PSQ Holdings Inc

Greetings and welcome to the Public Square's first quarter 2024 earnings conference call and webcast. At this time, all participants are in listen-only mode. A question and answer session will follow the formal presentation. If anyone should require operator assistance during the conference, please press star zero on your telephone keypad. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. It is now my pleasure to introduce your host, William McCann, Vice President of Investor Relations. Thank you. You may begin.

Thank you, Dee. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to Public Square's first quarter 2024 earnings conference call. Joining me today are Michael Seifert, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, and Brad Searle, Chief Financial Officer of Public Square. The information discussed today is qualified in its entirety by Form 8K and Form 10Q filed today by Public Square, which may be accessed on the SEC's website or Public Square's website. Today's call is also being webcast, and a replay will be posted to Public Square's Investor Relations website. Please note that statements made during today's call, including financial projections or other statements that are not historical in nature, may constitute forward-looking statements. Such statements are made on the basis of Public Square's views and assumptions regarding future events and business performance at the time they're made, and we do not undertake any obligation to update these statements. Forward-looking statements are subject to risks that could cause Public Square's actual results to differ from its historical results and forecasts, including those risks set forth in Public Square's filings with the SEC. And you should refer to and carefully consider those for more information. This cautionary statement applies to all forward-looking statements made during this call. Do not place undue reliance on any forward-looking statements. During this call, we may refer to certain non-GAAP financial measures. These non-GAAP measures are not prepared in accordance with GAAP. or generally accepted accounting principles, a reconciliation of the non-GAAP financial measures to the most directly comparable GAAP measures is available to companies quarterly filing today with the SEC. I'll now open the call to Michael. Michael, please go ahead.

Wonderful. Thank you, Will. And thank you to everyone for joining our call today. The first quarter of 2024 was our most monumental quarter yet. Building upon the strength we have witnessed since launching our core marketplace platform nationwide nearly two years ago. It has been a wild ride over the last two years since July 4th of 2022 when we launched our core platform nationwide, and we are just getting started. So to jump in for a few details from this first quarter 2024, as highlights, we saw net revenue increase 9.2x. while cash flow from operating expenses only rose 2.2x compared to the first quarter of 2023, showcasing the fact that our business is trending in an incredible fashion toward a profitable and sustainable path of growth. So again, we saw net revenue increase over 9x from Q1 2023, while cash flow from operating expenses only rose just over 2x compared to Q1 of 2023. More specifically, we increased net revenue in Q1 by 817%, the 3.5 million, compared to the first quarter of 2023. And even more impressive, pro forma first quarter net revenue was greater than all of 2023 net revenue. So on a pro forma basis, Q1 net revenue was 6.4 million, including Cordova, which is 12.2% greater than than the entire 2023 PSQH net revenue. For the marketplace segment, we increased our revenue by over 150% compared to the first quarter of 2023. And obviously the revenue is indicative of greater traffic and heavier usage. Our marketplace monthly average users in Q1 increased by 314% compared to the first quarter of 2023. And for our brand segment, EveryLife, our life-affirming baby brand subsidiary, it contributed over $2.1 million in net revenue for the first quarter of 2024. And for the most exciting statistic from EveryLife perspective, 75% of that revenue was actually subscription-based. We love these recurring customers, and we're grateful for their building of the community at EveryLife with us. Notably, during the quarter, we acquired Cordova, a buy-now-pay-later and business finance solution, and announced the development of PSQ Payments, our pro-freedom tech-forward payment stack. We also hired Brian Billingsley, the former CEO of Klarna North America, to expedite PSQ Payments, a service that our consumers and merchants have repeatedly expressed interest in. And with these two important strategic business decisions, again, the acquisition of Cordova the leading buy-now-pay-later and finance solution for the shooting sports industry, as well as the development of our payment stack, we have moved decisively down the road to owning the infrastructure of the parallel economy to serve this TAM that we believe is over 100 million Americans who have long been left unaddressed by the existing incumbent corporate institutions. We built the customer acquisition vertical through our marketplace and through our brand, and now it's time to own the TAM. infrastructure underneath this parallel economic ecosystem through the building of our FinTech division. We also took steps in the quarter to redefine Public Square broadly as a holding company that strategically unites key products and services, forming the backbone of this parallel economy ecosystem. The holding company, more specifically, is divided into three distinct segments. We have the marketplace, so our core business, Public Square. We have the financial technology division, mainly Cordova and PaymentStack. And then our Brands segment. Today, that exists as EveryLife, PSQ Link, as well as a new consumer product brand in the feminine care space launching in Q3. More on that in a moment. Again, back to the Marketplace. During the quarter, the Marketplace segment made accelerated progress on our e-commerce platform, launching functionality like automatically applied discount codes and enhanced search, among many other user experience upgrades, all accomplished well ahead of schedule. As a sub-event, we recently launched Public Square Live, a live shopping experience where our consumers can meet the founders and creators of Public Square businesses and receive exclusive discounts to their products. And this program is actually hosted by former QVC host Erin Elmore. She's a dedicated patriot, a very talented on-air personality, and has quite a bit of experience in the live shopping world. This program, during its inaugural debut on May 11th, so just a few days ago, drove the highest total online orders toward our platform for one day since our marketplace launch, exceeding even Black Friday 2023. I'm blown away by what our marketplace team has accomplished in the last year, and I cannot wait to witness all that the next year has in store for our core platform as we execute our product roadmap. In the financial technology division, we are making a strong and expedited push into the fintech space. Our consumers and merchants are demanding and have demanded FinTech solutions that are protecting of their freedoms and fundamentally values aligned. During the quarter, we notably acquired Cordova, the profitable leading buy-now-pay-later company for the shooting sports industry. And as I mentioned, we hired Brian Billingsley, former CEO of Klarna North America, to help bring this vision into reality. We are dedicating significant resources to this division and expect to launch our payment stack with certain key accounts in tandem with our Cordova offerings in the third quarter of this year. On the brand front, EveryLife, our wholly owned baby care subsidiary, continues to grow dramatically as the brand's life-affirming message resonates with our core consumer base. As I mentioned, we're seeing strong subscription revenue, which was 75% of our total revenue during the quarter, and we will soon be expanding the EveryLife product portfolio in the third quarter of this year with the launch of soaps and lotions. Now, another item to note, as I mentioned, is that we actually announced in our earnings release this morning the launch of a new feminine care brand in the second half of this year. This brand will bring high-quality feminine care products and an elegant and impactful message that celebrates femininity and womanhood to our core female customer base, many of whom are also existing every life consumers. So as we're nearing the end here, as we look out into the remainder of 2024, we expect continued growth among all our verticals, marketplace, financial technology, and our brand segment. As we pursue the ongoing transformation of Public Square into a true holding company model, that leverages the economic power of our total addressable market. Our payment stack represents the next step in our journey. We will be dedicating significant internal resources to developing and launching the service that our consumers and merchants have demanded. We continue to believe all signs are pointing in an increasingly positive direction, and we reaffirm our belief that we are just getting started. So before I hand it over to Brad, our CFO, I have one housekeeping item. I am happy to announce that Mike Hebert, our Chief People Officer for the last year or so, has been promoted to Chief Operating Officer of Public Square PSQ Holdings as of this morning. Mike, congratulations. The team looks forward to your continued positive contribution to the business and our continued shared success. Onward and upward, my friend. Now, I'd like to hand it over to our CFO, Brad Searle, to discuss a few items on the financial side, including our updated 2024 financial outlook. Without further ado, Brad.