By Peter Pinedo
Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Aug 19, 2023 / 05:00 am
PublicSq., a new conservative online marketplace based on biblical values, is set to become profitable in 2024, only three years after the startup began.
Michael Seifert, founder and CEO of PublicSq., told CNA this week that his love and devotion to God is the reason he built the successful marketplace that connects consumers with “pro-life, pro-family, pro-freedom” businesses.
“I love these values,” Seifert, a Christian, said. “I love them because they’re true. This truth comes from somewhere, and I believe ultimately that that’s Jesus Christ, the way, the truth, and the life.”
PublicSq. allows consumers to find businesses that represent family-oriented and biblical principles. Users can access the index through PublicSq.’s app or through its website.
The company’s business model has been a smash success. Founded in 2021, PublicSq. has already built a network of over 65,000 businesses in all 50 states and online.
The platform connects those businesses with a growing user base of more than 1.4 million consumers who are looking to buy from companies that have not embraced abortion, transgenderism, and other ideologies antithetical to their beliefs.
Seifert said PublicSq.’s competitors are multinational corporations such as Amazon and Etsy, but it’s focused on connecting its customers to small- and medium-sized businesses across the country.
Since going public on the New York Stock Exchange in July, PublicSq.’s first earnings report showed a 272% increase in consumers and 98% increase in businesses on the platform since December 2022, according to Fox Business. Further boosted by the hit success of its new pro-life diaper brand, EveryLife, PublicSq. — which announced in June a “baby bonus” for its employees — appears to be on a clear trajectory to financial success.
Vetting teams ensure that businesses on the site align with PublicSq.’s core principles and then maintain regular contact with them to ensure they are staying true to the mission.
“After witnessing a decade of companies, major multinational corporate entities, turning against me and my family’s values, we just said, you know what, it’s time for a network of businesses that won’t stand against us,” Seifert said.
The CEO said he is passionate about advancing “godly values” through the power of commerce because he believes society is best off when it “embraces the values that God prescribed.”
Building a ‘parallel economy’
Seifert argued that corporations and businesses have “left over 100 million Americans behind” by rejecting Christianity and biblical values in favor of radical anti-life ideologies. Rather than supporting businesses that contradict his beliefs — or even just boycotting those institutions — Seifert wanted to help consumers find companies from which they could feel good about purchasing.
“There’s a strong need for a parallel system, an economy that will be guided by excellence, meritocracy, and a love for country and the Constitution,” he said.
“That way consumers could know with blessed assurance that they weren’t going to fund companies that are worried about using their money to fund abortions or other progressive social issues.”
Still a relatively new company, Seifert said PublicSq. reached 1 million users faster than Twitter, Airbnb, or Spotify did in their early years. According to Seifert, the company’s rapid success proves there is a hungry market for pro-life, pro-God businesses.
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This “parallel economy,” Seifert said, is offering consumers an alternative to massive corporations that are ruled by diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) and environmental, social, and governance (ESG) boards, which often implement far-left principles and guidance plans for the companies they oversee.
“We’re not for the Targets of the world that want to talk to your kids about gender ideology or sexuality. We’re not for any of that,” he said.
“When consumers come to the parallel economy, [they know] that they’re not going to be lectured about gender ideology when they’re just trying to buy a pair of pants.”
Though PublicSq. already has over 1.4 million registered users, Seifert anticipates that its values-based marketplace will resonate with millions more consumers throughout the country.
While its motto is “pro-life, pro-family, pro-freedom,” PublicSq.’s core principles include commitment to freedom and truth, support for small businesses, and belief in the greatness of the nation and a commitment to defend it.
Seifert pointed out that “the vast majority of our businesses on the platform aren’t even expressly political, they just love the values.”
“While we’re not an explicitly Christian company, we are a company that is also unashamed about why we’re doing what we’re doing,” he said. “I wake up every morning in prayer and have to go to bed every night in prayer because this whole thing is dependent on God.”
“If God were not to have blessed this journey thus far, we never would have made it an inch, let alone how far we’ve come,” he added. “So, I’m eternally grateful and this thing will always be about him.”
