Soham Parekh, the Indian technology professional already embroiled in a controversy for moonlighting at over 30 startups, is now accused of something new dishonesty about working in a war zone during Operation Sindoor just to escape work duties.
Leaping AI US-based startup co-founder Arkadiy Telegin went on social media platform X (previously Twitter) to announce that Soham Parekh emotionally blackmailed him in May by making him believe he was under threat in the midst of cross-border tensions. Parekh, as per Telegin, made a false claim that a drone had struck near his place in Mumbai.
“Soham would guilt-trip me into being slow on PRs while all this India-Pakistan thing was happening and he’s in Mumbai,” Telegin wrote, along with a series of screenshots of their chat. In one of the messages, Parekh said, “Drone shot down 10 minutes away,” then added that a building in the vicinity had been hit — a tale Telegin now thinks was all fabricated.
Telegin called the incident “manipulative and dishonest,” charging Parekh with exploiting the phony crisis to avoid work and escape responsibility. He even quipped, “The next guy should hire him as a Chief Intelligence Officer.”
Soham also used to guilt trip me for his being slow on PRs when India Pakistan thing was going on, all while he was in Mumbai.
Next person should hire him for the Chief Intelligence Officer role. pic.twitter.com/kYZqkpWIse
— Arkadiy Telegin (@akyshnik) July 2, 2025
Working 34 Startup Jobs
This disclosure comes in the wake of the controversy over Soham Parekh owning up to having worked at 34 startups, some of them funded by top accelerator Y Combinator, at the same time. The controversy broke when Suhail Doshi, former Mixpanel CEO, disclosed that he had terminated Parekh’s employment within a week of taking him on.
Other startup founders soon shared similar stories. One founder halted Parekh’s trial period after seeing Doshi’s post, while another discovered the overlapping employments only through their own checks.
Parekh Owns up to Moonlighting
Soham Parekh has freely admitted to assuming multiple identities without disclosing it to employers. “I will admit it. I’m ashamed of what I did. But I needed to do this out of necessity. I was in very dire financial need,” he said. Parekh also maintained that he personally did all the work without outsourcing or using artificial intelligence tools, working up to 140 hours a week.
In spite of the raging controversy, Parekh has secured new employment with Darwin, a San Francisco-based AI company. Darwin’s CEO Sanjit Juneja stood by the choice, saying, “Soham is a very talented engineer, and we have faith in his capabilities to bring our products to market.”
Parekh confirmed that he has ended all his other roles and signed an exclusive contract with Darwin. In a reflective post, he shared, “I’ve been isolated, written off and shut out by nearly everyone I’ve known and every company I’ve worked at. But building is the only thing I’ve ever truly known, and it’s what I’ll keep doing.”
