Straight Arrow began at a moment when things felt like they were falling apart.
Joe Ricketts, founder of TD Ameritrade, and Jonathan Harding, an experienced C-level executive, are long-time friends who, politically, view the world differently. Joe is conservative. Jonathan is liberal. Yet they were always able to have tough conversations, respectfully disagree and walk away with their friendship stronger than before.
In the fall of 2020, they noticed something deeply unsettling: Americans seemed unable to listen to one another. The world was still shut down, COVID deaths were on the rise and any vaccine was still months away. The country was in the midst of a contentious presidential election cycle that would end in election denial and the chaos of January 6. Joe and Jonathan found themselves asking a question many Americans were quietly holding inside:
How did it get this bad?
People fell out with family members over who they voted for. Friendships unraveled. Politics were placed above relationships, and civil conversations with those who disagreed felt increasingly impossible.
The media was also changing. Press freedoms eroded as newsrooms shrank, and online algorithms increasingly rewarded content meant to inflame, rather than inform. An objective truth became harder to ascertain as outrage became the new business model and division, the strategy.
And yet, something didn’t add up.
By the standards of today’s us-against-them political discourse, Joe and Jonathan’s conflicting beliefs would have them labeled as enemies. But as friends who deeply respected each other, they listened and looked to what they shared, even when they disagreed. Importantly, they both felt the same deep frustration:
At a time when Americans were most isolated, the information they received often didn’t match reality. It had become shaped by hidden agendas, spin and bias.
This realization sparked Straight Arrow. Joe and Jonathan started with a simple idea that had become increasingly rare:
People deserve the full picture of the news, built on facts.
From that belief, their mission became clear. Straight Arrow would fearlessly expose the hard truths behind what divides Americans. No manipulation. No bias. No agenda.
They brought together experts. They invested in tools and technologies designed to surface underreported stories. They committed to transparency as a guiding principle. Instead of chasing attention, Straight Arrow focused on a higher bar:
Earning trust.
Straight Arrow is for the millions of Americans who don’t see themselves reflected in the extremes. The ones who are tired of being told what to believe and who they should be against.
We are here to prove that disagreement doesn’t have to lead to division. Truth doesn’t have to be weaponized. And that there is strength in the vast, thoughtful, steadfast middle.
Today, that belief drives everything we do.
In a world built to pull us apart, we’re building something to bring us back together, to empower and equip you with facts and to liberate you from the noise.
Not by telling you what or how to think. Not through manipulation, bias or hidden agendas.
But by giving you the clarity you need to fear no fact.
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