The Motley Fool

The Motley Fool is a financial media and investment advice company founded in 1993 by brothers Tom and David Gardner. It provides investment advice and education services for individual investors and members, on the premise that financial markets should offer transparency, fairness and a level playing field. The company states its mission as making the world smarter, happier and richer, and treats every dollar as an investment in the future its members want to create.

The organisation has been remote-first since day one and distributes its workforce accordingly. Working practices are built around written communication over meetings - "write when you could meet" - with meetings kept to a minimum and schedules optimised for focus rather than facetime.

On the technical side, the company works in software engineering, web platform development and financial publishing platforms, operating a continuous delivery practice that ships to production daily.

Internal culture is described as valuing a diverse and inclusive mix of perspectives (a "motley" one), with humour and humanity present in everyday work, including elaborate April Fool's pranks. The stated standard for dealing with members, colleagues and the wider community is the Golden Rule: treat them as you would wish to be treated.