# Story 1: Soham Parekh's overemployment scam

- **Episode:** [226](https://agents.truthliesandwork.com/episodes/226.md) (2025-08-26)
- **Type:** other
- **Tags:** overemployment, scam, ethics
- **Time:** 4:58–11:35 (start 298s)
- **Listen:** [https://truthliesandwork.com/226?t=298](https://truthliesandwork.com/226?t=298)

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[4:58] Al Elliott: I'll read it. So pulling it out of the hat, actually clicking on the tab on Google So, Soham Parekh working for startups. This is brilliant. Okay, so this is what happened, unless you haven't heard of him. As I tell you the story, you probably will recognize it. On July 2nd, Playground AI founder Suhail Doshi posted a viral warning on X. That's Twitter for us boomers. PSA, public service announcement. There's a guy named Soham Parekh who works at 3 or 4 startups at the same time. He's been preying on YC companies. Now, this post got 20 million views and prompted dozens of other founders to share identical experiences. A database created on July the 4th revealed— I see, I kind of like this guy— revealed Parekh had had 19 jobs since 2021, with 5 starting in just the previous month. On July the 5th, Parekh appeared on a podcast admitting to working 140 hours per week across multiple roles, claiming dire financial circumstances. Just to put that in context, I believe there's 160 hours in the week, 140 hours in the week. I can't remember
[6:01] Leanne Elliott: Yeah
[6:01] Al Elliott: Um, so despite the controversy, he He landed a new job at Darwin Studios. I didn't know that
[6:04] Leanne Elliott: I did not know this
[6:05] Al Elliott: Okay. So the reaction was the tech community split between calling him a scammer and admiring the audacity. I'm definitely falling for the latter of those two. It did create this broader discussion about remote work trust and hiring processes, with some worried about the impact on legitimate Indian remote workers. Shall we talk about that? Then we'll go to the question in a second
[6:24] Leanne Elliott: Yes
[6:25] Al Elliott: So what are your thoughts?
[6:26] Leanne Elliott: Is this the same? Because I remember you telling a similar story. Is this the same dude that you told the story about?
[6:31] Al Elliott: Yes
[6:31] Leanne Elliott: So I thought in that you said that he wasn't actually doing the work, but he was doing the work
[6:36] Al Elliott: Well, this is what I remember from the story, and this is the bit where the idea is kind of cool because people were saying he's a genius. People were saying he's absolutely brilliant. He's like a top-rate engineer, which is cool. However, what, what was happening was, um, shh, Bobby, I'm on, I'm on a podcast. That's our little dog scratching himself. Um, and, uh, and so what he did was he'd go in and say he'd get a full-time job. And then he came up with all these excuses, and one of them was like a drone hit his house, like a military drone hit his house. Then he was in hospital
[7:07] Leanne Elliott: I mean, I'm not sure the timing of that, but I'm, I'm hoping it wasn't around that time
[7:11] Al Elliott: No, no, no. And, um, and also because he lived in India, then he said he'd got himself, um, a permit to live in the US, but he hadn't. So it's the point here where I'm slightly disappointed because if he was able to hold down 3 jobs, for example, Mm-hmm. And do them all brilliantly. Mm-hmm. And he worked really, and he did, he did work 120 hours a week. Mm-hmm. But he did that for 3 years and he went great generational, not generational wealth, but decent amount of money. Yeah. Cool. Yeah. But it seemed like he was scamming a little bit
[7:39] Leanne Elliott: Yeah. There's a dude on YouTube who's getting a bit, a bit famous now. He's like, he does financial advice in a very angry way. Have you seen him? Mm-hmm. He has like 2 people, one person will sit down and basically call them twats and— Yeah. Yeah. But then help them get themselves outta debt and stuff
[7:54] Al Elliott: Like a very angry Dave Ramsey
[7:56] Leanne Elliott: Yeah, well, he, he has admitted himself on somebody else's podcast that he got to that point of being able to go self-employed because he worked 2 jobs remotely, um, and took the salary. But his point was that he looked through his contract, there was nothing in there to say that he couldn't. He hit all the performance indicators he was meant to. Nobody knew the difference. In that circumstance, my only question mark around what we'd call overemployment Excuse me, is whether you are taking that opportunity away from somebody else. And in such a tough job market, that is problematic
[8:29] Al Elliott: I think I'm gonna jump in there and say, if you are taking that job opportunity from someone else because you are not doing the work, yes. If you've taken the opportunity from someone else because you are better and you can still, only doing 50% of your time, you can still do a better job than someone who spent 100% of the time, I'd say that's natural selection. So, I'd say that's meritocracy at its very best. So, I think that I agree with you. If this person's taken a role and is not doing the work, then they're taking away from someone else. If they've taken the role and they are doing the work and they just so happen to do 2 at the same time, tough
[9:04] Leanne Elliott: I think we'll have to agree to disagree on that one, on the nuance of that one. I think overemployment is definitely a thing, isn't it? Whether it's with multiple organizations, whether you're a contract with many contracts, whether you've got a couple of side hustles going alongside your full-time job. It's a thing. It's just the way it is because people need money, man. Like, it's, it's really tough out there, isn't it, at the minute with continued inflation and everything else. I, in terms of rating this as a, as a problem, I'm gonna, I'm gonna go, it's kind of like D. So it's a bit, it's a bit poor. It's a bit problematic. And I think the main problem comes from taking opportunities away from other people
[9:42] Al Elliott: Yeah
[9:42] Leanne Elliott: And potentially ruining remote work for everybody else because the headlines that entrepreneurs and business owners and leaders are picking up on is that people can't be trusted to work remotely because they'll do things like this. And I think that's probably the minority. And the fact that he's gone viral and is in the news and all over podcasts across the world is because it's a fairly rare thing in terms of holding down multiple high-paid jobs with
[10:08] Al Elliott: Yeah
[10:09] Leanne Elliott: Tech startups. I'm sure everyone's got a side hustle
[10:11] Al Elliott: Yeah. And I think a lot of companies do encourage— we had Becky on recently who encourages side hustles at her digital agency. Um, but yeah, look, I, I can't help but admire the guy. I just think where it fell down was he didn't do what he was paid to do. And if he'd delivered everything he was paid to do, then I'd be like, guys, you've got no redress, even if it is against the terms of his contract. You know, I'm like, well, we've all done stuff which is against the terms of our contract, haven't we? Maybe not you
[10:39] Leanne Elliott: Speak for yourself
[10:40] Al Elliott: I know I definitely have
[10:42] Leanne Elliott: So what are you gonna give it? I gave it a D. It sounds like you're going a bit higher
[10:46] Al Elliott: Yeah, I'm gonna go with C. I'm gonna give it a C. Now just remind me, C, am I, am I, what am I grading here? Because I'm a bit confused by the question
[10:52] Leanne Elliott: Just like how, how, how good is it or bad for it for work in general workplace culture?
[10:57] Al Elliott: Impact has it had on workplace culture?
[10:59] Leanne Elliott: Yeah. Or in terms of stories like this and the impact they might have
[11:02] Al Elliott: Ah, no, I think no, in that case then I'd go with D. Because it's had a negative impact on— if it gets like 10% of people who were slightly for work, remote work, and now they're like, oh no, we're not gonna do remote work because of that guy. I remember that guy. Then I think it's bad for remote work
[11:22] Leanne Elliott: Okay. That's a D then
[11:24] Al Elliott: That's a D
[11:25] Leanne Elliott: Sorry, dude
[11:26] Al Elliott: Wow. Okay. Lee, your turn to Read the story, my turn to pick the number
[11:32] Leanne Elliott: Yes
[11:33] Al Elliott: I'm gonna go with number 6, please