Preference Model B Verified

RL environment company · ML

Domains
ML Coding
On X
@preferencemodel ↗
Funding
$16M raised · rounds and investors
Tier
B why
Snapshot

Open environment ↗preferencemodel.com

What Preference Model does

Preference Model builds hardened RL environments with robust graders for frontier labs to train capable, better-aligned models, and open-sources its Karotte environment framework.

Leads with
Several domains (a generalist)
Based in
San Francisco, USA
Team
11-25

What Preference Model sells

Read from Preference Model's own website, checked October 12, 2026: the line that puts it in each category.

RL environments

Domains Preference Model covers

  • Coding

    “Write CUDA kernels for the sliding-window attention layer of Inkling, Thinking Machines Lab's open-weights model, which no public kernel covers.”
    preferencemodel.com ↗

  • Games

    “Play the real Slay the Spire through game tools alone: pick a route through each act's map, win turn-based card fights”
    preferencemodel.com ↗

  • Math

    “Post-train Qwen3-4B, an open reasoning model, to solve competition math problems with far less reasoning, without losing accuracy.”
    preferencemodel.com ↗

Preference Model competitors and alternatives

The companies that sell the most of the same things in the same domains, and what they share with Preference Model.

Every RL environment company on the landscape map →

Tier B

B

Growing: 11 to 50 people, or $3M+ raised.

How much stands behind a tier: usage, who backs it, a confirmed line from its own site or paper, and a clear read on X. High with three of the four, medium with two, low otherwise.

  • team 11-25
  • raised $16M
  • investors: a16z, Barry McCardel, Dylan Patel
  • in curated RL directories (3 pts)

On X · mixed, moderate buzz, from 12 posts about Preference Model in the last month

Its Terminal-Bench audit drew praise, but Snorkel found ~55% of its fixes flawed; it also raised a $16M seed and open-sourced Karotte.

@ajratner ↗ · @alacheng ↗ · @ajratner ↗

How we got to tier B
  1. Adoption: team 11-25; raised $16M; investors: a16z, Barry McCardel, Dylan Patel. Tier B.
  2. On X: mixed, moderate buzz. “Its Terminal-Bench audit drew praise, but Snorkel found ~55% of its fixes flawed; it also raised a $16M seed and open-sourced Karotte.” No move.
  3. In curated RL directories: 3 points, a floor of none.
  4. Confirmed: a line from its own site or paper places it.

A clear view on X moves a tier one step up or down; most entries don't move. How tiers work.

Preference Model funding

Raised
$16Msum of the rounds below
Latest round
Seed $16M2026-10 · led by a16z

Backed bya16zManifundMoE CapitalScale Angel GroupSignalFire

Rounds

  • Seed · $16M · 2026-10 · led by a16z
    we're backed by $16M in seed funding led by a16z
    1. Read: “we're backed by $16M in seed funding led by a16z”
    2. Found word for word on its own site: preferencemodel.com/blog/building-rl-environments-for-superintelligence
    3. The quote states the amount and who led it
    4. Also named by 1 other page read
    preferencemodel.com/blog/building-rl-environments-for-superintelligenc…

Funds 5

  • a16z led a round
    we're backed by $16M in seed funding led by a16z, with participation from SignalFire, South Park Commons, Scale Angel Group
    1. Read: “we're backed by $16M in seed funding led by a16z, with participation from SignalFire, South Park Commons, Scale Angel Group”
    2. Found word for word on its own site: preferencemodel.com/blog/building-rl-environments-for-superintelligence
    3. Also named by 2 other pages read
    preferencemodel.com/blog/building-rl-environments-for-superintelligenc…
  • Manifund
    South Park Commons, Scale Angel Group, Manifund, MoE Capital, Fei-Fei Li
    1. Read: “South Park Commons, Scale Angel Group, Manifund, MoE Capital, Fei-Fei Li”
    2. Found word for word on its own site: preferencemodel.com
    3. No other page or directory names it yet
    preferencemodel.com
  • MoE Capital
    South Park Commons, Scale Angel Group, Manifund, MoE Capital, Fei-Fei Li
    1. Read: “South Park Commons, Scale Angel Group, Manifund, MoE Capital, Fei-Fei Li”
    2. Found word for word on its own site: preferencemodel.com
    3. No other page or directory names it yet
    preferencemodel.com
  • Scale Angel Group
    we're backed by $16M in seed funding led by a16z, with participation from SignalFire, South Park Commons, Scale Angel Group
    1. Read: “we're backed by $16M in seed funding led by a16z, with participation from SignalFire, South Park Commons, Scale Angel Group”
    2. Found word for word on its own site: preferencemodel.com/blog/building-rl-environments-for-superintelligence
    3. No other page or directory names it yet
    preferencemodel.com/blog/building-rl-environments-for-superintelligenc…
  • SignalFire
    we're backed by $16M in seed funding led by a16z, with participation from SignalFire, South Park Commons, Scale Angel Group
    1. Read: “we're backed by $16M in seed funding led by a16z, with participation from SignalFire, South Park Commons, Scale Angel Group”
    2. Found word for word on its own site: preferencemodel.com/blog/building-rl-environments-for-superintelligence
    3. No other page or directory names it yet
    preferencemodel.com/blog/building-rl-environments-for-superintelligenc…

Accelerators 1

  • South Park Commons
    we're backed by $16M in seed funding led by a16z, with participation from SignalFire, South Park Commons, Scale Angel Group
    1. Read: “we're backed by $16M in seed funding led by a16z, with participation from SignalFire, South Park Commons, Scale Angel Group”
    2. Found word for word on its own site: preferencemodel.com/blog/building-rl-environments-for-superintelligence
    3. No other page or directory names it yet
    preferencemodel.com/blog/building-rl-environments-for-superintelligenc…

Angels 8

  • Barry McCardel
    Julian Schrittwieser, Sammy Sidhu, Barry McCardel, Dylan Patel, and swyx.
    1. Read: “Julian Schrittwieser, Sammy Sidhu, Barry McCardel, Dylan Patel, and swyx.”
    2. Found word for word on its own site: preferencemodel.com
    3. No other page or directory names it yet
    preferencemodel.com
  • Dylan Patel
    Julian Schrittwieser, Sammy Sidhu, Barry McCardel, Dylan Patel, and swyx.
    1. Read: “Julian Schrittwieser, Sammy Sidhu, Barry McCardel, Dylan Patel, and swyx.”
    2. Found word for word on its own site: preferencemodel.com
    3. No other page or directory names it yet
    preferencemodel.com
  • Fei-Fei Li
    Manifund, MoE Capital, Fei-Fei Li, Ian Goodfellow, Jacob Jackson
    1. Read: “Manifund, MoE Capital, Fei-Fei Li, Ian Goodfellow, Jacob Jackson”
    2. Found word for word on its own site: preferencemodel.com
    3. No other page or directory names it yet
    preferencemodel.com
  • Ian Goodfellow
    Manifund, MoE Capital, Fei-Fei Li, Ian Goodfellow, Jacob Jackson
    1. Read: “Manifund, MoE Capital, Fei-Fei Li, Ian Goodfellow, Jacob Jackson”
    2. Found word for word on its own site: preferencemodel.com
    3. No other page or directory names it yet
    preferencemodel.com
  • Jacob Jackson
    Fei-Fei Li, Ian Goodfellow, Jacob Jackson, Julian Schrittwieser, Sammy Sidhu
    1. Read: “Fei-Fei Li, Ian Goodfellow, Jacob Jackson, Julian Schrittwieser, Sammy Sidhu”
    2. Found word for word on its own site: preferencemodel.com
    3. No other page or directory names it yet
    preferencemodel.com
  • Julian Schrittwieser
    Fei-Fei Li, Ian Goodfellow, Jacob Jackson, Julian Schrittwieser, Sammy Sidhu
    1. Read: “Fei-Fei Li, Ian Goodfellow, Jacob Jackson, Julian Schrittwieser, Sammy Sidhu”
    2. Found word for word on its own site: preferencemodel.com
    3. No other page or directory names it yet
    preferencemodel.com
  • Sammy Sidhu
    Julian Schrittwieser, Sammy Sidhu, Barry McCardel, Dylan Patel, and swyx.
    1. Read: “Julian Schrittwieser, Sammy Sidhu, Barry McCardel, Dylan Patel, and swyx.”
    2. Found word for word on its own site: preferencemodel.com
    3. No other page or directory names it yet
    preferencemodel.com
  • swyx
    Julian Schrittwieser, Sammy Sidhu, Barry McCardel, Dylan Patel, and swyx.
    1. Read: “Julian Schrittwieser, Sammy Sidhu, Barry McCardel, Dylan Patel, and swyx.”
    2. Found word for word on its own site: preferencemodel.com
    3. No other page or directory names it yet
    preferencemodel.com

Every figure is quoted from its own site, its accelerator or a funding announcement; a round's amount and lead appear only when its quote states them. Startup databases are never used as evidence. Checked 2026-10-11. How funding is checked.

Where Preference Model sits

Its domain on the map, live. Hover a logo for its name; click to open it. Open it on the full map

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Latest from Preference Model on X

@preferencemodel ↗

More ML RL environments

ML AI benchmarks

Next: browse all environments. Entry from the RL Research daily scrape of public sources, 2026-11-05 snapshot.