PublicSq., a flourishing online marketplace targeting conservative American consumers, went public on Thursday, marking an essential milestone in its journey.
Often positioned as the conservative response to Amazon, PublicSq. is known for promoting pro-life, pro-family, and pro-freedom values.
The company made its public debut following a merger with Colombier Acquisition Corp., facilitated through a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) deal.
PublicSq. has begun trading on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) under the ticker symbol PSQH.
The occasion will be commemorated on Thursday with company officials ringing the opening bell.
Founded by Michael Seifert in January 2021, PublicSq. began as a list of businesses that the CEO and his wife were happy to endorse due to alignment with their personal values.
The list, initially shared with friends, later transformed into a digital marketplace after experiencing explosive popularity among like-minded consumers and businesses.
In a conversation with FOX Business, Seifert acknowledged a gap in the market.
“Clearly, there’s this very large, unaddressed market in the United States that feels like, in the era of sort of woke or progressive corporatism, they’re not being talked to. In fact, in many cases, they’re being actively ignored or antagonized,” he said.
Currently, the PublicSq. platform boasts more than 1.1 million active consumer members and over 55,000 businesses, with small businesses making up 90% of its business base.
The platform is open to both buyers and sellers without any charges.
Seifert clarified that any business interested in joining the marketplace needs to respect PublicSq.’s core values.
“We’re not asking anybody to be political,” he said. “We’re certainly asking them not to lecture us about our views and values and to live in alignment with those so that our consumers don’t feel like they’re having to fund causes they stand opposed to.”
Each business is reviewed by PublicSq. after sign-up to ensure alignment with the platform’s values.
This process typically concludes within a day and ensures the legitimacy of the seller.
According to Seifert, PublicSq.’s growth trajectory has been impressive.
In addition to its website, the company also offers a mobile application available on the Apple App Store and Google Play.
From this fall, the app will support purchases from multiple vendors through a single shopping cart.
The company has also ventured into product creation when it couldn’t locate a vendor that abided by its values.
As an example, the CEO pointed out Everylife, a newly launched pro-life diaper company, as an extension of PublicSq.’s brand.
“We are looking to build the alternative to Amazon, and we really believe with the help of our consumers and future investors that that’s exactly what we can do,” Seifert declared, asserting PublicSq.’s aspiration to be a people-oriented enterprise.
“We want to be a company that’s by the people, for the people and owned by ‘we the people,’ and that only happens if the people will rally around it and build it with us.”
In a bid to construct a “patriotic, parallel economy,” he further urged for collective support.
“So our encouragement, any chance we get, is if instead if you want this patriotic, parallel economy to exist, we need your help build that with us.”
Last month, Seifert announced a new initiative to incentivize family growth among employees.
The CEO proudly unveiled the company’s innovative “baby bonus” program, offering $5,000 to any employee who has a baby or adopts.
Seifert tweeted, “While other companies like Target are paying for their employees’ abortions, we at @officialpsq are paying $5,000 to any of our employees who have a baby, or adopt. We’re calling it the ‘baby bonus.’ Strong families make a strong nation.”
A June press release from the company reported its consumer member base had seen a spike of over 300,000 new members in just a week from May 23, 2023, making the platform home to more than one million consumer members.
The monumental increase happened less than 11 months after its nationwide launch on July 4th, 2022.
The press release detailed how the “rise in the platform’s consumer membership propelled PublicSq. to the #2 shopping app and the #3 free app in Apple’s App Store last week, ranking above other shopping apps such as Shopify, Target, Amazon, and Walmart.”
