mistakes but also opening up about the personal struggles that led him down the path of working multiple jobs at once.
As reported by The Backslash Podcast Network (TBPN), Parekh addressed the allegations that he held roles at several startups simultaneously, including Y Combinator-backed firms, accusations that drew ire across the tech ecosystem. “It’s true,” Parekh admitted in the conversation. “I’m not proud of what I’ve done. But I wasn’t trying to scam anyone, I was trying to survive.”
The story first broke when Mixpanel and Playground AI co-founder Suhail Doshi publicly called out Parekh on social media, accusing him of deceiving multiple companies by holding down 3–4 jobs at once. In the days that followed, more founders came forward with similar accounts—detailing how Parekh was hired, only to be let go after suspicions of dual employment surfaced.
While the majority of the backlash centered around ethics, a growing segment of the tech community began to question whether poor hiring diligence and startup hustle culture were equally to blame.
Parekh, who moved from Mumbai to the U.S. in 2020, framed his actions within the context of financial strain. “No one wants to work 140 hours a week,” he said. “But I needed to. I always took lower cash and higher equity. I just wanted to build cool stuff.” He also refuted viral allegations that he had outsourced his coding responsibilities to junior developers. “That part is completely false,” he said. “I wrote every inch of code.”
Parekh has now resurfaced with a new opportunity, joining a stealthy AI startup, Darwin Studios, which is building a video-first platform for AI-driven user-generated content. “This is the only thing I’m going to focus on now,” he said. “They’ve bet on me, and I intend to prove them right.”
SPOTLIGHT
As India eyes global leadership in media, entertainment and gaming, Storyboard18's Digital Entertainment Summit, set to take place on June 27 in the capital, will spotlight the bold strategies, policy pathways and creative innovations shaping the future of the industry.
Read MoreIN PHOTOS: At Global Pioneers Summit, visionaries chart the future of business and creativity
From the chiefs of Nestle, Diageo, Colgate, PepsiCo, Zetwerk and CRED to AI visionaries, marketing mavens, top creators, ad legends and leading global agencies' CEOs, the brightest minds converged at the Storyboard18 Global Pioneers Summit for an action-packed day of meaningful dialogues on creativity, commerce and culture.