Mercury
Large (~1,300)
Poolside
Small (~150)
Best For
Mercury
Best for: Engineers who want product ownership and fast growth building startup banking infrastructure
Poolside
Best for: AI researchers who want frontier code generation work with genuine remote flexibility and Paris offsites
Ratings
MercuryPoolside
4.3
3.8
Overall
3.8
3.5
Work-Life Balance
3.9
3.9
Culture & Values
4.0
3.8
Comp & Benefits
3.8
3.6
Senior Mgmt
3.9
3.6
Career Opps
👍 79% Recommend
👤 85% CEO Approval (Immad Akhund)
👍 76% Recommend
👤 80% CEO Approval (Jason Warner)
Culture Values
Mercury only
🎯 Direct Product Impact🚀 Ship Fast & Iterate💎 Strong Comp & Equity
Poolside only
🌐 Remote-Friendly🤝 Flat Hierarchy
Shared
⚙️ Engineering-Driven🌱 Learning & Growth🧩 Wears Many Hats
Pros & Cons
Mercury
- Strong talent density with smart, motivated teammates and genuine autonomy and ownership
- Great Place to Work certified — product-first mindset with meaningful scope for every engineer
- Still figuring out how to scale processes — expect some ambiguity and shifting priorities
- Work-life balance rated 3.8/5 — periods of higher intensity during rapid growth phases
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
Mercury
Choose Mercury if you want product ownership, fast growth, and to build banking infrastructure for startups — but expect growing pains and occasionally intense workloads.
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
Mercury — 70 jobs
💻 Engineering
15
💼 Sales / GTM
13
👤 HR / People
4
📋 Product
4
🎨 Design
3
⚖️ Legal
3
⚙️ Operations
3
📊 Data
2
💰 Finance
2
📣 Marketing
2
🧠 ML / AI
1
🎧 Support
1
Poolside — 12 jobs
💻 Engineering
9
📊 Data
2
🧠 ML / AI
1
Summary
Mercury scores 4.3/5.0 on Glassdoor with a 3.8 work-life balance rating. Poolside scores 3.8/5.0 overall with a 3.5 WLB. That’s a 0.5-point gap on overall satisfaction.
Both companies share these culture values: Engineering-Driven, Learning & Growth, Wears Many Hats. Mercury also emphasizes Direct Product Impact, Ship Fast & Iterate, Strong Comp & Equity. Poolside also emphasizes Remote-Friendly, Flat Hierarchy.
On the hiring front, Mercury has 70 open roles and Poolside has 12 open roles.