John Aaron Nelson
Based in Uruguay; works US hours.
Senior engineer and technical lead for startups.
I've shipped growth, platform and AI tooling at Calendly, Pipedream and a YC startup — and I take on select consulting and project work.
- $1M+ ACV
- from growth experiments shipped at Calendly in 2025
- >30%
- product adoption growth as frontend lead at Pipedream
- YC W20
- led frontend at Batch.sh, a Y Combinator startup
Ways to work with me
Join your team
Senior, staff, founding or lead engineer roles at startups.
Consulting & projects
Fractional CTO work, AI and MCP builds, and scoped projects.
Recent writing
All writing →
Tidy, Offload, and the Shape of Personal Infrastructure
Notes from building a small pair of terminal tools: one that understands what is taking space on a machine, and one that safely moves the things that do not belong there.
Building the Definitive Guide to MCP Servers
Why I'm writing a practical book on building MCP servers, who it's for, and what readers can expect from the draft today.
Vestigial Interview Processes
Explore how outdated tech interview processes fail to predict engineering success, and discover the transformative impact of AI tools in modern software development.
Building MCP servers for real work, not demo day.
My practical, operator-first guide to designing, shipping, securing, and operating MCP servers in production.
How I work
Fifteen years of building software and leading teams, in three habits.
Straight answers.
I say what I think the right call is and why, including “we shouldn’t build this.” Clear tradeoffs early save teams weeks later.
Boring tools, on purpose.
I reach for the well-understood option over the impressive one. Systems a team can reason about ship faster and break less.
Real people, even with AI.
AI is a force multiplier, not a replacement for taste, judgment, or responsibility.
Hiring, or have a project in mind?
Tell me about the role or the problem. I read everything that comes in.