Dylan McNamara
A background on me.
I've been building things since I was fourteen, and for a long time the goal was simple: make money. In my late teens and early twenties I got in early on crypto and the wave of new projects around it, and it worked. For the first time, money wasn't the thing deciding what I did next, and it left me with a question most people don't get to ask that young: if the money wasn't the point, what would I actually want to do with my life?
What you do for work takes up most of your life, and I felt an unshakable urge to spend mine on something that mattered to me on a deeper level. Work that actually sparked something in me, that pointed at a bigger purpose than a paycheck. So that's what I set out to build.
Synpact came from wanting to put a dent in how much suffering there is and how badly the systems for helping work. Connected is that ambition in its most direct form: a brand about presence, perspective, and actually paying attention to the experience of being alive. Neither was built with the bottom line as the target. The business model was just the vehicle for a deeper pursuit.
I've built things end to end: strategy, creative direction, content, growth, commerce, operations, and now AI systems. Brand and creative is where the center of gravity has landed, and it's what most of the work on this site is. I didn't start out knowing how to do most of that. I learned it because the work demanded it. If I had to name my strongest skill, it's picking things up fast. So while the work here points at brand, creative, and growth, I'm not boxed to a category. What I'm screening for is a company and a problem I can go all in on. Somewhere where I can use the full range of what I know and keep learning whatever the work demands.
Most of my track record reads independent, but none of it happened alone. At Synpact I led a three-person production team making videos with real causes at the center. In Babson's most competitive course, I was one of ten handpicked CEOs and led the team that won the whole thing. My clothing brand ran on manufacturers, sample rounds, and back-and-forth revisions until the product was right. Dmacgrails ran on distribution partners and consignment deals. And Give & Game only worked because I got a university administration, five nonprofits, a billionaire sponsor, and fifty student organizations all moving in the same direction. I like building with people more than building alone. My best work has come from people who push me past my own ceiling, and I do the same for the people around me. That's the setup I want.
I'm twenty-five, moving to New York in September, and I've spent the last stretch building my own things on my own terms. I believe I learned more doing that than I would have in most jobs. But I've gotten to the point where I want to build inside something bigger than myself, with people who are better than me at things I'm not, on a mission I can throw my full weight behind.
I'm not stepping away from being a builder. I'm choosing to build on a team. Building my own ventures taught me to be resourceful, take ownership, hold a high bar for the work, and figure things out without a playbook. That's the mindset I want to bring to a team. I'm not spraying applications to see what sticks. I'd rather keep building my own things than spend years somewhere I don't believe in. So if you're reading this, it's because I looked at what you're building and I really want to be a part of it.