Not Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg or Elon Musk, but an Indian techie has got the world talking in what can be called Silicon Valley’s most bizarre Internet saga.

What has now become a full-blown scandal gaining popularity as “Soham-Gate” had begun as a simple warning from former Mixpanel CEO Suhail Doshi.

Social media is divided over Soham Parekh, with some branding him a serial scammer while others see him as an unusually gifted misfit caught in the wrong spotlight.

What’s the matter?

Parekh is an AI engineer from India who has been accused by multiple startup founders of working full-time at several companies at once, all while allegedly misrepresenting his credentials and commitments.

His resume reads like a who’s who of hot tech startups like Synthesia, Dynamo AI, Union AI, Alan AI and boasts degrees from the University of Mumbai and the Georgia Institute of Technology.

But according to his accusers, much of it appears to be fabricated. Founders claim links don’t work, references fall flat, and in more than one case, he allegedly vanished after acing interviews and beginning work.

The most vocal among them, Suhail Doshi, founder of Playground AI, alleged that Parekh has been “preying on YC companies” by misrepresenting his commitments and holding multiple full-time positions at once.

“I fired this guy in his first week and told him to stop lying/scamming people,” Doshi wrote on X. “He hasn’t stopped a year later. No more excuses.”

Doshi went as far as posting Parekh’s resume publicly, claiming “90% of it appears fake,” with broken links and unverifiable stints.

He added that he even tried to guide Parekh away from moonlighting, but his efforts, he said, “clearly didn’t work.”

Soon, others chimed in. Fleet AI co-founder Nicolai Ouporov confirmed that Parekh has been doing this “for years.” Justin Harvey of AIVideo said Parekh “crushed the interview,” while Adish Jain, another founder, said the engineer “wasted our time for a month.”

Another startup, Warp, said they had offered Parekh a work trial, only to cancel it after the allegations surfaced. Antimetal had previously hired and then let him go in 2022 when his multiple commitments came to light.

However, this isn’t a one-note narrative.

Some users questioned the very premise of the outrage. "Why is moonlighting wrong if someone delivers and has the skills?" one user asked.

Doshi’s reply was sharp: “Get nothing done. Made up constant lies. Corroborated by 6+ other companies.”

But not everyone is convinced. As the controversy spiralled, X transformed into a meme factory.

One popular meme features multiple Spider-Men pointing at each other, all labelled “Soham Parekh”.

Another shows Shiba Inu dogs claiming to be him. A fake movie poster for Catch Me If You Can 2 starring Parekh has also made the rounds, underlining the bizarre, theatrical nature of the situation.

Amid the noise, a verified X account claiming to be Soham Parekh broke silence in this matter.

“There’s a lot being said about me right now, and most of you don’t know the full story,” he wrote.

“I’ve been isolated, written off, and shut out by nearly everyone I’ve known… But building is the only thing I’ve ever truly known, and it’s what I’ll keep doing.”

In the same thread, Parekh said he had just signed an exclusive deal to join a single company as founding engineer, vowing to “prove everyone wrong” and teasing a product launch in the video AI space by the end of the month.

The post only fuelled the frenzy. Some hailed him a misfit genius, others questioned the ethics of the startups that hadn’t properly vetted him. And then there were those who wondered aloud: Was this all a clever guerrilla marketing campaign gone viral?

Amid the flood of opinions, one thing is certain. ‘Soham-Gate’ has laid bare the growing friction in tech’s remote-first age.

As the global startup ecosystem leans heavily on contract workers and distributed teams, verifying credentials and managing overlapping responsibilities has become a murky, often unenforceable task.

Whether Parekh becomes a cautionary tale, a cult hero, or both, remains to be seen. But as it stands, the man accused of deceiving multiple startups has ended up doing what most tech founders dream of — going viral.

And if the memes are to be believed, he might just be the most employed man on the internet.