PublicSq. aims to become the next big online shopping destination — but for businesses to participate, it’s requiring that they commit to values like “freedom,” “family,” and “the Constitution.”
The fledgling shopping app has already signed up more than 40,000 businesses and more than 500,000 shoppers — and allows the latter to find local and national businesses ranging from coffee shops to clothing stores to orthodontists.
To be approved for the platform, however, companies must promise to respect PublicSq.’s “pro-America” values — and promise that they won’t “spend time, money, or resources antagonistically against those values,” according to a company presentation reviewed by The Post.
“The real goal was to prioritize supporting small businesses,” PublicSq. CEO Michael Seifert told The Post. “But the mission has expanded to include supporting any business with similar values.”
Users with an account can search the app for businesses in categories like banks, beauty, and jewelry. Customers can filter results to find a small business in their community or broaden the search to the entire country — but they’ll know all the companies they look for are operated by businesses who are “pro-life, pro-family, and pro-freedom.,” Seifert said.
That’s because each company is reviewed by a “vetting team” that ensures companies are publicly abiding by those values, according to Seifert.
PublicSq., which can be accessed online or by downloading the app, is free for both users and businesses and makes money selling ads.
Seifert told The Post he believes focusing on the estimated 100 million conservatives in the US — who are looking for alternatives to buying from companies that support a progressive agenda — will be big business.
According to a study from 5W PR, 71% of Americans want to buy from companies that align with their values — and Seifert says that means there are tens of millions of underserved conservatives who are looking to support businesses they can believe in.
While PublicSq. has been around for just ten months, the idea came to Seifert during COVID lockdowns as a way for businesses to stay afloat. Its early success is thanks in part to high-profile senior advisers including Donald Trump Jr., Charlie Kirk, and Carrie Underwood who have promoted the brand to their followers.
At the end of last month, PublicSq. announced it was merging with shell company Colombier Acquisition Corp. to go public at the end of the third quarter.
The company’s board of directors includes Siefer, Arizona’s GOP nominee for U.S. Senate, Blake Masters, former Chief of Staff to Vice President Mike Pence, Nick Ayers, and founder and CEO of Farvahar Partners Omeed Malik.
[Written in collaboration with other media outlets with information from the following sources]
