Q1 2025 PSQ Holdings Inc Earnings Call

Speaker Change: [music].

Thank you for standing by my name is Gavin I'll be the operator for today's call at this time I would like to welcome each and every one of you to the public square first quarter. It's about 25 earnings conference call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the.

Speakers remarks, there will be a question and answer session.

You would like to actually ask a question during that time seems a press star followed by the number one on your telephone keypad. If you would like to be your question kind of a fresh start when again. It is now my pleasure to turn todays call are Richard Williamson. Please go ahead.

Okay.

Speaker Change: Thank you Gail and good afternoon, everyone and welcome to public squares first quarter 2025 conference call.

Speaker Change: Joining me today is Michael <unk>, Chairman, and Chief Executive Officer, perhaps or old Chief Financial Officer.

Speaker Change: Do you Wonder Lake Chief strategy Officer.

Before we get started we want to emphasize that the information discussed on this call, including our outlook is based on information as of today. It contains forward looking statements that involve risks uncertainties and assumptions, we undertake no duty or obligation to update such statements as a result of new information or future events.

Speaker Change: Please refer to today's earnings press release, and our SEC filings, including our 2024 10-K for factors that may cause actual results to differ materially all forward looking statements.

Speaker Change: We'd also like to point out that we present non-GAAP measures in addition to and not as a substitute for financial measures calculated in accordance with GAAP I'll now hand, the call to Michael Michael. Please go ahead.

Michael: Thank you well and welcome everyone to our first quarter 2025 earnings call.

Michael: I would like to take our time together today to cover our accomplishments from the quarter and express how they provide a strong foundation for the remainder of the year and beyond So first I will start at the overall company level, our revenue in the quarter grew by 95% year over year.

Michael: The 6.75 million compared to 3.47 million in the first quarter of 2024.

Michael: Our Fintech division, consisting of our payment processing stack and our buy now pay later services contributed 3.05 million the public square marketplace added just over 4 million and our brands segment, consisting of our every life brand contributed 3.27 million.

Michael: Now regarding expenses.

Michael: While we've nearly doubled our revenue year over year.

Michael: Our operating expenses have actually decreased 10% year over year from $16 million in Q1 of 2024 to 14 million in Q1 of 'twenty 'twenty five through our team's hard work and strategic creativity, our leveraging of AI tools for an increasing number of functions within the business are exercising.

Michael: Synergies between our business lines and are continually decreasing customer acquisition cost we are truly accomplishing more with less helping us drive closer and closer to operating cash flow positivity, even while remaining in hyper growth mode.

Michael: And actually to elaborate further on our decreasing customer acquisition cost as I mentioned on our last earnings call nearly two months ago, we anticipated that customer acquisition costs, especially in our Fintech Division will remain near zero for at least the next two years. This is also exemplified by the fact that our sales and marketing expense.

Michael: As in Q1 decreased 48% year over year.

Michael: We are able to achieve organic growth at our core business without having to pay an arm and a leg for a new customer because the community that we've worked so hard to build over the past three years paired with the viral nature of our products and our brand.

Michael: Finally, a word on margin our margin across the entire business expanded to 58% in Q1 of 25 compared to 43% in Q1 of 'twenty 'twenty four.

Michael: Now, we're going to dive a little deeper into each business segment and first we will get started with payments.

Michael: In Q1, we made significant progress integrating and Onboarding and large number of the material backlog of merchants. We have built up on our waiting list. These merchants have sought us out either because we were already serving them on marketplace or through our buy now pay later services or they heard about us because of the positive feedback we've received from one of them.

Michael: Payment processing launch partners currently using our services or they were introduced to us by one of our board members or they inquired about our services. After the enormous viral traction we've received in the market because of the unique product differentiators, we offer and to cancel proof promise, we make to our merchants, we anticipate that much of the revenue from these onboarding and integration.

Michael: Activities will begin to be realized in Q2, and especially in the latter half of the year.

Michael: In Q1, PSU payments came to the rescue for a number of merchants, who had recently and abruptly experienced economic cancel culture for one major example, after guns Dot com one of the largest and most trusted digital marketplaces in the shooting sports industry was abruptly cancelled by their a T H provider, which was one of the largest ath providers in the market.

Michael: Guns Dot com reached out to us in hopes that we could fill the void in a trusted cancel proof manner. We immediately jumped on the opportunity to protect guns Dotcom and this is a perfect example of a merchant that we feel a great deal of responsibility to serve and we launched our AC H processing product in February with guns as our laws.

Michael: <unk> partner, we have since scaled that product and we're excited about the trajectory as we move forward and for guns Dot Com. We now have the privilege of serving them with our full suite of Fintech products, we handle their buy now pay later transactions through our <unk> business, which actually up conversion rates at checkout for that merchant and we also serve them with our credit and debit card.

Michael: <unk> actions and B to B and C to be a C. H processing through our P. S SKU payments products.

Michael: This is what we're looking to replicate for many more merchants in our pipeline as we move forward.

Michael: For another example of a business, we assisted with our Fintech products. After they recently faced cancellation I'll reference tenacity arms, when tenacity arms, an American manufacturer an online retailer of firearms received a sudden notice from their payment processor threatening to freeze their funds and terminate service their business was at risk of grinding to a halt.

Michael: Ours public squares Fintech division stepped in with the new P. S payments product and a direct shopify integration migrating tenacity arms to the cancel approved payment platform that is purpose built for resilience speed and the functionality needed to operate a growing American made firearms business, we're proud to support Liberty minded business owners like this.

Michael: As they exercise their god given rights to grow their business and protect the second amendment.

Michael: And as I, just alluded to when referencing shopify. Another event, we announced recently was the launch of our Shopify integration two P. S. SKU payments. This is a powerful move that catapult, our business's ability to serve our tens of thousands of marketplace E Commerce merchants that public square dotcom, 80% plus of whom hosted their digital.

Michael: Door fronts on Shopify, we.

Michael: We utilize this integration with yonder, one of our top performing public square marketplace merchants and the first marketplace merchant that we have onboard and fully to our payment processing stack.

Michael: Now moving over to the buy now pay later business we.

Michael: We saw a slight dip in the originations volume due to the normal seasonal shifts coming out of the Christmas shopping season and in addition, our proprietary economic forecast model indicates that were in a transitional period with consumer credit and credit scores shifting downward as consumers continue to experience the effects of the inflation that plagued household.

Michael: Finances over the past few years.

Michael: In response, we've tightened our AI driven underwriting models and reduced both approval amounts and monthly payments, while also helping consumers manage their credit in the process. These adjustments are designed to mitigate credit risk, while supporting consumers with responsible access to credit during a challenging economic environment as a positive note we have.

Michael: Tremendous traction in Onboarding, new merchants to our buy now pay later services and we actually grew our database of pre qualified applicants by 198196 in Q1.

Michael: Which reaffirms our position as one of the fastest growing consumer databases in the shooting sports industry. These positive enhancements set us up for a powerful remainder of 2025 and our buy now pay later segment.

We also made significant progress in the continued development of what we are calling credit 2.0 and initiative. We introduced on our last earnings call that we believe will drive repeat customer growth easier onboarding for merchants and a game of fight experience for the consumer stay tuned for more there in the coming months I spoke last quarter about how we were begin.

Michael: To strategically deploy capital to expand margins enhanced cash flow efficiency and build a robust consumer lending portfolio on our balance sheet, which will have a materially positive effect on revenue over time during the first quarter, we used approximately $1 1 million in cash to retain certain consumer receivables, which include loans and leases that we do.

Michael: Deemed high quality utilizing our AI driven underwriting tools, we continue to expand the use of AI throughout the business and the AI is a critical component of our future credit strategy, we leverage AI to enhance underwriting mitigate risk and drive smarter lending decisions investors can expect us to continue to share progress here in the coming months and this is in <unk>.

Michael: Important point that will seek to drive home continually a I will be an increasingly essential component of our ability to create and maintain an industry competitive cost structure with margin expansion opportunities across the business moving forward.

Michael: A quick update on our new line of credit, which I highlighted during our last call as I mentioned, we expect this line of credit to reduce our cost of capital by approximately 50% and we expect this new line of credit to be in place an active by no later than the end of the third quarter. This is an important new banking relationship for public square and even.

Michael: More impactful as we continue to scale the business and we're grateful for this partnership.

Michael: Now moving on to the marketplace on our last call I presented a sneak peek at our vision for the marketplace as we move through 2025, which included the leveraging the synergies between our payments and marketplace business segment accelerating the growth of our ambassador program and elevating our made in America focus and I'm very pleased to say that we have made.

Michael: Significant progress on all fronts as I mentioned earlier, we recently announced the first marketplace merchant to onboard to P. S. SKU payments and we anticipate the exercising of this important synergy between payments and marketplace will continually and materially ramp up as we move through the year. This strategy is one of the major differentiators that sets.

Michael: Apart from not just other payment companies, but also other marketplaces no other payment company or marketplace can secure a merchant's economic liberty through a cancel proof checkout, while also driving new customers to them through our consumer facing marketplace.

In Q1, we also made strides to improve our ambassador program and the related technical functionality that is needed to launch our new and improved Ambassador program in late Q2, as a reminder, organic grassroots marketing is ducky to low cost growth for us and a strong ambassador network, we've accumulated over the last few years.

Michael: Is the primary driver of those marketing efforts.

Michael: Finally in Q1, our primary focus was building the foundation for the evolution of the marketplace that will launch in late Q2. This evolution will include our marketplace, becoming primarily known above all else for its made in America product assortment. We've been looking forward to taking this crucial step honestly since the beginning of.

Michael: Our marketplace journey and starting in late Q2, you'll see an aggressive and grassroots push to promote our mission.

Michael: What is that mission the mission of the marketplaces to champion made in America products from businesses that uphold life Liberty and family.

Michael: This is more than a branding statement.

Michael: It's a modern embodiment of what the founders hoped America would become in an age where so much is outsourced products values, even identity public square our marketplace stands as a reminder, that America works best when Americans invest in one another this move will satiate the desires of our customers looking to purchase made in America. Good.

Michael: Support the small business owners, who are putting in the hard work to manufacture their products in America and set ourselves up with a significant competitive advantage and an American economy that is increasingly embracing economic nationalism, which we as a team are highly in support of.

Michael: While our best selling products have always been resoundingly made in America. We're excited to extend the same spirit and requirement to the merchants across our entire platform.

Michael: Stay tuned over the remainder of Q2 for more progress updates on this front.

Michael: As we focused our marketplace efforts singularly on prepping for this material next step we significantly reduced our marketing efforts in Q1, which was responsible for the drop in marketplace revenue. This was fully anticipated and we look forward to intentionally putting our growth foot on the gas for the marketplace in the second half of the year through the initiatives I have just <unk>.

Michael: And one more important note here theres been a lot of talk recently about tariffs tariffs have obviously been on People's minds. The last few months.

Michael: And while it may seem self evident it's worth reiterating our position is simple we believe as a company that we are exceptionally positioned to benefit from the growing focus on American manufacturing, specifically with our marketplaces, increasing made in America focus.

Michael: Finally over to the brands Division, we saw year over year revenue growth in the every life business greater than 40% and we saw 68% or $2 2 million of our Q1 revenue.

Michael: Come from subscription orders, which is a fantastic sign of the strength of our repeat customer.

Michael: So and this is big news, we just recently received our largest ever bulk order from a pregnancy resource Center coalition for $2 million paid in full earlier this week, which amounts to an immediate increase in cash with the revenue recognized as the components of disorder are shipped throughout the coming months.

Michael: Bulk order will be used to support their networks efforts for the next year and we anticipate that this bulk order will recur annually.

Michael: We also see this expansion is a crucial component of our every life growth story moving forward. There are thousands of similar pregnancy centers and nonprofit coalitions across the country and we're increasingly presenting them with opportunities to stock their shelves with our consumer products. This is a liberating and lucrative opportunity for our brands Division and we're excited to create more.

Michael: Partnerships like this as we move forward.

Michael: In closing our Fintech division is uniquely positioned to deliver strong revenue and cash flow growth as the core business segment for our company moving forward Q1 was the onboarding and integrating quarter. The focus in Q2 is on ramping up G. N V and Q3 and Q4 are positioned perfectly for tremendous revenue growth from these effort.

Michael: The marketplace is hitting its stride with our core customers as well and is on track for a breakout second half of 2025 and beyond particularly as we lean into our made in America product lineup.

Michael: And Meanwhile, our brands Division is driving momentum for the business through strong repeat purchasing and increased product assortment and monumental bulk order partnerships like I've previously stated.

Michael: We're exactly where we want to be as a business right now it's clear that there's never been a greater need for the services, we're providing and given our performance in Q1 and our roadmap for the remainder of the year, we want to reaffirm our previously stated guidance of total year over year revenue growth of greater than 100%.

Michael: Or said differently greater than $46 million.

Michael: And our operating expense defined as general administrative sales and marketing and research and development to actually decrease in 2025 from 2024, I will now turn the call over to Brad to discuss some important financial highlights Brad.

Brad: Thank you Michael and good afternoon, everyone I'm honored to be here with you today to discuss our first quarter 2025 results.

Michael: I'd like to present, a few financial items to note.

Michael: First we increased Q1 net revenue by 95% to $6 7 million compared to the first quarter 2024.

Michael: And with that our overall gross margin was 58% in Q1, 25% compared to 43% in Q1 'twenty four moves.

Michael: Moving on to cash and other items, we ended Q1 with cash and cash equivalents of 28.0 million and zero point $2 million in restricted cash as Michael mentioned, we made the strategic decision to put our cash to work and the purchase leases in Q1 and put them on our balance sheet, which totaled $1 $1 million in <unk>.

Michael: Cash outflows.

Michael: In terms of share count as of March 31, 2025, we had 39 million 959012 class a common shares outstanding and $3 million 213678 class C common shares outstanding.

Michael: As of March 31, we had an outstanding principal balance of $3 7 million on our $10 million revolving line of credit and.

And lastly, as Michael said and I want to reiterate we are tracking ahead of pace regarding our previously issued guidance of reducing operating expenses as outlined in our earnings release or our operating expense decreased from $16 1 million in Q1, 'twenty four to $14 4 million in Q1.

Michael: 25% to 10% decrease year over year.

Michael: Now, let's move onto Q&A.

Speaker Change: Thank you at this time I would like to trigger man. That's the one that in order to ask a question Press Star then the number one on your telephone keypad.

Speaker Change: Did you say your first question comes from the line of my sports with Maxim Group.

Speaker Change: Please go ahead.

Speaker Change: Great. So Michael Brad does do well congrats on the quarter.

Speaker Change: One question and one follow up for me.

Speaker Change: It sounds like the payments rollout.

Speaker Change: For the most part is going as planned.

Speaker Change: Appreciate the call outs.

Speaker Change: And taking advantage of opportunities, where other companies had been dropped or their payments provider.

Speaker Change: Can you talk Michael about the surprises both favorable and unfavorable on your payments rollout.

Michael: Yes, Great question, Tom Good to hear from you and thanks for joining us today.

Michael: As expected is about the best way that I would articulate Q1 of <unk> 25 for us, especially related to the payments rollout.

Michael: I can certainly give you highs and lows I will share on the high side, we have been thrilled that the demand the demand has been overwhelming.

Michael: And ultimately for US that's been driven by a lot of the factors I mentioned in this call. Some of that demand is reactive so merchants getting dropped by their other payments providers that deem them, including Reputational risk. They don't want to work with the gun industry and so these merchants are coming to us because we loved the second.

Michael: Amendment community in the shooting sports industry, and we're proud to serve these merchants and a lot of the demand is also proactive if people are actually assessing what tools they want to build their business around for the coming years and they want to know with true assurance that their checkout technology is secured by Liberty and the.

Michael: Beautiful thing about our payment stack is that we don't view our payment processing capabilities in a vacuum in many cases, we're actually bundling this product with our buy now pay later technology. So a lot of the proactive demand where merchants might not be at risk of cancellation from their other providers.

Michael: But they actually want to combine their checkout into one seamless solution. Those merchants are driving to us in droves, which is pretty cool to see for a merchant they don't want to deal with two different providers one for debit credit cards.

Michael: Processing and then another for buy now pay later, because then the merchant size both of those tools are specifically related to the checkout. They want one team to be able to control the checkout and provide value at that point of sale in the digital environment, and that's where we come in with a powerful differentiator. So I'd say the highest spend.

The demand it has been overwhelming and ultimately at this point, we actually have a waitlist of backlog of merchants that are ready to work with us.

Michael: The only downside I would say or a speed bump we've encountered over the course of Q1 has ultimately just spend that business is right now it's actually alluding to a little bit of what I. Just mentioned they are assessing all of their tooling across their entire business right now which means that.

Michael: Replacing their payment processing technology is one of many tools theyre looking to replace right now and for many of these businesses. They have limited bandwidth and so they're having to rank order their priorities in scope throughout the year. So the big thing for US is working with these merchants to ensure that the payment processing.

Michael: Technology and the buy now pay later services that we can offer is the first feature change that they want to input into their website as theyre looking at replacing many of their services I think a lot of merchants right now are looking to streamline costs improve efficiencies and we can certainly help there but.

Michael: But making sure that we rank order at the top of their priority list as they're replacing these tools throughout 2025 Ah is something that we've been in conversations with these merchants and has definitely taken a more.

Michael: <unk> taken out of our sales teams. So that's how I'd answer that there. It certainly has not been a distraction or any material blocker from our progress on the payment stack because I'll allude back to what I said at the beginning of my comments this quarter for US has been as expected Q1 is integration Q2's ramping up G. M V Q3, and four is experiencing the revenue benefits that come.

Michael: With that GMB.

Speaker Change: Great. Thank you for that Michael and then for my follow up on the brands Division, how should we think about your product pipeline and plans to move beyond baby and feminine hygiene.

Speaker Change: Great question on the brands Division I would say that.

Speaker Change: We have had a tremendous amount of traction with our customers actually sharing with us what they want to see next so thankfully, we're not having to undergo a significant amount of deep analysis of market research understanding where the holes are our customers are actually telling us that's the beauty of creating this community, especially driven by an ambassador program because these end.

Speaker Change: Fasteners are essentially super consumers, it's not enough for them just to purchase and have these products in their home they actually want to help our business expand so that's the first point I'd note is that much of our future product development is actually directly informed by what our existing customers are hoping to see more of.

Speaker Change: So you mentioned, our baby care products that we currently have in market. Today, you also addressed our fem care products I would say that our expanding priorities in the brands Division really are focused on the home so home essentials.

Speaker Change: Real quality clean products that are essential for your family to live a happy and healthy and whole life. So that started with baby care moving to Fem care, we're gonna be looking at household cleaning products and different services. We can provide within the home that are essential components of your life. There's one other reason that we love these product lines. It is because they are essential.

Speaker Change: These are not products that.

Speaker Change: Our once these are actually needs and so when we can present these products in front of our customers that have demanded them have asked for them.

Speaker Change: We can actually fill out the full suite of their essential services that are less seasonal in need they're not based on necessarily as much on consumer purchasing cycles. If you have a baby you need diapers. If you are a woman you need fem care. If you have a home that you'd like to keep clean you need these essential cleaning products. So we're really excited about our.

Speaker Change: And within the home and that's how I would directly answer that question in terms of priorities.

Michael: Great. Thanks, Michael Thanks for taking my questions.

Speaker Change: Thank you.

Speaker Change: Your next question comes from the the laugh about enough that he would be at the Roth capital. Please go ahead.

Dillon: Hey, this is dillon on for Darren Thanks for taking my questions.

Speaker Change: First.

Speaker Change: Could you talk about some of the cross selling you've been working on whether it be from the payments platform onto some of the other.

Speaker Change: Our marketplace platform or even just within within payments really buy now pay with your credit line.

Speaker Change: Like how are those trends going or is that more of a second half year focus.

Speaker Change: Great question and good to hear from you.

Speaker Change: So I would say that today.

Speaker Change: Between the synergies that we exercise between buy now pay later and payments and then the synergies we exercise between marketplace and payments I would say that about 90% of those synergies currently are coming from the buy now pay later business that was our V. One when we're looking to onboard new payments merchants that were already in our community first.

Speaker Change: We're looking at our buy now pay later merchants. That's the priority currently are the reason for that is because they already have a very instrumental piece of checkout technology integrated onto their website. So to add our payment capabilities is a very quick and seamless transaction and they are already familiar with working with us related to their point of sale.

Speaker Change: 10% I'd say right now is marketplace focus converting marketplace merchants into becoming payments merchants, but you'll see that shift pretty quickly over time in fact, I would say over the second half of the year Youll see that scale tilts, a little bit to even out between buy now pay later in marketplace and Theres, a big key component that.

Speaker Change: Makes that so I mentioned today in our original comments that we recently completed our shopify integration over 80% of our marketplace E Commerce merchants of which there are tens of thousands over 80% are utilizing shopify for their storefront technology. So the fact that we got that integration done and if anybody knows the payments space.

Speaker Change: As it relates to shopify, that's not an easy feat to become one of their approved payment services. When we got that done it unlocks the door to being able to serve the mass.

Speaker Change: A vast majority of our marketplace e-commerce merchants, so 90% today of the synergies we exercise between divisions as mostly buy now pay later to payments and about 10% from marketplace to payments, but those scales will tilt quite a bit over the course of the next six to 18 months.

Speaker Change: Great. Thank you and on your G. M D. The payments UV you talked about in Q4 for Q1, where it was like $2 5 billion year to date.

Speaker Change: Where do you stand in terms of that.

Speaker Change: <unk> 10 billion dollar pipeline sort of target.

Speaker Change: Yeah, Great question. So we have inched higher than the $2 5 billion and we recently announced a little less than eight weeks ago, but right now where we're intentionally moving through the pipeline in more of a wait list fashion. So the pipeline remains significantly above $10 billion, but we.

Speaker Change: We are focusing very strongly on the first two and a half to $3 billion.

Speaker Change: This year from an Onboarding and integration perspective.

Speaker Change: And then really as we head into 2026, that's one will expand from that $3 billion to $10 billion of interested merchant DNV, that's within our community and has expressed desire for our payment stack. So the right way to think about this year is in that Onboarding focus for that two and a half to $3 billion in GM V and we're really expand beyond that as we head into <unk>.

Speaker Change: Early 2020.

Brad: Great. Thank you just one more maybe just one closer to Brad.

Brad: With the changes you're making in your AI credit tools or I guess.

Brad: Risk management does that change in your mix within payments at all our Fintech revenue at all.

Brad: Not really no I would say that.

Brad: It's within expectation the beauty of my comments earlier on credit is that it's a very intentional act and we don't believe that much will ultimately change in terms of how we respond to the economic environment as we look at the remainder of 2025, but we certainly anticipate our revenue to grow fairly significantly in the credit business.

Brad: We anticipate a healthier margin.

Brad: And we are excited to continue to leverage the tooling that we really battle tested in Q1 to expand our ability to achieve originations and revenue throughout the remainder of 2025, but where we don't believe that the scale in terms of revenue mix between payments and credit is all that much changed as we look at 2020.

Brad: Change as we look at 2025. We would reaffirm previously stated guidance related to the Revenue Met between those two products. That's the, is there anything else you've mentioned there, too?

Dusty: I think you did a great job, Michael. I just add that I mean the beauty of the credit is that we get to use different liquidity sources, either off the balance sheet or on balance sheet.

Dusty: Combined that with underwriting models, really thread the needle. And, you know, as Michael said, a lot of our balance sheet strategy was informed by knowing we needed a tight

Dusty: which might reduce TMV, but with the ability to balance sheet more and lower across the capital, we're not going to take a hit there. So, a lot of our, as Michael said, our guidance was based on that assumption then.

Dusty: Credit gives us a lot of levers and especially the power of these new AI models to really fine-tune these models even during economic downtimes.

Great. Thank you.

Thank you.

Dusty: Thank you to share with us the pre-submitted questions of a Dr. Surendekal over back to William Kent. Please go ahead. Thank you, Gail. We'll now address some questions that we received to the State Technologies Platform before Michael and Brad close up the call.

Our first question.

Dusty: is it seems that after purchasing items in the marketplace, I received a number of marketing emails from your vendors directing me to their own set.

Dusty: for purchases and discounts. What is PublicSquare doing to combat this and retain customers within the marketplace ecosystem?

Speaker Change: That's a great question. Thank you so much for submitting and I really appreciate it. I just want to make a note here to say I really appreciate the shareholders that submit those questions through the SA technology platform. I think that's a wonderful innovation and we love the opportunity to connect directly with you and hear what's of greatest interest to you so. Thank you so much.

Speaker Change: To address this question, you're exactly right. The way that purchasing happens on the marketplace today.

Speaker Change: When you submit your email, for example, at checkout, that email is both an email that the marketplace team has to be able to communicate with as well as the vendor individually, and that's the reason why you'll receive marketing emails from both PublicSquare and these vendors. That's actually coming to an end in the very near future.

Speaker Change: So, in tandem with this Made in America launch, one of our priorities is actually to do a comms consolidation, where when you check out as a customer, your email is only accessible and marketable by the PublicSquare team.

Speaker Change: This will drastically reduce the amount of individual emails that you receive from these vendors and it will also drive increased purchasing traffic back to the marketplace. So this is a note that we've taken very seriously, we're excited about streamlining this process for our customers and cleaning up the inbox in the process.

Excellent. Thank you, Michael.

Michael: Next question. What specific milestones or development the PublicSquare Anticipates could drive profitability and share of a value over the next 12 to 18 months? And can you share any projections or timelines for when the company expects to achieve profitability or a positive free cash flow?

Michael: Well, I'll address the second half of that question, right out the bat here. I would say that we are proud to reaffirm the guidance we have previously presented related to turning operating cash flow positive by the end of the year in tandem with that doubling of revenue from 24 to 25 and the reduction of operating expenses year over year we reaffirm that guidance and believe that we have all the tools necessary to go and execute toward that aim and we are proud to reaffirm that guidance and believe that we have all the tools necessary to go and execute toward that aim

Michael: On the first part of your question, some of the milestones that I'd love for shareholders to look out for. Obviously, I mentioned some of these in reference to Dylan's question earlier. But the onboarding of that signed GMV will significantly drive revenue for the company. And our buy now pay later business performing as expected will certainly drive cash flow for the business.

Michael: That's the beauty of that bundled FinTech offering is that payments have the ability to really drive top line revenue and credit have the ability to really provide healthy margins that ultimately fall to the bottom line.

Michael: So I would look for signed a GMV continuing to convert to integrated onboarded and live GMV.

Michael: as a major milestone over the course of the next 12 to 18 months. I would also say that the organic grassroots growth of the PublicSquare Marketplace, we believe, will significantly contribute to the company's growth story at both the top and bottom line moving forward. And then finally, I would say, you know, we're excited about the continued margin expansion in the brand's division as we achieve economies of scale.

Michael: That's something that we've had our eye on for a number of months now, and we're really looking forward to that. Finally, I would say that you can look for us as a team to continue to streamline our efficiencies in the business, doing more with less. It's really a theme I've tried to drive home on today's call.

Michael: We're excited that our operating expenses are actually decreasing year over year. We're excited about the heavy utilization of AI, and we have the best team of people on the planet to be able to execute the tasks ahead of us on our product roadmap. And they're really jack of all trades with Army knife type of folks that can do the work of five people in one person. And it's really what sets us apart and allows for us to build in a lean and efficient fashion, even while in hyper growth mode over the course of the next 12 to 18 months.

Michael: Certainly using social media. You know, as I mentioned earlier in the call, we halted a lot of paid marketing efforts on the marketplace for example over the past

Michael: 6 to 9 months, largely in part because we were working hard behind the scenes to conduct this brand evolution to this made-in-America presentation that we'll be launching in the next two months.

Michael: So, we will be turning that back on, but not as much from a paid perspective, more focused on organic grassroots growth, virality on social media through a few very targeted campaigns.

Michael: that perfectly address the desires of the consumers in the broader economic zeitgeist at the moment and are leveraging of really intentional content and large-scale brand partnerships with a multitude of our vendors to drive visibility to the marketplace.

Michael: So you will certainly be seeing far more of the PublicSquare Marketplace presentation out in the ether as we move to the second half of this year, especially in prep for the shopping season.

Michael: That's something we're very much looking forward to. The final thing that I'll mention is that we are going to really focus on the marketplace over the latter half of 2025 on telling the stories of these American manufacturers.

Michael: We believe that ultimately these American manufacturers that are selling these great quality products on our platform, whether they're selling home goods, or from the farm essentials, or apparel, or outdoor gear, health care products, no matter what they're selling, each of these businesses have quality products to sell, and an impactful story to tell.

mediums.

Michael: and then I'll pivot a little bit to the market away from the marketplace here and I'll talk about FinTech.

Michael: As I mentioned, you won't see a ton of advertising necessarily and of any sort of paid sense.

Michael: for FinTech Services, largely because the backlog is full. We have two years of merchant onboarding to conduct with the audience as it exists today. So this goes back to our low cost customer acquisition strategy and finally in the brand division.

Michael: We do a very good job strategically with placing marketing initiatives.

Michael: on social media, through a few select TV ads at different stages of our journey as we look at the past. But more than anything, we're really excited about the earned media opportunities we have in the Brands division.

Speaker Change: You'll see our co-founder and president, Sarah Gable Seifert, on Fox and Friends, very frequently. You'll see us out on different podcasts and news stations talking about the impact of the every life as brand is having.

Speaker Change: for tens of thousands of parents across this country and we certainly anticipate that those earned media efforts and broad, widespread PR initiatives will continue to increase as we head into the second half of this year across all business lines.

Excellent.

Speaker Change: Next question. Donald Trump Jr. is a well-known figure associated with the board and a board member. Could he outline what specific role he plays in terms of strategic partnerships, marketing, or overall influence on the company's growth trajectory?

Speaker Change: Yeah, love this question. Donald Trump Jr. has been an incredible supporter of not just this company but also the mission we represent that I articulated early in this call from the early days of this company.

Speaker Change: Don, Jr. was obviously an early investor into PublicSquare well before we went public.

Speaker Change: on the New York Stock Exchange. He's been a long time supporter of the services that we're providing to the market and to have him on the board with all of the strategic guidance and marketing wisdom that he brings to the table. It's truly invaluable.

Speaker Change: You mentioned strategic partnerships, marketing, or overall influence on the company's growth trajectory. I'll kind of break down each of those individually. Strategic partnerships.

Speaker Change: You know, Darren is one of the most well-connected and well-trusted people in our country.

Speaker Change: He carries a great deal of influence, not just in the political space. He carries that influence in the economic sector. He carries that influence in the shooting sports industry, in outdoor entertainment.

Speaker Change: He's really passionate about the types of consumers and merchants that we love to serve and so for him to be able to bring these partnerships to the table, whether that's to serve the Fintech division or the brand division or the marketplace has truly been a game changer for us. In marketing, obviously, Don is the master of virality, so he's helped inform a lot of our social media strategies that have catapulted us into the cultural zeitgeist and has grown our business tremendously and then finally, influence on the company's growth trajectory.

Speaker Change: You know, I think that Don is a great example of what all of our board members frankly represent, which is they are fully committed to helping this business achieve the vision we've set out. We believe that we will be a company that has a lasting impact on the American household that truly becomes a household name and so much of that happens by inspiring millions of Americans. And so that's the end.

Speaker Change: to put their dollars into the type of America they want to create and obviously don't as a great spokesman for that cause.

Speaker Change: Thank you, Michael. Last question here. We're going to end on a bit of a different topic. Will you ever accept Bitcoin as a form of payment on your platform with the real time conversion to US dollars?

I love this. This is awesome.

Speaker Change: I personally am a big fan of Bitcoin as are many members of our team so I'll say this.

Speaker Change: We believe non-traditional payment methods are going to take market share away from the payment rails over the course of the coming years.

Speaker Change: and we are positioning ourselves intentionally very well for that future, and we're also rapidly exploring the utilization of stable coins within our ecosystem, which we believe, by the way, is the most effective cryptocurrency strategy that will disrupt payment rail.

Speaker Change: So we are big fans of decentralized finance, we're big fans of the world of crypto gaining only more traction and actually we at PublicSquare believe that we can be a major force in the space.

To Drive Consumer Adoption [inaudible]

The Math Audience of Americans Americans.

Speaker Change: Integrating these alternative currencies into their purchasing decisions in a user-friendly manner.

Speaker Change: and ultimately, I really personally believe that starts with the mom.

Speaker Change: I think that if you can get the moms that are making over 70% of daily household purchasing decisions for the household.

Speaker Change: to adopt these alternative forms of payments in a user-friendly manner, you will actually catapult the trajectory of cryptocurrency, obviously including Bitcoin.

Speaker Change: So, we're excited about the space, we're pursuing it intentionally, but very strategically. For example, we know that eventually we will hold Bitcoin on our balance sheet.

Speaker Change: But for us, it's not a matter of if, it's a matter of when, it's a matter of strategic timing as we intentionally position the best usage of our cash going forward as we are still in hyper growth mode related to the different divisions within the company.

Thank you for your question.

Speaker Change: Thanks, Michael. That concludes our safe tech questions. I'll hand it back over to you to finish up.

Michael: Awesome. Well, everyone, thank you so much for joining us this afternoon and we'd greatly appreciate it the opportunity to speak with you about where we've been over the last quarter and ultimately how we plan to accomplish our mission moving forward of building commerce for a better America.

Michael: We look forward to speaking with you all again soon and thank you for being on the journey with us.

Michael: Thank you everyone that concludes today's call. Thank you all for joining me now, disconnect. How

Michael: [music].

Michael: Yes.