What is the Glassdoor rating for Linear vs Poolside?

Linear has a 4.6/5.0 Glassdoor rating and Poolside has a 3.8/5.0 rating. Linear scores 4.4 on work-life balance while Poolside scores 3.5.

Which company has better work-life balance: Linear or Poolside?

Linear has better work-life balance with a score of 4.4/5.0 compared to Poolside's 3.5/5.0 on Glassdoor.

How many open roles do Linear and Poolside have?

Linear has 19 open roles and Poolside has 12 open roles as of 2026-04-22.

Linear vs Poolside 2026: Which Is Better to Work At? (Glassdoor, Salary & Culture)

Q: Is Linear or Poolside better to work at?

It depends on your priorities. Linear has a higher Glassdoor rating (4.6 vs 3.8). Linear scores better on work-life balance (4.4 vs 3.5). Linear is best for: Craftspeople who value deep work, async communication, and minimal meetings. Poolside is best for: AI researchers who want frontier code generation work with genuine remote flexibility and Paris offsites.

Best For

Linear

Best for: Craftspeople who value deep work, async communication, and minimal meetings

Poolside

Best for: AI researchers who want frontier code generation work with genuine remote flexibility and Paris offsites

Ratings

LinearPoolside

4.6

3.8

Overall

4.4

3.5

Work-Life Balance

4.8

3.9

Culture & Values

4.3

3.8

Comp & Benefits

4.5

3.6

Senior Mgmt

4.0

3.6

Career Opps

👍 95% Recommend 👤 95% CEO Approval (Karri Saarinen)

👍 76% Recommend 👤 80% CEO Approval (Jason Warner)

Culture Values

Linear only

🎧 Deep Work / Low Meetings📡 Async-First🎯 Direct Product Impact⚖️ Work-Life Balance

Poolside only

🤝 Flat Hierarchy🧩 Wears Many Hats🌱 Learning & Growth

Shared

🌐 Remote-Friendly⚙️ Engineering-Driven

Pros & Cons

Linear

✓Obsessive product craft — building the best-in-class PM tool teams genuinely love
✓Deep work culture with no standups and minimal meetings — actually practiced
✗Very small team = limited roles available at any given time
✗High hiring bar means slow growth — patience required

Poolside

✓Remote-first with monthly Paris gatherings
✓Cutting-edge code generation research
✗Early-stage with limited structure
✗Comp may trail larger AI labs

Bottom Line

Linear

Choose Linear if you want obsessive product craft with genuine work-life balance — but the team is tiny and hiring bar is extreme.

Poolside

Choose Poolside if you want cutting-edge code AI research on a remote-first flat team (ex-GitHub CTO leadership) — but expect early-stage ambiguity and comp that trails the larger AI labs.

Open Roles

Linear — 19 jobs

💼 Sales / GTM

8

💻 Engineering

5

🎨 Design

3

📋 Product

2

⚖️ Legal

1

Poolside — 12 jobs

💻 Engineering

9

📊 Data

2

🧠 ML / AI

1

Summary

Linear scores 4.6/5.0 on Glassdoor with a 4.4 work-life balance rating. Poolside scores 3.8/5.0 overall with a 3.5 WLB. That’s a 0.8-point gap on overall satisfaction.

Both companies share these culture values: Remote-Friendly, Engineering-Driven. Linear also emphasizes Deep Work / Low Meetings, Async-First, Direct Product Impact, Work-Life Balance. Poolside also emphasizes Flat Hierarchy, Wears Many Hats, Learning & Growth.

On the hiring front, Linear has 19 open roles and Poolside has 12 open roles.

Linear vs Poolside: Culture Compared

Linear

Poolside

Linear

Poolside

Linear — 19 jobs

Poolside — 12 jobs