Techie At Perplexity Reveals He Used Blonde Woman's Photo To Get Into Elite Silicon Valley Parties

Ali Shobeiri, an Iranian-Canadian software engineer, has gone viral for sharing a clever hack he used to score party invites in San Francisco. Shobeiri, who works at Perplexity, revealed on X that using a blonde woman's photo as his profile picture on the Partiful app helped him get invited to various exclusive parties. He noted that having a gender-neutral name, "Ali S," helped him pull off the deception.

"I used to have a blonde woman as my Partiful profile pic because it would get me randomly invited to parties in SF," he wrote on X. Notably, Partiful is an event-planning app that lets users create invite pages and share them via a simple link.

For entry into a particularly exclusive gathering at the Ritz-Carlton, which had bouncers checking invitations, he simply changed his profile picture back to his own before arriving and was let in without issue. "Before I went through security, I would just change my profile pic back to a picture of a guy and would get in without any problem," he said.

"Morale of the story is if you ever see a blonde chemical engineer from Iowa named Ali S on your invite list don't be surprised when I pull up and give you high five for hosting a great party lmao," he added.

See the post here:

I used to have a blonde woman as my Partiful profile pic because it would get me randomly invited to parties in SF

One party at the Ritz Carlton was so exclusive that they had bouncers at the door checking invitations

Before I went through security, I would just change my… https://t.co/uIjdtelvWW

— Ali Shobeiri (@Ali_Shobeiri) December 2, 2025

His anecdote has since gone viral, sparking online conversations about social dynamics, online identities, and the role of first impressions in real-life interactions. 

One user wrote, "This is funny but also makes our society less trustworthy and fair. A major net negative for everyone involved except for you.."

Another commented, "this is the ultimate level of "catfish done right". not to bluff your date but to sneak your way into random parties organized by the rich."

"this is hilarious and genius at the same time. blonde woman profile pic getting you into ritz carlton parties lmao. sf tech scene is wild. but also this just proves people judge based on profile pics way too much," a third user stated.

A fourth added, "That is wild and clever! Using a profile picture to get into exclusive parties shows some serious creativity. Definitely a story to remember, and anyone seeing Ali S on the guest list should expect a fun surprise."