How Dylan Anderson left a dead-end job to become founding engineer at Adam
Y Combinator Blog · rss · 2026-10-31
The YC Blog chronicles how Dylan Anderson went from a software engineer at 'some random place in Minnesota' to founding engineer at Adam (W25), a startup building AI agents for CAD software.
Key beats:
- The hook: a roommate of Adam's founders was asked if he knew any 'cracked engineers'; Dylan's name came up, a work trial followed, and he moved to SF
- Why he said yes: real freedom and trust from day one, near-zero team friction, complementary founder talents
- The role: 'At a big company you're an interchangeable piece; at Adam you're the one building the engine.' He's rebuilt the codebase multiple times; coolest build so far is adam.new
- Stack: Claude Code and Codex for AI coding, Zed occasionally
- Mindset: not burnout, but work blending into identity by choice
- Advice: think hard about value, avoid tarpit ideas or risk 'passive nihilism'
Adam is hiring.
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