Perplexity AI
Mid (~500)
Poolside
Small (~150)
Best For
Perplexity AI
Best for: Builders who thrive on speed and want massive user-facing impact at a rocketship
Poolside
Best for: AI researchers who want frontier code generation work with genuine remote flexibility and Paris offsites
Ratings
Perplexity AIPoolside
4.7
3.8
Overall
3.3
3.5
Work-Life Balance
4.8
3.9
Culture & Values
4.5
3.8
Comp & Benefits
4.5
3.6
Senior Mgmt
4.2
3.6
Career Opps
👍 92% Recommend
👤 95% CEO Approval (Aravind Srinivas)
👍 76% Recommend
👤 80% CEO Approval (Jason Warner)
Culture Values
Perplexity AI only
🚀 Ship Fast & Iterate🎯 Direct Product Impact💎 Strong Comp & Equity
Poolside only
🌐 Remote-Friendly🤝 Flat Hierarchy🧩 Wears Many Hats
Shared
⚙️ Engineering-Driven🌱 Learning & Growth
Pros & Cons
Perplexity AI
- Fastest-growing AI product — real users, real revenue, genuine product-market fit
- Small team, massive impact per engineer — your work ships to millions quickly
- Startup intensity — expect long hours and high expectations
- Growing pains as the team scales — roles and responsibilities shift frequently
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
Perplexity AI
Choose Perplexity if you want the fastest-growing AI product and huge per-engineer impact — but expect startup intensity.
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
Perplexity AI — 74 jobs
💻 Engineering
37
🧠 ML / AI
8
📊 Data
5
⚖️ Legal
4
📣 Marketing
3
⚙️ Operations
3
💼 Sales / GTM
2
🎧 Support
2
👤 HR / People
1
📋 Product
1
Poolside — 12 jobs
💻 Engineering
9
📊 Data
2
🧠 ML / AI
1
Summary
Perplexity AI scores 4.7/5.0 on Glassdoor with a 3.3 work-life balance rating. Poolside scores 3.8/5.0 overall with a 3.5 WLB. That’s a 0.9-point gap on overall satisfaction.
Both companies share these culture values: Engineering-Driven, Learning & Growth. Perplexity AI also emphasizes Ship Fast & Iterate, Direct Product Impact, Strong Comp & Equity. Poolside also emphasizes Remote-Friendly, Flat Hierarchy, Wears Many Hats.
On the hiring front, Perplexity AI has 74 open roles and Poolside has 12 open roles.