Poolside

What it does

Poolside builds foundation models, agents, and enterprise systems to transform how work gets done, starting with software development. Their flagship model, Laguna M.1, has 23B active parameters and a 256K context window, released under Apache 2.0. The company focuses on long-horizon tasks—complex, multi-step reasoning and planning—and deploys models inside enterprise security boundaries (on-prem, VPC, or air-gapped). They offer agentic coding capabilities, multi-agent orchestration, and integrations with IDEs, terminals, and custom applications.

Who it is for

Poolside targets enterprises with high-consequence software environments: defense, multi-cloud, legacy systems, and air-gapped networks. Their customers are organizations that need AI to operate within strict security and governance requirements, with role-based access control and audit trails. The company embeds Forward Deployed Research Engineers with client teams to co-design and operate AI solutions.

Why it matters

Poolside’s approach addresses the gap between generic AI assistants and the needs of complex, regulated enterprises. By taking joint responsibility for outcomes and deploying inside customer boundaries, they reduce risk and increase adoption. Their focus on long-horizon reasoning—mirroring human software development—positions them as a path to AGI, starting with the hardest problems first.

Launch signal

Poolside launched Laguna M.1 as an open-source model (Apache 2.0) on Product Hunt, gaining 80 followers. The launch emphasizes foundation models for agentic coding and long-horizon work, with a clear enterprise go-to-market strategy.

Brand and naming

The name 'Poolside' evokes a relaxed, collaborative atmosphere, contrasting with the high-stakes enterprise AI focus. It's short, memorable, and the .ai domain reinforces AI positioning. However, the name may not immediately convey 'foundation models for agentic coding'—the tagline and website do the heavy lifting for clarity. Overall, it's a distinctive, sticky name that benefits from strong contextual branding.