Last week, social media users shared dozens of stories about competitions with software engineer Soham Pride, which seems to be working simultaneously in Silicon Valley Startups – unaware of companies – over the past several years.
But who is the precision, how did he draw his career as a serial moon lighter, and why can’t the Silicon Valley get enough?
The beginning of the viral
Saga all started when Sohail Doshi – CEO of Image Generation Startup Playground AI – joint a Post on X on Tuesday Start: “PSA: There is a boy named Shum Prak (in India) who works on 3-4 startups at the same time. He is hunting on YC companies and more. Be careful.”
Doshi claims that almost a year ago, he fired from the playground AI when he found out that he was working in other companies. Doshi wrote, “(I) asked people to stop lying/scams. After a year he didn’t stop.”
This post of Doshi received about 20 million views and several other founders also forced the Parak to share their runs.
Flu Curiwelo, KCO PoppyA startup that helps people automatically make their workflu with AI They have hired Parks in recent weeksBut in the light of Doshi’s tweet, he fired.
Matt Perchatrist, KCO antimetalA start -up that uses AI to reduce cloud costs of businesses, Confirmed that the first engineering fare of the Park Company was In 2022. He said the antimital was quickly left after leaving Parke when he realized that he was moving in other companies.
Parick It also seems to have worked in it Synchronous LabsA startup that makes the AI ​​lip harmony tool, where he worked even in a promotional video. He was finally allowed to leave.
At one point, Parik applied for several Y Combinator -backed startups. Hz Hubble, co -founder of PALLY AIHe says, a Y -Combinist -backed Startup construction of an “AI relationship management platform” Presented the role of the founder engineer to Perk. Edsh Jean, co -founder of YC -backed Miceic – an AI video editing startup – he said Taken the interview of Perk Even for a character.
Tech cranch has arrived to comment on these companies, but they did not respond immediately.
This shows that in many of these interviews, Parik performed well and received his offer, the main reason is that he is a gift software engineer.
For example, Rohan PandeyThe founder of the YC -backed Startup Relaction, the research engineer, told Tech Crunch that he had interviewed Parke for a role and was a strong candidate. Pandey, who is no longer with the startup, says that one of the three actors in the interview based on the algorithm was given to the candidates.
Pandey said the Rework D team suspects that something is closed with Parik. At that time, Parikh told Riwork D that he was in the United States – a job needed – but the company did not believe it. They Run IP LOG to Zoom Link From Parik and located in India.
Pandey remembered other things that Parik had said that it often does not increase, and some of its gut hub contributions and previous characters have no meaning. It seems that this is a common experience when dealing with Parik.
Adam SilvermanThe agency, co -founder of the AI ​​agent’s observation, told Tech Crunch that his company also interviewed Parik. Silverman said the Print sent him a cold DM about the opening of the job in the agency, and he set up a meeting. According to the Emails of the Pride Prak viewed by the Silverman and Tech Crunch, Prah had to resolve the meeting five times.
Silverman says he was also impressed by Parik’s technical ability, but in the interview he insisted on working from afar. Just as with a recovery, it was a red flag for the agency.
“Everything cheating” CEO Rai Lee, AI startup, Klie, Tech Crunch tells that he interviewed Parik twice for a role. Lee said Parikh’s interview is quite good and “it looks like a reaction”, citing a famous Javascript library to build a user interface.
Lee says Klyili did not hire Parke. However, several other companies did clearly.
Parik’s point of view
Parks Technology Brother Podcast Network (TBPN) On Thursday, co -hosts John Cogan and Jordi told them why they had worked in so many companies to tell the story of their story.
He acknowledged that he had been working in several jobs simultaneously since 2022. Parents claim that they were not using AI tools or were not hiring junior software engineers to help their work burden.
He believes that all these tasks have made Parik a very good programmer, but notes that he has succeeded in it.
Parik said he was notorious for his friends for not getting sleep. He repeated several times during the interview that he works 140 hours a week, which comes 20 hours a day, seven days a week. It seems that this limit is impossible – or very little, extremely unhealthy and unstable.
Prakh also said that he had taken several jobs because he was at a “financial risk”, which means that he needs all income from his different employers. He claims that he postponed going to the graduate school program, which was accepted, and instead decided to work on several startups simultaneously.
Specifically, Doshi shared Copy of Parik’s resume He claims that he received a Masters degree from the Georgia Institute of Technology.
When TBPN co -hosts asked why the Prize just did not ask a company to raise their salary and help them in their financial struggle, Prick said they like to maintain a limit between their professional and private life. (But he also chose low salaries and higher equity on all his jobs, which does not add enough to the story of his financial crisis. However, Parik refuses to share more about it.)
Parke told the hosts that he really loved his work, and that it was not just about the money. He says he had invested a lot in the missions of all the companies where he worked.
He also acknowledged that he was not proud of his work, and he did not confirm it.
What now?
Some are calling the Parikh a scam artist and a liar, but in the classic silicon Valley fashion, he is trying to turn his viral moment into a business.
Park announced his new employer, which he claims he is working specially: Darwin StudiosA startup working on AI video remarks.
However, Parik Quickly deleted after its announcementAs the founder and CEO of Startup, Sanjit Junja.
The Tech Crunch has reached Parik, requesting an interview with regard to this article, however, it has not yet accepted. Instead, a spokesperson representing him sent a statement from Darwin’s CEO.
“Soham is a surprisingly talented engineer and we believe in their abilities to help market our products,” said Junja.
We have seen that countless startups have turned their viral, often controversial, moments into a business over the past year. One of the most famous is Klie, known for running a provocative marketing campaign. It is anger, but it is attracting attention, and it was enough that the million from Anderson Horwiots to the millions of seeds of 15 million.
Perhaps Percus will go down on a similar fortune in the future.