Overview

Soham Parekh YC Controversy refers to memes and discussions that arose after American startup founder Suhail Doshi accused an Indian software engineer named Soham Parekh of faking his resume and working at multiple Y Combinator (YC) startups at the same time. Several internet users alleged that Parekh had a history of cold-emailing startup founders and sailing through his interviews, often holding upward of four positions at a time. After Doshi posted a tweet warning startup founders against hiring Soham Parekh in early July 2025, writing, "PSA: there’s a guy named Soham Parekh (in India) who works at 3-4 startups at the same time … Beware," several American startup founders shared their stories of supposedly hiring and firing Parekh. The news eventually evolved into software engineers joking about how a cold email from Soham Parekh is a sign that your startup is slated for success or worth taking note of, while other internet users joked about Parekh holding thousands of jobs at companies like Meta and OpenAI.

Background

On July 2nd, 2025, American entrepreneur Suhail Doshi posted a tweet on X^[1] that read, "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." The tweet gathered over 17,000 likes in a day.

Various other startup founders reacted to @Suhail's tweet on July 2nd, expressing their shock at learning this news about Prekh and relaying their stories about hiring and firing him. X^[2][3] users @mprkhrst and @Altimor made such posts, gathering over 12,000 and 6,000 likes apiece in roughly 24 hours.

Developments

The news quickly traveled through the tech industry, with various Silicon Valley actors giving their testimonies about hiring or coming across Soham Parekh in early July 2025.

For example, on July 2nd, X^[4] user @dejavucoder compiled four testimonies posted by different startup founders who had also hired and fired Soham Parekh over the past few years, gathering over 2,000 likes in a day.

crazy that this guy just kept getting away with it at the interviews insane stuff https://t.co/iS1gwSkEaS pic.twitter.com/u7sufkFlZ9

— sankalp (@dejavucoder) July 2, 2025

That same day, Suhail posted a thread on X^[5] of the direct messages he was receiving from startup founders informing him of their plans to fire Soham Parekh after finding out that they had either hired him or were in the process of doing so.

Also on July 2nd, 2025, X^[6] user @mhadifilms posted a video allegedly showing Soham Parekh in a promotional reel for the company Synq.hq. The post gathered over 1,800 likes in a day.

PSA: soham parekh needs your help

(this was 3mo ago) pic.twitter.com/g6zLnB1BtJ

— M Hadi (@mhadifilms) July 2, 2025

Later on July 2nd, X^[7] user @var_epsilon posted a screenshot of an email received by Happenstance.AI, supposedly showing Soham Parekh's attempt to cold email his way into an interview for the AI company.

The X user joked, "if your CEO doesn't have a soham parekh email in their inbox it's time to start polishing your resume," implying that catching the attention of Parekh is a sign that your company will be successful. The tweet received over 1 million views and 12,000 likes in a day.

Soham Parekh's Response

On July 2nd, 2025, Suhail Doshi posted on X^[11] about Soham Parekh reaching out and asking for advice after getting "exposed" for supposedly lying to get hired by several startup founders. The post read, "Soham has reached out. His primary question: 'Asking this as genuine advice since I do really love what I do, have I completely sabotaged my career? What can I do to improve my situation? I am also happy to come clean' Vox Populi, Vox Dei."

In 15 hours, the tweet received over 1.2 million views, 6,800 likes and 630 replies.

TBPN Soham Parekh Interview

On July 3rd, 2025, Soham Parekh gave an interview with @TBPN,^[12] owning up to working at multiple companies at a time, saying, "I'm not proud of what I've done. That’s not something I endorse either. But no one really likes to work 140 hours a week, I had to do it out of necessity."

We asked @realsohamparekh if he had been working multiple full-time jobs at once.

"It is true."

“I’m not proud of what I’ve done. That’s not something I endorse either. But no one really likes to work 140 hours a week, I had to do it out of necessity."

"I was in extremely dire… pic.twitter.com/IC3qXOPdSt

— TBPN (@tbpn) July 3, 2025

Online Reactions

Several internet users posted memes and jokes about Soham Parekh supposedly being a prolific Silicon Valley employee in early July 2025.

For instance, on July 2nd, 2025, X^[8] user @TurnerNovak tweeted a meme showing Peter Thiel during his interview with Ross Douthat, writing, "VCs realizing 12 of their portfolio companies have founders named Soham Parekh," and gathering over 3,000 likes in a day.

Also on July 2nd, X^[9] user @growing_daniel posted a Greedy Pipe Man meme labeling Soham Parekh as the large man drinking water while "New CS Grads" are left with crumbs. The post gathered over 9,000 likes in a day.

That same day, X^[10] user @var_epsilon joked about Soham Parekh being hired by several major American tech companies, writing, "BREAKING: Meta, OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google have signed Soham Parekh as fractional Chief AI Officer," and receiving over 198,000 views and 3,700 likes in a day.

Search Interest

External References