Soham Parekh, who brands himself as “everyone’s favourite founding engineer” on Twitter (well, now X), claimed that he worked 140 hours a week while moonlighting at 3-4 startups. That’s nearly 20 hours a day, every single day (don’t believe me? Do the maths). Naturally, the Internet went wild, and many couldn’t help but draw parallels to Infosys co-founder Narayana Murthy, who proposed a 70-hour workweek to make “India number one”, only to take a U-turn later.
We will talk about it, but first memes.
Grab your favourite beverage – tea, coffee or a mix of the two (believe me, some people actually drink that).
One social media user shared an AI-generated “black and white” image of Murthy and Parekh and captioned it “goals”. Another said that it only “makes sense” as he is clocking in 140 hours at work, just double what Murthy has suggested. IYKYK.
Someone else joked that his 140 hr/week “credential” is enough for “Narayana Murthy to make him the new CEO of Infosys”. HR, are you reading this?
One user puts it best: the techie is Murthy’s “dream employee” and “worst nightmare” at the same time. One even manifested a podcast episode with both of them (and frankly, most would tune in).
Some theories – Parekh was “influenced” by Murthy (maybe the long-hours statement reached him louder than expected. Who knows?)
One even said, “Real dilemma for Narayana Murthy: Should he be proud of for putting in >80hrs or disappointed for not creating enough shareholder value?”
So, is Soham Parekh Narayana Murthy’s “dream employee”?
People who use Twitter (read “X” please – we all miss our “blue bird”) think so. They say what Parekh has “achieved” is something that Murthy would “admire” and that he meant the same thing when he quoted “70 hours a week”. Agreed.
His ultra-intense hustle has people calling him a walking, talking embodiment of Murthy’s 70-hour workweek statement.
“Soham Parekh has to be the ideal employee of Narayan Murthy,” someone said (and many agreed).
Another chimed in, saying that he is “Truly Narayana Murthy’s dream employee”.
And others? They believe Parekh is possibly the only Indian who could “impress” Murthy.
What else?
He is hardworking. According to his own admission, he has “written every single inch of the code” himself.
According to the ever-dramatic world of social media, Soham Parekh has already been crowned his “dream employee”, but until Narayana Murthy himself gives the nod, it’s all just Internet fan fiction.
Murthy sir, are you listening? Everyone is waiting for your verdict.
Back to Murthy’s 70-hour workweek. So, during the inaugural episode of “The Record,” a podcast by 3one4 Capital, Murthy said that “youngsters need to work at least 70 hours a week” after he said that “India’s productivity is low”.
This, in his opinion, was one of the ways to compete with countries like Japan and China.
He remained unapologetically resolute about his controversial 70-hour workweek remark and added that he “doesn’t believe in work-life balance”.
Wait, there is more. Murthy recalled an anecdote involving KV Kamath, Chairman of Jio Financial Services, who once said, “India is a poor country with a lot of challenges. We first have to get a life, then we can worry about work-life balance.”
Murthy even gave an example of PM Modi, who he said, works 100 hours a week.
Back then, he said that he would take it to his “grave”. But that was last year. A lot has changed since…
In January this year, he walked back his stance, saying it was his “personal choice”.
“There’s nobody who can say you should do this, you should not do it,” he had said.
The Soham-gate
If you woke up to this story, or need a revision on Soham Parekh or didn’t hear about him at all (even though everyone was literally talking about him, at least on the Internet), here’s the tea.
Parekh was juggling multiple jobs at the same time with the startups in the US (probably to make more money) until one founder put a “full stop”. He basically tweeted about him.
“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,” he wrote on X, adding that 90 per cent of the links on his CV are “fake”.
He even said that it has been over a year since he gave him a chance to “turn a new leaf”, but it clearly “didn’t work”.
Parekh’s modus operandi was an “eye-catching” email that starts with “TL;DR”, followed by a crazy performance in the interviews (many interviewers said he “crushed” them) and fibs about being based in the US (all while sitting somewhere in an undisclosed location).
His defence (if that can be counted)?
He said that he is not “proud” of his actions, nor does he “endorse” them (after being called out). “But financial circumstances. No one really likes to work 140 hours a week, but I had to do it out of necessity. I was in extremely dire financial circumstances.”
“Any of the founders that I worked with can vouch for that. I have multiple locations where I program with people. I’ve written every single inch of the code.”
This was his “other side” of the story, which he talked about in his post right after going viral – “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.”
What is he doing now?
Well, channelling his energy into acing the social media game (why not when X pays you for tweeting. Oh, X-ing. Oh, Tweeting sounds better).
Two hours back, he wrote, “They say to hire interns, you see yourself in…so I bought 20 mirrors.”
The man now has over 23,000 followers.