How Dylan Anderson became founding engineer at Adam

Dylan Anderson was a software engineer at, in his words, "some random place in Minnesota." Then a friend-of-a-friend connection changed everything. A roommate of Adam's founders was asked if he knew any cracked engineers. Dylan's name came up. He did a work trial, moved to San Francisco, and became the first engineer at Adam (W25), a company building AI agents for CAD software.

Why he said yes

Dylan didn't need a long pitch. During the work trial, he noticed two things right away: the founders gave him real freedom and real trust from day one, and there was almost no friction in how the team worked together. "I recognized the talents of the founders that would make this work really well, each person complementing my own weaknesses and I complementing theirs," he says. He also saw clear, relentless drive from everyone involved. The move to SF was something he'd wanted anyway — to be at the center of things — and Adam gave him a reason to actually do it.

Building the engine, not fitting into one

As engineer number one, Dylan touches pretty much everything. The codebase has been rewritten multiple times. The systems in place are systems he built, shaped to his preferences and workflow. "If I want to build something to improve my life I do it, if something bothers me I fix it," he says.

He draws a sharp contrast with big-company engineering: "At a big company you're like a part of an engine, like an interchangeable piece that fits into a preexisting slot, you're an input to a function, whereas at Adam you're the one building the engine, you are the one molding everything to fit you."

His coolest build so far: adam.new.

Work as identity — without the burnout framing

Dylan is careful to say this isn't about bad work-life balance. It's that the boundary between work and life is blurred in a way that feels right. "I'm working on my passion, and I'm working with people that share the same passion," he says. The founders aren't just coworkers — they're some of his closest friends. That closeness raises the stakes on communication and teamwork, but it also means he cares more deeply about his craft than he ever could at a job he could mentally disconnect from. "It means my work is part of my identity in a more readily available way."

As Adam grows, Dylan expects his role to expand into mentorship and leadership. For now, the biggest shift has been internal: he's become more intentional, more value-driven. "Each of my actions directly impacts the performance of the company. Gone are the days of tinkering with something for purely academic purposes. Now I think about the value each thing I build provides."

His tools

• AI coding: Claude Code and Codex
• Editor: Zed (sometimes)

Advice for anyone considering an early startup role

Dylan's guidance is blunt: "Think about value deeply. Don't join a startup that's a tarpit idea. If you join and you put a lot of work into something that's a shitty idea, you'll hate everything you do and develop passive nihilism."

The right person for a role like this is someone who wants to own everything they build, cares about the problem more than the title, and is ready to let the work become a genuine part of who they are. If that sounds like you, Adam is hiring.