PSQH

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for joining us and welcome to PSQ Holdings' second quarter 2026 financial results conference call. After today's prepared remarks, we will host a Q&A session. If you would like to ask a question, please press star one to raise your hand. To withdraw your question, press star one again. I will now hand the conference over to William Kent, Head of Corporate Affairs. William, please go ahead.

Good morning. Thank you, Holly. Welcome to the PSQ Holdings second quarter 2026 earnings call. Joining me today are Dusty Wunderlich, our Chairman and Chief Executive. Also joining us are Mike Payne, our Chief Financial Officer, and Krista Wenzel, our Chief Accounting Officer. Before we begin, please note that information that we discuss today, including our outlook, is current as of today and includes forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. We are not required to update these statements if new information arises. For details on factors that could cause actual results to differ, please see today's earnings release and our SEC filings, including our 2025 Form 10-K. We may also present non-GAAP measures alongside financial measures calculated according to GAAP.

Before I hand the call over to Dusty, if you'd like to submit a question for management to answer during the Q&A portion of today's call, please email [email protected]. Once again, that's [email protected]. I will now hand the call over to Dusty.

Thanks, Will. Good morning. I took over this company six months ago. I'm going to share with you exactly what has happened since, exactly what we're telling you we believe happens next, and then I'm going to let you draw your own conclusions. First, let's start with the six months in the rearview mirror, because the numbers are not subtle. We more than doubled revenue, up 108% year-over-year in the second quarter, up 136% for the first half, and we did it while taking costs out, not adding them. Normalizing for a one-time stock comp reduction in last year's quarter, operating expenses were down about 12%. Headcount is down by roughly half. Operating cash burn in the quarter was cut 52%. Revenue per employee went from about $48,000 to about $198,000, up more than 300%.

Non-GAAP operating income went from a $2.7 million loss a year ago to +$400,000. I want to be blunt about what that combination means, because it's rare. Most companies grow by spending more. We grew while spending less. We took a business built on addition, too many brands, too much scope, too much headcount, too much story, and we cut it down to the parts that actually move money and make margin. Growing your top line over 100% while you take costs out is not a normal result. It's a result we sought with focus and intentionality. Yesterday, we announced that we entered into a definitive agreement to sell EveryLife to FreeHold Brands for $5.5 million in cash, with the transaction expected to close by the end of September. Three things about the sale.

We told you we would divest what wasn't core, and we did it on a timeline we laid out. That's the pattern I want you to get used to. We do what we say. Second, this wasn't a reaction to anything. We moved EveryLife into discontinued operations three quarters ago. This is the planned execution of a strategy we started back then, not a decision made under pressure. Third, we ran a deliberate process. In our view, we maximized the value of this asset. The proceeds come in as cash and go straight to a stronger balance sheet, and every piece of this sharpens the team's focus on the core even further. Here's where I'll be disciplined, and I want you to notice that I am. We're a company growing at 100%, cutting costs, and bringing in cash. I'm well aware of where the stock trades against that.

I told you in February, I'm not a market commentator, and I'm not going to become one today. I'll give you the facts. Pricing them is your job. My job is to say what we'll do what we say, and ensure our results keep getting better, and they are. On the balance sheet, we ended the quarter with $11.8 million of restricted cash and cash equivalents. The number I want you to actually look at is operating cash burn, $2.3 million in the quarter, down 52% from a year ago. We're spending about half of what we used to run a bigger business. With EveryLife cash, our lower burn, and the revenue trajectory I just walked you through are how we fund ourselves from here.

Before I move on to guidance, I want to share a few KPIs that further demonstrate the direction the business is headed and the real results of the efforts our team has put in over the last six months. These numbers are critical because they show whether this is real. Payments. We moved $172.5 million of volume through the platform this quarter against $68.2 million a year ago. That's up 153%. For the first half, $374.3 million against $104.2 million, up 259%. Payments revenue was $3 million in the quarter against $1 million last year, and $6.6 million for the half against $1.6 million. Credit, Credova did $14.1 million of GMV in the quarter against $10.7 million, up 32%. Same 32% for the first half, $29.2 million against $22.1 million.

Credit revenue was $4.1 million in the quarter against $2.4 million, and $8.7 million for the first half against $4.9 million. I want to be clear about the backdrop. The firearms market has begun to stabilize and show signs of improvement. That 32% is conversion approval rates, attracting new borrowers and reengaging borrowers we already have. It's not a market tailwind. Credit quality remains strong. Losses and delinquencies are inside our expectations. The number some of you are going to circle. Both GMV lines are down modestly for the first quarter. Payments was $186.2 million in Q1. Credit was $15.1 million. Let me get in front of it rather than wait for the question. Two reasons, we told you both of them in May. First, credit is seasonal. Demand moderates after the first quarter every year. Mike said that on his call three months ago.

Second, on payments, Q1 carried the full period step-up from agreements we signed in the back half of last year. We're now lapping that from a much higher base. Neither of those is a change in the business. What I'd point you to instead is the year-over-year comparison because that's the honest one, 153% and 32%. On the revolver, the facility that funds Credova's consumer originations, we had $7.3 million drawn on the $10 million line as of June 30th. We draw on funds to finance loans and leases, and we pay them back as those receivables are collected or sold. That's the mechanic, and it hasn't changed. Guidance. I'm going to be pointed because this is the part that matters. Companies in our position usually go quiet. They hedge.

They hand you a range wide enough to drive a truck through so they never have to be wrong. We're doing the opposite. We are affirming full-year 2026 revenue of about $32 million. We expect positive non-GAAP operating income for the full year, and we're driving towards positive operating cash flow in 2027. I'm not giving you these numbers because I have to. Nobody makes a company at our stage put specific targets in public. I'm giving them to you because I'm confident enough in what we've built to say them out loud with my name attached. Write them down, hold me to them. That's the entire point of being on this call. I know none of this earns your trust by itself. Trust doesn't get earned in one call or one quarter or in one good print.

It gets earned by doing this again and again and again until the pattern is impossible to argue with. I'm not asking you to believe me. I'm asking you to watch what we do against what I just told you we'd do. That's the deal. It's the only deal I'm interested in. We have nothing back until it earns its way in. We protect what's real, we move money, and we compound. Thank you. I'll now turn the call over for questions.

We will now begin the Q&A session. Please limit yourself to one question and one follow-up. If you would like to ask a question, please press star one to raise your hand. To withdraw your question, press star one again. We ask that you pick up your handset when asking a question to allow for optimum sound quality. If you are muted locally, please remember to unmute your device. Please stand by while we compile the Q&A roster. Your first question comes from the line of Thomas Forte with Maxim Group. Thomas, your line is now open. Please go ahead.

Sure. First off, Dusty and Will, congrats on the quarter and on the EveryLife divestiture. I am going to, Dusty, ask multiple questions. If you want to stop me at two and have me get back in the queue, I'm happy to do that. I'll go one at a time. Can you high-level your long-term financial goals? For example, do you believe you can sustain double-digit top-line growth for an extended period of time?

Hey, Tom. Thanks for being on. Happy to answer a number of questions. Look, I think the growth the first half, we're definitely seeing good triple-digit growth. The back half of last year, we made the pivot in Q3. Q4 of last year was our, I would say our real first focus of fintech growth there. I think we will see some softening of the growth. Based on our pipeline, how we're executing, how I'm seeing the team perform, I would say we're definitely going to see continued growth. It might come under the triple-digit mark, but I continue to see it at much aggressive levels above 50%, I would say, Tom, for the foreseeable future as we continue to scale the fintech divisions.

Excellent. Dusty, for the next question, can you talk about your target customers both inside and outside the firearms industry?

Yeah, absolutely. I would say the firearm industry probably is the most targeted industry from a debanking perspective or just a lack of financial services that the industry is afforded. This has always been our core target. It's the most complex. The most disenfranchised by the financial system. That will continue to be. We continue to see even in the era where executive orders are coming out against such behavior from banks and in fintechs, we're still seeing it. That just broadly goes out beyond that, Tom. We've seen similar treatment to certain types of nonprofits. It can be ancillary businesses that are ancillary to an industry like firearms. It could just be industries or people that are generally aligned with what we believe in and how we're running our business. That might have, from an industry perspective, might have no real cancellation or debanking risk.

They might have a CEO that's outspoken about things that might lead to that. The banking system has used this just very insidious concept of reputational risk to really pick and choose who they want to do business with. There's really no company out there that is not open to that type of exposure. There's the obvious industries, Tom, and then there's those that I would say are ancillary, and then those that are just values aligned or targeted because of their views.

Excellent. All right. Dusty, for my next question, can you clarify what positive cash flow in 2027 means? Are you suggesting that you're going to exit 2027 with positive cash flow on a full year basis? Is your definition of positive cash flow operating cash flow less CapEx?

It's a great question. Yeah. Because we do run a balance sheet for our loans and leases, we point specifically to operating cash flow, Tom. Because to us, that shows the unit economics are turning positive, and that doesn't mean that free cash flow can also be positive depending on how we're leveraging our balance sheet and whether we're putting loans and leases on the balance sheet or we're selling those loans and leases off. For us, the step that we want to prove to the market is that, hey, here is operating cash flow. We have solid positive unit economics that are driving positive cash flow. We expect to see that turn positive sometime next year. I wouldn't say the full year will be positive, but we'll start to make that turn probably mid-next year.

From that foundation, I think we're going to keep pushing forward to really drive to not only a full year cash flow positive on the operating side but also into a free cash flow as well. We ran Credova as a private company with positive free cash flow, and I know it's possible, and we are going to get there, and this is our first step to getting there.

Excellent. All right, two more from me, and then I'll step aside.

Okay.

You successfully divested EveryLife or you're finishing the process of doing so. Long term, how should we think about your strategic M&A strategy? Rather than focus on assets that you've decided to part with, how should we think about assets you might add in the future?

Yeah. It's a great question. Right now, we're in the phase of kind of earning the broader strategy of adding. As you see in my language, we're in that phase very much of subtracting to get to the core to drive good business fundamentals. With that said, we're always exploring the market. We're looking at the market. We definitely see interesting pathways of where fintech is going. You've heard me talk a lot about stablecoins being a big part of the payments' future. That's an area we're looking at. We also think that potential niche software called SaaS software in the e-commerce space of industries that we serve could also be very interesting as well from an acquisition perspective as we start to potentially look at a Shopify type of model in certain industries where we think we have a strong moat.

Payments and SaaS software can be very compelling. It's something we're always thinking about, Tom. We also are in the stage where we've got to earn it. Right now, we still believe that subtracting down to the core to give good business fundamentals is the path right now.

Excellent. All right. Last one, Dusty. I can't let you off the hook without talking about AI. Can you give your current thoughts on AI and agentic commerce? I feel like as we're gathering more information as companies report the June quarter, we're seeing kind of continued heightened investment. Would appreciate your thoughts on AI. Maybe if you want to add in how you're using it to run the business so efficiently.

Yeah. No, much appreciated. I'd say that I'll start with the operational efficiency. As you know, Tom, we've stated we were very early adopters. It is a big reason why we've been able to grow revenue to employee 300%. I still think there's a lot of room there. My personal thesis is that businesses like ours are benefiting the most from the AI revolution because I believe that compute is heavily subsidized right now This is a great time to leverage it into your business to really spur growth. I do not think compute is going to stay as cheap as it is long term, and companies are going to have to reconcile with that. I think there might even be a point in time in the future where companies start thinking about adding employees back because the compute is too expensive.

I think we're in a really great period to leverage it, and we're going to continue to do so, and I'm still very optimistic about that. I also think that there's going to be limitations in the future. With agentic commerce, we're keeping a very close eye on it. I think it's very interesting. Where we're really looking at it is from a consumer behavior perspective, and I think agentic commerce is going to work really well in some commodity type of categories. I think it's going to take a long time for adoption in areas that I would say are not commodity areas. For example, firearms. It's almost an entertainment to people to go and explore firearms, go build them on a website, think about them. There's a social component to that that I don't think will do as well with agentic commerce.

There's going to be some interesting consumer behavior. I think the technology's fantastic. I definitely see us playing a part of it in the future. I think we're still very early and have a lot to learn about how consumers, at the end of the day, that are the ones that drive our market, are going to leverage and interact agentic commerce.

Thank you for taking my questions, Dusty. I appreciate it.

Yeah. Thanks, Tom. Appreciate you, man.

We will move on to our pre-submitted questions. I will now hand the call back to William Kent.

Thank you, Holly. We have a couple of pre-submitted questions, and some submitted actually during the call as well. One item I just want to clarify before we move to the pre-submitted questions is restating, make sure that the cash number stated for the quarter is $8.3 million, including restricted cash, as of June 30th. First question for Dusty, Mike, and Krista Wenzel. On payments and credit growth. Payment customer growth has continued to look strong, including new additions like Crecera Brands announced in July. Could you share the latest signed GMV and pipeline for payments as well as the equivalent figures for credit? Relatedly, what portion of merchants and associated GMV currently use both payments and credit, and what cross-sell penetration does management expect to see over the medium to long term?

Yeah. Thank you for the question. We actually have a very high throughput on customers that are using both payments and credit. It's only in a few rare cases that we don't see a merchant using both payments and credit. We've been extremely happy with this bundling concept of the adoption. It really ties to our thesis on bundling these together allows us to be extremely competitive on pricing. It allows us to make it a lot easy just from an integration perspective. We've been very pleased with the results on there. Yes, our pipeline, both from a payments and credit perspective, are extremely strong and continue to be. They're very different in how we're growing them, so I'll take a quick moment in the differences.

On the credit side, which is a much more mature business than the payments side, we continue to add merchants to the credit platform, but something we have take a concerted effort on is really growing the pie that we have, and we're doing that through re-engagement with consumers. We've started to do very aggressive marketing campaigns with our merchant partners that we've seen extraordinary results from. This really comes down to storytelling about a lot of our merchant partners and brands that we work with. The younger generation loves authentic stories of the brands they're buying from, and we've started to invest in that and see a really good result in just storytelling to our consumers about the merchants they're buying from or the manufacturers they're buying from that are building their products.

That is an area we've continued to really grow from a base that we have. We see that that will definitely be a continued path on the credit side. Payments being a new business, this has been more about building a pipeline, which in the early stages, we built a great pipeline, and we're now working through that pipeline to get merchants live and integrated. A big part of our pipeline, I would call is enterprise grade, which is unusual for a new product. We've been able to convert pretty large enterprise customers. Now, that takes a little bit more time. I think in the past, there was very large numbers shared on our pipeline, and some of those have taken time to get through, but we're starting to see those numbers come through now with the 100% year-over-year growth we're seeing.

That's how we're thinking about the pipeline from the two different product lines. Will, do you have another question?

Yes. 2026 roadmap to profitability. During the September 2025 Investor Day, the plan highlighted treasury services, private label credit cards, and MTLs. Could you provide an update on where each of these initiatives currently stands or does not stand? Talk a little bit more about your timeline for reaching free cash flow positive and any more information on medium and long-term plans.

Yeah. Part of me getting in this seat was taking a fresh look at where the company needs to go, and you'll continue to hear from me this language of addition versus subtraction, and I think it's just an elegant way to explain the differences of where we were versus where we're going. The former leadership team was really all about addition, big ideas, big stories, and some of what was labeled here is part of that. Again, I think you've got to earn thinking big. When I got in, I knew that we had a very good core business that we let lapse because of adding too much and chasing too many things. We started subtracting away what wasn't working to get to the core, which I think we're there now, and I think the results are proving that.

All of these are still interesting ideas. Like I said to Tom, they need to be earned, though. We're not quite to the place, in my opinion, where we've earned the ability to start adding. I think we're getting close. That kind of ties into that cash flow positivity, which I talked to Tom about. We have to show and prove that we have good positive unit economics, and I believe that operating cash flow positivity is a sign of that. I think that will start to change our philosophy and thinking in strategy going forward, where we can actually start thinking about addition again through either product lines or acquisitions. As I said to Tom, that operating cash flow is the metric we think is the most important. We expect to turn operating cash flow sometime next year.

Probably in the second or third quarter is where we're looking at right now, that to us will start the foundation to then work from a full free cash flow positivity from there.

Thank you, Dusty. We're going to take one more question before closing out. Can you talk more about seasonality in the business, how that factors into your guidance, and any other information you can give around that?

At the core of the industries we serve, I would say follow discretionary retail spending very closely, which means the far majority of our revenue GMV is going to come in the fourth quarter. That's been seasonal with Credova since our inception. Our slow quarters tend to be the second and third quarter. Our largest quarters typically are the fourth and the first quarter, with the fourth being pretty outsized to the rest of the quarters. That's something that's always going to be in the business, especially on the credit side, which is a bit of a more mature business. Payments is the one exception because we're very early in the curve, but eventually payments will follow that same seasonality as well. Discretionary retail spending is a good marker for how our business is going to interact from a GMV and revenue perspective.

We have reached the end of the Q&A session. This concludes today's call. Thank you for attending. You may now disconnect.

Hello, thank you for standing by. My name is Bella, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to PSQ Holdings First Quarter 2026 Financial Results Conference Call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speaker's remarks, there will be a question-and-answer session. We do request for today's session that you please limit to one question and one follow-up. If you would like to ask a question during this time, simply Press Star then the number one on your telephone keypad. To withdraw your question, press star one again. I would now like to turn the conference over to William Kent. You may begin.

Good morning, and welcome to the PSQ Holdings First Quarter 2026 Earnings Call. Joining me today are Dusty Wunderlich, our Chairman and Chief Executive Officer; Mike Pena, our Chief Financial Officer; and Krista Wenzel, our Chief Accounting Officer. Before we begin, please note that the information we discuss today, including our outlook, is current as of today and includes forward-looking statements that involves risks and uncertainties. We are not required to update these statements if new information arises. For details on factors that could cause actual results to differ, please see today's earnings press release and our SEC filings, including our 2025 Form 10-K. We may also present non-GAAP measures alongside financial measures calculated according to GAAP. I'll now hand the call over to Dusty.

Thank you, Will, and good morning, everyone. On our year-end call in March, I said you should expect deliberate communication when there is meaningful progress to report. Q1 2026 is meaningful progress. At the end of 2025, we committed to focusing our strategy, being accountable in operations, improving cash efficiency, and raising revenue per employee. This quarter's results show we are delivering on those promises. Revenue grew 167% year-over-year during the first quarter. Operating expenses declined 18%. Operating loss improved 34%. Payments delivered its largest gross merchandise volume, or GMV, quarter ever. Credit GMV grew 32%, and revenue per employee, our North Star metric, improved 287%. Each figures represent actual results, not projections. Krista will walk through the P&L story, and Mike will speak to platform scale, cash, and our capital position.

At the ROTH Conference in March, a replay is available on our IR site. I said AI adoption was expected to meaningfully change revenue per employee and that we aim to improve this metric every quarter. Q1 is our first data point supporting that thesis. AI continues to be a force multiplier, and we're seeing in real time how it is actively pushing us to redesign and upgrade how we work. Since we first deployed machine learning in Cordova's underwriting in 2021, we have expanded its use across engineering, financial operations, and risk monitoring. AI agent infrastructure has improved our situational awareness, operational efficiency, and accelerated our team's decision making. With a smaller team and better tools, we are working more efficiently, and Q1 reflects it. The restructuring we executed over the past two quarters is now fully reflected in our cost structure.

We reduced staff by 41% from September 2025 to March 2026, wound down the marketplace segment, and reduced contractor and consulting expenses. These actions are expected to deliver approximately $8 million in annualized cash savings, and we view them not as a one-time reset, but as a foundation of a more capital-efficient operating model designed to support sustained revenue growth with disciplined cost management. Payments is our fastest-growing revenue driver. Q1 GMV reached $186.2 million, reflecting ongoing merchant onboarding and strong existing relationships. We've signed several new merchant agreements and are negotiating more. It is noteworthy that industries beyond our core advert category are actively seeking to implement for payment offerings in response to continued politically motivated debanking and deplatforming pressure. In credit, Cordova grew 32%, even though the broader firearms market remained soft.

NSSF adjusted NICS data, which represents the number of firearm background checks initiated through the NICS, show that softness has continued into early 2026. Despite the backdrop, our growth in credit is being driven by execution, improved conversion, higher approval rates, customer re-engagement, and expansion into adjacent categories. Credit quality remains strong. Our giving product, which we previously referred to as Impact, is a specialized component of our payment stack serving nonprofits and political campaigns. We continue to see inbound interest from organizations drawn to both the quality of our platform and the deplatforming pressure they face elsewhere. Our focus is on building a quality product and working closely with our early clients to refine the platform for scale. This is a deliberate measured ramp, and we will share more as the product matures.

One more item I want to cover is that you may have noticed the publicsquare.com website is now redirecting to a new cordova.com experience. This change is a natural evolution of our brand as we shift fully to a fintech-focused organization and create a more unified customer experience. We continue to actively pursue the sale of our brand segment. The sale process remains ongoing, and we hope to enter into a definitive agreement in the first half of 2026. Since the beginning of 2026, we have made a number of operational changes in the brand segment, including rightsizing the team, renegotiating our third-party logistics relationship, and making material changes to sales and marketing, all of which have led to significant cost savings, which we are realizing now and we believe are beneficial to the ultimate acquirer of the business. Our priorities are unchanged.

Grow revenue with discipline, reduce cash burn, and drive towards profitability. Revenue per employee is our leading indicator. As that metric rises, margins improve, cash burn declines, and our operating results progress. We do not need to add many employees to drive real revenue growth. Our infrastructure is in place, our merchant relationships are expanding, and AI is making us more efficient with each passing quarter. We believe Q1 reflects meaningful progress, and our focus is on continuing to build on that momentum each quarter. I'll now turn the financial portion of the call over to Krista Wenzel, our Chief Accounting Officer, and Mike Pena, our Chief Financial Officer. Krista will walk through how the progress I highlighted is showing up in the financials and how the shift to a focused fintech model is translating into improved financial performance.

Thank you, Dusty, and good morning, everyone. I want to start with the headline of our Q1 financials because it is the single most important point I can leave you with today. Revenue grew, operating expenses declined, and operating loss improved meaningfully, all in the same quarter. That combination is a direct tangible outcome of the decision we made in the third quarter of 2025 to refocus the company as a pure-play financial technology business. Q1, 2026 is the first full quarter that decision shows up on both halves of the income statement, and the P&L validates the path. Net revenue from continuing operations was $8.2 million, compared to $3.1 million in the prior year quarter. That's a 167% year-over-year growth. The drivers are precisely the parts of the business we have been investing in.

Payments, Cordova's loan and lease origination, and lease merchandise revenue. The revenue mix for the quarter was payment processing revenue, including payments and PSQ Impact of $3.7 million, loan and lease contracts sold net of $2.1 million, lease merchandise revenue of $900,000, interest income on loans of $800,000, and direct revenue of $700,000. On the other side of the ledger, total operating expenses, which includes G&A, sales and marketing, and R&D combined, declined $2 million or 18% year-over-year. That decline reflects the full period impact of the structural cost actions Dusty referenced, including the headcount reduction, the wind down of PublicSquare, and tighter discipline on contractor and consulting spend. Within that, G&A declined $1.6 million or 20%, and R&D declined $400,000 or 39%.

In both cases, primarily driven by lower share-based compensation, which was $1.7 million lower in total. Sales and marketing rose modestly by $100,000 as we shifted from paid acquisition toward existing merchant expansion. Together with revenue up 167% and operating expenses down 18%, those two halves produced the result we are most focused on. Operating loss for Q1 2026 was $6.1 million, an improvement of $3.2 million or 34% compared to $9.3 million in the prior year quarter. On a non-GAAP basis, which excludes share-based compensation, depreciation and amortization, and unallocated corporate costs, segment non-GAAP operating loss was $900,000, a 70% improvement from $2.8 million last year. The pivot to fintech is producing operating leverage.

Below the operating line, our reported net loss was $6.5 million, compared to $4.4 million in Q1 2025. At first glance, that may look inconsistent with the operating improvement I just walked through. It is not. I'll explain why. The $2 million year-over-year increase in net loss is driven almost entirely by a single non-cash item, changes in the fair value of our warrant and earn out liability. In Q1 2025, we recognized roughly $7.8 million in non-cash gains from those fair value changes. In Q1 2026, the equivalent gains were approximately $700,000. The difference, about $7.1 million, essentially explains the year-over-year change in net loss on its own. Those liabilities are marked to market with our stock price.

From December 2024 to March 2025, our share price declined, which mechanically reduced the value of liabilities and resulted in a large non-cash gain. From December 2025 to March 2026, our share price was more stable, so the corresponding gain was proportionally smaller. This is an entirely non-cash item. The same dynamic explains the modest increase in loss per share from $0.10-$0.12. Stripping out the warrant and earn out movement, our underlying business performance improved meaningfully year-over-year, consistent with the operating line story. Net revenues from discontinued operations, which include brands and marketplace, were $3.7 million, consistent with Q1 of 2025. However, brands now represent 98% of discontinued revenue compared to 88% a year ago, reflecting the substantial wind down of marketplace.

Income from discontinued operations was approximately $27,000 in Q1 2026, compared to a $2.4 million loss in the prior year quarter, reflecting the marketplace wind down and stronger operating performance at brands as it moves towards divestiture. With that, I'll turn it over to Mike to walk through platform scale, cash, and our liquidity position.

Thank you, Krista. I'm pleased to join my first earning call as CFO of PSQ Holdings. Before I go further, I want to acknowledge James Rinn, who stepped down as CFO on April 30th. I appreciate his work during a critical transition, and I look forward to building on that foundation. I'll pick up where Krista left off and walk through how the operating story converges into measurable platform scale, cash, and a stronger run rate. Payments delivered $186.2 million in GMV during the quarter compared to $36 million in Q1 2025. That's an increase of 417%. That step change reflects sustained merchant onboarding, deeper engagement from existing relationships, and the full period contributions of agreements signed in the back half of last year.

Credit GMV was $15.1 million, up 32% year-over-year, achieved against a soft backdrop in the broader firearms market. The growth on the credit side is being driven by execution. That's better conversion, higher approval rates, and re-engagement of our existing borrower base, not from a tailwind from the underlying market. Importantly, these are the levers we control and plan to continue building on. As we improve conversions and approval quality, we are also seeing better alignment between volume growth and unit economics, which is critical to scaling the credit platform responsibly. As a reminder, our credit business exhibits seasonal patterns, with demand typically moderating following the first quarter. While we are encouraged by the year-over-year growth and improvements in conversion and customer engagement, we expect some normalization in quarter-to-quarter trends, with performance more appropriately evaluated on a year-over-year basis.

On headcount, we ended the quarter at 47 full-time employees, compared to 68 a year earlier. That's a 31% reduction. Pairing that with the 167% revenue growth Krista described, revenue per employee climbed from $44,864-$173,583. That's a 287% improvement and the metric that Dusty has identified as our North Star. Importantly, we believe we can continue to grow revenue without a corresponding increase in headcount, given the infrastructure and tools now in place. The savings tied to that headcount reduction and the related restructuring are expected to generate approximately $8 million in annualized cash savings. Q1 is the first full quarter under the reduced cost base, and we're now starting to see that come through in the numbers.

I'll briefly highlight an expected dynamic within our lease-related revenue. As we transition from balance sheeting consumer leases to selling new originations, lease revenue will moderate as prior leases run off. This is an intentional outcome of the shift and reflects improved capital efficiency, not a change in underlying demand. Operating cash burn was $4.1 million for Q1 of 2026, compared to $6.4 million in Q1 of 2025. That's a $2.3 million improvement or 36% year-over-year. I want to be clear on what is included in that $4.1 million. Approximately $1.2 million relates to non-recurring items, including approximately $315 thousand in severance tied to restructuring actions.

In addition, our legal and accounting costs were higher in Q1 of 2026, directly related to the preparation of our annual report and financial statement audit. Adjusting for those one-time payments, underlying operating cash burn was approximately $2.9 million for the quarter, and that is the level we expect to keep working down as we move through the year. Said simply, we improved cash burn by 36% year-over-year. A meaningful portion of what remains is one time, and the structural run rate is materially better than the headline figures suggest. We ended the quarter with $11.8 million of cash, restricted cash, and cash equivalents, of which $10.1 million was unrestricted. Net working capital was $11.2 million.

On our revolving line of credit, which funds Cordova's consumer lending originations, we had $7.4 million outstanding on the $10 million facility as of March 31st. The facility was extended in March of 2026 through July 31st of 2027. We draw on the line to fund consumer loans and leases and repay it as those receivables are collected or sold to third parties. We believe our existing cash, together with the anticipated proceeds from the planned sale of the brand segment, will be sufficient to fund operating and capital needs for at least the next 12 months. We also have access to our at-the-market offering program. Our capital priorities are clear. Continue to reduce cash burn, maintain operating discipline, and convert that progress into a clear path to profitability. With that, I'll turn it back to Dusty to close.

Thank you, Mike. I'll close with the same message I shared at the ROTH Conference in March. We have found our focus, Q4 showed the impact of that focus, and Q1 confirmed it. Our job now is keep executing and improve our model each quarter. We're building a payments and financial infrastructure business with lasting value. We serve merchants who need a trusted provider, and we earn that trust through consistent performance and staying power. Q1 is evidence of that commitment. We plan to keep delivering on it. I'll now turn the call over for questions.

At this time, I would like to remind everyone, in order to ask a question, press star, then the number one on your telephone keypad. We do request for today's session that you please limit to one question only and one follow-up. We will pause for just a moment to compile the Q&A roster. Your first question comes from the line of Thomas Forte with Maxim Group. Please go ahead.

Great. first off, Dusty, Krista, Will, congrats on the quarter. Mike, welcome to the call. one question and one follow-up. Dusty, you did a beautiful job in your prepared remarks talking about how you're going to capitalize on artificial intelligence, run the company with a very modest head count. When I think about earnings calls for the first quarter, Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Meta, and others have talked a lot about agentic commerce. I was hoping on how you could talk about how you believe you can capitalize on agentic commerce.

Hey, Tom. great to have you here, and thanks for the thoughtful question. I know that is certainly top of mind for a lot of folks right now in what is agentic commerce going to mean for the fintech world. I think what we're seeing is the foundation being set of how we're going to be doing commerce in the future, and that is going to be built on the basis of payments and the ability for companies to be able to move money on behalf of agents in a safe way. We are continuing to keep an eye on that. it's moving quickly as you can imagine.

We think, again, our brand promise of, you know, really sticking to, merchants in industries that are traditionally underserved, in some cases, underbanked or debanked, that brand promise still goes through even from an agentic commerce perspective. We continue to believe that payments will be at the forefront of agentic commerce, and we'll continue to work towards that in our own product roadmap as we watch this unfold in the market, Tom.

Great. Thanks, Dusty. For my follow-up, somewhat related, as a longtime follower of the industry, and I guess technically multiple industries, e-commerce, cryptocurrency, et cetera, I guess there was a point in time where people thought Bitcoin might have a high level of acceptance in e-commerce, but now it emerges with stable coins. I'd appreciate your thoughts on stable coins and if you think that'll become, if use of that for payments in the future will grow over time.

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, the GENIUS Act, I think, changed the stablecoins adoption considerably. It took away the gray area from a regulatory perspective. I believe that is, stablecoins are the payment rails of the future. The current payment rails have been built over decades. Some of the code that's out there is still built in COBOL, and not much has changed over the last 50 years. We still have the duopoly between Visa and Mastercard, the sponsor banking system. All of this has been layers put on top of layers with old technology. What stablecoins is really doing is compressing the payment rails and making it much easier to move money 24/7 in a safe and secure way, and that is going to drastically change the cost to merchants.

We are very, very bullish on stablecoins and believe that, in the future, we will see a completely different players in regards to how money is being moved. We believe that that's probably gonna start in industries and adoption will start in industries that have traditionally been misunderstood by the payment rails, and that's where we see a unique opportunity for Cordova and PublicSquare to play in the new generation of stablecoin adoption.

Great. Thanks for taking my question, Dusty.

Yeah. Thanks, Tom. Take care.

Again, if you would like to ask a question, Press Star one on your telephone keypad. That concludes our Q&A session. I will now turn the call back over to William Kent for closing remarks.

Thank you. We actually have some submitted questions via the Say Technologies platform we'd like to cover before closing out the call. Our first question.

I'll put this to the group. PSQ has fallen from its post-launch highs. Your founder stepped down as CEO as part of the fintech pivot, and some of the excitement after Donald Trump Jr. joining the board has faded. What steps are you taking, Dusty, as the new CEO to reach stable profitability and deliver returns?

Yeah. Thank you for the question, and it's a great question. I would definitely point to the last two earnings calls and my ROTH Conference remarks in the sense that we are a focused team now that is working on discipline execution. I think prior leadership lacked the experience to be able to focus the business in a way that rewarded shareholders. The team that came mostly from the Cordova acquisition, which we had a proven track record of building a business very capital efficient and profitable as well. I think going forward at the end of the day shareholder value is driven by building a real business that can generate real cash flow in the future.

That will continue to be our focus. We believe that if you can drive good focused results in a business that can, in the future, drive really good return on cash and return on investment for shareholders, this will start to be seen in the shareholder price as well. Our commitment remains the same. You'll continue to hear us say that earnings call over earnings call. This will not be chasing opportunities or hype or overpromising. This will be just stone-cold execution and discipline of how we run this business.

Thank you, Dusty. Next question's kind of a follow-on to that. What is your strategy over the next three years to improve shareholder value?

Yeah. I'd reiterate again of that, you know, at the end of the day, any business is based on, you know, what is the ultimate free cash flow, and that means you have to position products where there's demand in the market, which you can see from our revenue growth, we have found demand in the market, and then you have to materialize that demand into ultimate execution and profitability. That is what we're going to continue to do quarter-over-quarter. Right now we're at a place where we have to continue to grow the top line in order to get to that cash flow positivity along with being operationally efficient.

We are balancing those two components of the business, and this is the beauty of the AI generation that we are in, is that I think we can do that more efficiently than you have been able to over the last five to 10 years in a fintech business. We expect to continue to grow that top line and also find that operational efficiency to ultimately drive that cash flow long term. At the end of the day, that is what shareholders are looking for, is, a return on their investment, which means a cash flow-driving business model, which I think we can do. We have the margins, we have the growth rate now, and we have the discipline.

Excellent. Our last submitted question that we're gonna go through. On the credit side, does PSQ's strategy most closely resemble Klarna, Sezzle, or Affirm, or is PSQ pursuing a differentiated approach of its own?

It's a great question. I would say from a comp perspective, you know, in regards to products, we most closely resemble what Block has done. We have been very intentional about really owning the entire payments stack with our merchants, so that means traditional payment processing alongside consumer credit. This is really the bundled services we've talked about. We believe this makes merchants extremely sticky and it drives long-term value. It's a value proposition of the merchant where they're not having two sets of pricing, they're not having two API documentation, and ultimately, it helps us to drive better pricing value to the merchant as well, and it also makes them more operationally efficient.

The one thing I will say from Affirm, the Klarna, the Sezzle, is, there's a few things I think from the credit side that really make us, distinct and different, is that we built a platform, and this gets into the financial infrastructure, that allows for a lot of complexity, meaning that we can have multiple different types of credit products. We can have different types of lenders on there. We've had banks on our platform before. We've had other lenders. It makes us very malleable to the credit markets. We also have taken a very serious approach to leveraging, proprietary macroeconomic models and also, AI and machine learning into our underwriting, which I think you can see from a peer-to-peer perspective. We tend to outperform our peers from a credit perspective.

We always look at ourselves as a credit shop first with really good tech that enables that because if you cannot underwrite through credit cycles in the different changing interest rate environments you're not going to survive as a credit provider. We'll continue to think through how we become more robust as a payments and financial infrastructure platform which I think differentiates us from true consumer credit peers that were mentioned in the question.

Excellent. Thank you, Dusty. Thank you all for joining the PSQ Holdings First Quarter 2026 Earnings Conference Call. We look forward to sharing our progress with you next quarter. Have a great morning.

Ladies and gentlemen, that concludes today's call. Thank you all for joining, and you may now disconnect. Everyone, have a great day.

Thank you for standing by, and welcome to the PublicSquare's fourth quarter and full year 2025 earnings conference call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speaker's remarks, there will be a question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question during this time, simply press star followed by the number one on your telephone keypad. If you would like to withdraw your question, again, press star one. Thank you. I'd now like to turn the call over to William Kent, Head of Corporate Affairs. You may begin.

Thanks, Robin. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to PSQ Holdings' fourth quarter and full year 2025 earnings conference call. Joining me today are Dusty Wunderlich, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, and James Rinn, Chief Financial 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 and contains forward-looking statements that may involve risks, uncertainties, and assumptions. We undertake no duty or obligation to update such statements as a result of new information of future events. Please refer to today's earnings press release and our SEC filing, including our 2025 10-K filed this morning, for factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from our forward-looking statements.

We'd also like to point out that we may present non-GAAP measures in addition to, not as a substitute for, financial measures calculated in accordance with GAAP. I'll now hand the call over to Dusty.

Thank you, Will, and welcome everyone. Today's call marks the beginning of a new leadership phase for our company. We're simplifying the company, focusing entirely on financial infrastructure and aligning the business around disciplined execution. In the past, the market saw ambitious ideas that lacked consistent follow-through. Our goal now is to restore investor confidence through measurable execution. We are moving forward with Four Core Themes, Strategic Focus, Operational Accountability, Cash Efficiency, and a drive toward higher Revenue per Employee. Despite headwinds in certain sectors, our Fintech strategy is working. We delivered over 80% year-over-year growth, bolstered by a strong fourth quarter performance with over 100% quarter-over-quarter growth. This growth is driven by our focus on Fintech infrastructure and credit products, particularly within underserved but economically meaningful industries. Notably, alongside this meaningful revenue growth, we reduced SG&A expenses by $9.9 million year-over-year.

A clear example is the firearms industry. While broader market data suggests softness, our business continues to grow. This statement is well supported by the December 2025 NSSF Adjusted NICS checks, which declined approximately 3.4% year-over-year in December. We believe this is a structural market shift, not a contraction. Younger digital-first buyers, specifically Millennials and Gen Z, are moving towards e-commerce infrastructure, which directly benefits our payments and credit businesses. Further to this point, we significantly increased our repeat credit customer rates in Q4 as well as year-over-year, helping us drive efficient and cost-effective growth. To support this lean, high-output model, we have taken decisive action. Since September, we have reduced our headcount from 87 employees to approximately 50. We have significantly lowered our operating expenses while continuing to grow revenue year-over-year.

Note, we incurred approximately $250,000 in cash severance expense in Q4. We expect to recognize certain one-time severance costs in the first half of 2026, but the net impact of these reductions will result in lower cash burn in the coming quarters and should bring us much closer to profitability in the near term. We believe that a key metric of success that can be easily measured is revenue produced per employee, and we expect this metric to grow significantly throughout 2026 as we continue simplifying the organization and concentrating our efforts on the core business of credit, payments, and financial infrastructure. As we complete the divestiture or restructuring non-core assets and continue deploying automation and AI tools internally, we believe our organization will be capable of producing materially more revenue with fewer people and significantly lower cost structure.

Artificial intelligence is central to this productivity leverage. We have already seen meaningful improvements in underwriting performance within our Credova credit platform through the application of machine learning and AI-driven credit scoring models. We are now expanding the use of AI across multiple parts of the business, including engineering productivity, financial operations, and risk monitoring. These tools enable a leaner team to operate with greater speed and precision, which is essential as we scale the company's fintech infrastructure. Looking ahead, we expect significant disintermediation across the payments ecosystem. Traditional payment rails were largely built decades ago and were designed for a very different financial environment. They rely on multiple intermediaries, legacy infrastructure, and settlement processes that introduce friction, cost, and latency into transactions.

As new financial technologies mature, we are seeing the emergence of more efficient systems that enable faster settlement, lower transaction costs, and more direct relationships between merchants, consumers, and financial institutions. These technologies are fundamentally reshaping how payments infrastructure is built and who participates in the value chain. In our view, the payments industry is entering a period where many of the legacy layers historically sat between the merchant and the customer will be compressed or eliminated. This creates an opportunity for new platforms that can provide integrated financial services, simplified payment flows, and better alignment with the needs of modern merchants. At PSQ Holdings, we believe our approach positions us well for this shift. Rather than simply participating in legacy payment rails, our focus is on building a more integrated financial platform designed specifically for merchants and consumers we serve.

Over time, we believe this will allow us to reduce friction, increase merchant economics, and capture more value within the transaction lifecycle. Our overall approach to payments also includes a practical approach to digital assets. We are not approaching Bitcoin or digital assets as a speculative balance sheet investment. Instead, we are evaluating how stablecoins and blockchain-based settlement rails may improve transaction speed, reduce payment costs, and increase reliability for our merchant partners over time. Our goal is to position PSQ as a modern financial infrastructure provider to industries that have historically been underserved by large financial institutions. Finally, regarding our portfolio, we are evaluating divestitures in the future of this Impact platform. We are in active discussions with several interested parties regarding our EveryLife business, and we'll provide updates when appropriate. Finally, we are pleased with the early results of our Impact platform.

The technology is live in the market, and we look forward to sharing more about how it fits within our broader payments roadmap over time. Our objective now is straightforward. Simplify the company, strengthen the balance sheet, and compound the core Fintech platform. Now I'd like to hand it over to our Chief Financial Officer, James Rinn.

Thank you, Dusty, and good morning, everyone. The theme for the second half of 2025 was executional discipline and strategic focus. Over the last several quarters, we communicated clear objectives. Reduce operating cash burn while focusing on and efficiently growing our financial technology platform. We made meaningful progress on both fronts during 2025, and it has resulted in significant improvement in the financial results and will benefit the company as we move forward. Let's walk through the key financial highlights from the fourth quarter and year-to-date 2025 results. In regard to revenue growth and financial performance, we reported net revenue from continuing operations of $18.2 million for 2025 above our previous 2025 guidance of $16.5 million. That's 81% year-over-year increase compared to $10.1 million in 2024.

GMV grew 411% year-over-year to the growth of our payments business. The breakdown of revenue for Q4 illustrates the strength of our current revenue streams. Financial technology, which includes payment processing via PSQ Payments and credit offering via Credova, earned $7.3 million in net revenue, 109% increase from the prior year. Our credit business revenue in Q4 increased by $1.5 million or 47% year-over-year to $4.8 million in Q4 of 2025. One area we have focused on improving is repeat usage of the Credova platform. During 2025, repeat customers increased 25% compared to 2024, demonstrating stronger customer engagement and retention across our ecosystem.

Our loan charge-offs reduced by $466,000 or 34%, reflecting the continued maturation of the portfolio and improvements we made to underwriting and credit selection. This portfolio performance improvement was driven primarily by enhanced underwriting discipline and an increasing mix of prime paper within the portfolio, which improved overall credit performance. Regarding operating expense control and for continuing operations, I would like to highlight the following. The company maintained strong expense discipline in Q4 and continued to optimize capital allocation. As Dusty mentioned, our operating efficiency continues to improve into 2026. In 2025, general and administrative expenses reduced by $9.9 million or 26% compared to the prior year. R&D expenses for 2025 increased $1.9 million over the prior year. We continued to invest in internally developed software.

These actions drove the increase in expense, and we allocated $2.9 million of capital for ongoing enhancements to our Fintech platforms. Ultimately, our disciplined execution resulted in a notable improvement in our operating loss of $9.7 million compared to the prior year, and a $32 million operating loss for the year. I will note that $16.7 million of the 2025 operating loss related to non-cash stock-based compensation expenses and depreciation and amortization. It is also worth highlighting that the company's board of directors and executive team have outlined an operating plan which reflects the strategic shift to focus exclusively on Fintech operations to improve the company's cash position, and it involves a variety of cash management initiatives.

This plan is supported by a strong Fintech performance in the second half of 2025, which has continued with solid momentum into 2026. The cash management initiatives include the divestiture of its brand segment and the winding down of the marketplace, reducing corporate operating expenses and staff reductions of over 40%. In addition, the company is working to terminate or reduce contractor and consulting agreements. These executed and planned cost reductions that started in the fourth quarter of 2025 are expected to result in annualized cash savings of approximately $8 million. Transitioning to discuss gross margins. Fintech, our non-GAAP gross margin for 2025 was 69% compared to 96% in 2024. The decline is related to revenue mix changes and the growth of our lower margin payment processing revenues.

I would point out that the bundling of the services while reducing gross margin percentage creates a much stickier merchant relationship and higher customer retention and higher LTV. Discussing cash flow and liquidity, as of December 31st, PSQ Holdings had $16.1 million of cash and restricted cash, which included $0.4 million related to discontinued ops. Net cash for operating activity decreased by $14.2 million during 2025 as compared to the prior year due to cost discipline initiatives we implemented throughout the year that began to take effect, as well as the gross margin growth in 2025. On our revolving line of credit that we utilized to finance our Credova credit products, we had $6.2 million outstanding on our $10 million line of credit. Moving on to discontinued ops.

Brands driven primarily by EveryLife earned revenue in 2025 of $14.2 million, which is an increase of $4 million and 40%. Marketplace earned $1.1 million in 2025, which was in line with our expectations. In closing, 2025 represented an important transition year for the company. We significantly reduced operating cash burn. We are growing revenue at a strong pace, maintaining healthy margins and significantly narrowing operating losses due to staff reductions, operating efficiencies in part due to leveraging AI and reducing operating costs year-over-year. We believe we are well-positioned to deliver long-term shareholder value as we grow market share, maintain operational discipline and scale the business. Now let me hand it back to Dusty for some final words about our path forward.

Thank you, James. In closing, as I mentioned in my letter to shareholders in early February, I speak less by design. You should not expect frequent commentary driven by market volatility. Instead, you should expect deliberate communication when there is meaningful progress to report. Our goal is to build credibility with investors through consistent execution, discipline, capital allocation and transparent reporting. Thank you all, for joining us today, and I'll turn it over to questions now.

Thank you. We will now begin the question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad. If you'd like to withdraw your question, simply press star one again. Your first question comes from the line of Thomas Forte from Maxim Group. Your line is open.

Great. First off, Dusty and James, congrats on the progress. I have a handful of questions. I think I'll go with three, and then I'll get back in the queue. Dusty, first off, congratulations on being named Chairman and CEO of PSQ Holdings. Since this is your first earnings call for the management change, why was now the appropriate time for the management change? And at a high level, how do you intend to run the company similarly to and different from Michael?

Tom, good to hear from you and thanks for being here and the thoughtful questions as always. It's a great question. This is the management change was something deliberated at the Board level for a long period of time as we were making this strategic pivot into Fintech and Fintech infrastructure. Over a period of time through the back half of last year, in unison with the Board, Michael and myself, we ultimately thought that you know, giving me the chairmanship and the CEO role was the best for the future of Fintech, given my background in financial technology throughout my career and the team at Credova that I've led that is really at the core of the Fintech team that is taking the company forward.

It was a very deliberate process. I know these always seem at times from the outside looking in abrupt, but it's something that we spent a lot of time thinking through and working through as a team. Now, I'd say what are the differences really in how I'll lead and versus Michael and what are the similarities? You know, what brought Michael and I together to start with the Credova transaction is this. We truly believed in free markets, and we both had a passion for serving consumers and merchants that have been really disenfranchised. That could be from a financial technology perspective, that could have been from a marketplace perspective, or just consumers that didn't have products that aligned with their values.

Our passion for that segment of merchants and consumers and really free markets is not gonna change at all. We were always aligned, and I will continue to lead the company that way. Now from an operational perspective, you know, it would be run quite differently. That's where we really depart, and you probably heard from my words today in my shareholder letter is that, you know, I come from a background of running very capital-efficient businesses, really leaning into technology, finding out a way to drive more revenue per employee, and to really think about cash flow and EBIT long term and to drive that shareholder value. That's where you'll see a stark difference in really leaning into operational and capital discipline going forward.

Wonderful. All right. The second one I had was, so Dusty, specifically, given your background, to the extent I guess you haven't already explained, how will your go-to-market strategy change for the company's fintech efforts?

Yeah. It's a great question, Tom. You know, it's for us, it's just executing on what's working. As you can see from the back half of 2025, once we really leaned in, focused, and got the right players on the right seats in the bus, fintech is executing and we're growing. There's market demand there for good financial infrastructure. There is for credit products and payment products really in these industries that tend to be highly regulated or disenfranchised by the financial system. As we are saying here today, a lot of our team is first things first, and we're going to continue to go and execute on that. We believe that there is a tremendous TAM there to continue to tap into.

That's really our go-to-market strategy is just continue to execute efficiently on that strategy.

Excellent. Last one, then I'll get back in the queue. What are your capital priorities, including paying down debt, investing in the business, and then maybe even further out, engaging in strategic M&A?

Yeah. It really goes back just to the last question, Tom, is we have to show the market and our shareholders that we can run a capital-efficient business as it stands today. Our focus in 2026 is driving that Revenue per Employee, becoming more cash efficient and, you know, moving this company to, you know, profitability. To me, once you do that creates optionality around all these other areas of paying down debt, expanding through strategic M&A. Again, I would say first things first, and we have to go run a disciplined business, and then that will give us the optionality to start thinking about how we clean up the balance sheet or how we continue to strategically grow from there.

Great. Thanks, Dusty. I'll get back in the queue.

Thanks, Tom.

Your next question comes from a line of Darren Aftahi from Roth Capital Partners. Your line is open.

Yeah, good morning. Hey, Dusty. Hey, Jim. Thanks for taking my questions, and congrats on the new role, Dusty. I guess kind of going back to your roots, obviously being the founder of Credova and now running a company, your core focus was outdoor and firearms. I guess with maybe a bigger platform now with PSQ, like, where do you see kind of low-hanging fruit in payments and credit that would not be super capital-intensive to the business? Said another way, like, where do you see the biggest opportunity that's going to have the best return for you, kind of near-term view on your core areas of focus?

Yeah. Darren, good to hear from you. Thanks for being on the call. It's a great question, and you're absolutely right. We were very singularly focused at Credova when we were building that out. But one of the areas that attracted us to PSQ from an acquisition perspective is although we focus on an industry, we knew we shared a broader demographic with PublicSquare, both from a merchant and consumer perspective. Being in the PublicSquare ecosystem has really, you know, opened our eyes to that. Darren, there isn't, you know, a week that goes by that we don't get some type of call where someone has been turned off from payments for a whole host of reasons, from really just political-based reasons to, you know, a processor just doesn't like their business anymore.

This is where we thrive. We lean into the areas of the market where a lot of traditional fintech shies away from. One of those areas we've been recently doing that is the 501(c)(3) and 501(c)(4) space. That's an area that we think is a natural fit, and that's an area where we're seeing you know a whole host of cancellation risk especially on the payment side. You know for us we're just naturally seeing organically through our network as people know that we're leaning into these industries that have been disenfranchised by the financial system that we're organically getting opportunities.

Another one there that we're seeing, you know, opportunity is, Michael Perkins, who's now our Chief Operating Officer, came from, the company he helped build, which is LoanPaymentPro, that serves payments for the lending industry. That's another industry that's had a troubled past with, you know, just processing payments. We see that as another industry where we're going to have opportunity to lean into. Some of these are, you know, within our product roadmap. Darren, some of these we're just seeing organically come up as our brand becomes more associated with unique fintech infrastructure that's going to serve industries that have been mistreated by the financial system.

Great. A couple more if I could. I know in the past, you guys have talked about, potentially having a digital asset strategy. Is that still part of the go-forward portfolio, or is that something that maybe is this past predecessor?

Yeah, I mean, we're—as I kind of mentioned in my comments today, where we're really focused from a digital asset perspective is how do we really usher in what we believe is the most important part of digital assets is the new payment rails, specifically, stablecoins. To us, that is going to fundamentally change the payment rails. It's going to compress the payment rails, and it is gonna push more money back to merchants and consumers. It's going to make for more seamless and safe transactions. Our focus is very much there in this new season under my leadership, Darren, is how do we implement really digital assets or currencies into the payment stack?

As we discussed in the past, where we also think it's interesting for there and continue to as we explore how we fit into this new ecosystem is really that treasury as a service that we talked about. Once we start seeing stablecoins and digital assets running through the payment rails, we want merchants to be able to be their own bank and be able to hold that currency and make returns off of it. This is where we really see the future of digital assets and stablecoins is first the payment rails, and then how do we help and facilitate merchants be their own bank. This goes into our core thesis of that cancellation risk and taking out those multitude of intermediaries that can cause issues and cancellation within the payment stack.

Great. One last one from me. You mentioned AI, and obviously this headcount reduction, you'll be leaning into AI for, you know, the platform in general. Just as it pertains to kinda what you just mentioned about stablecoins, there's some other companies that are leaning into agentic AI and AI finance. I'm just wondering, AI is kind of a vague word, but when you say that, like, how encompassing is PSQ gonna lead into? Is that gonna be part of product offerings? Is it gonna be used internally? All the above? Just any kind of enlightenment would be great. Thanks.

Yeah. It's a great question. Yeah, right now we're internally putting together an AI task force. It's a big buzzword right now, but we wanna be very thoughtful and intentional about a comprehensive strategy within our business. We were very early adopters of AI on the Credova side. We started running machine learning and AI back to 2021, and we've seen significant results out of that and continue to train our models over a long period of time. Our view of it is what we'll call the AI industrial revolution is what we're doing is really increasing cognitive capacity. We see it as really a cognitive leverage tool. That to us for thinking work, which is a lot what we do, that's where we see the lever point.

Now what could have taken two or three people to cognitively work through a problem, it might just take one now. We're really assessing what are the leverage points, you know. There's a lot of people talking about it, and a lot of it comes down to how efficiently people are prompting and using AI. Is it a two-to-one? Is it a three-to-one? That's what we're assessing right now, and we'll definitely be talking to the market more about that as we go. That really addresses the internal, Darren. I would say the external, how we're really thinking about it is we're watching consumer lending particularly, is always a very late adopter because of the complexity of the regulation in the market.

We're very reticent when, you know, we're seeing a lot of people say, "Hey, we've got, you know, agentic shopping. We're going to see agentic lending." Absolutely. That comes with understanding how that fits within the regulatory framework. I think that's something we're positioned really well to do because we have worked in, you know, between the firearms industry and consumer lending, we've worked within very complex regulatory frameworks. We believe we're in a good position to take advantage of that and do it in a compliant way with regulations. I wouldn't expect anything in the near term there because of the complexity of the regulations around lending and payments.

That's helpful. Appreciate it, Dusty.

Yeah. Thanks, Darren.

Your next question comes from a line of Thomas Forte from Maxim Group. Your line is open.

Great. Last two for me, Dusty, but if you answer these in a provocative manner, I might ask a third. All right. I recognize it's early and the divestiture process is ongoing, but as of today, could you just discuss how you intend to use the proceeds from the sale of the brand segment?

Yeah. No, it's a great question, Tom. It's gonna go into, you know, exactly what we discussed today is how do we go and execute in 2026 on, you know, our product roadmap, and how do we do that cost effectively. That is really gonna be. It's not gonna be in expanding payroll and going and hiring people. As you know, we're really focused, laser focused on Revenue per Employee. It's really how do we go and continue to build out the markets that we're in, create product features that are gonna make us more competitive. A big thing we're really focused on, Tom, that leads into this is in the past, we were focused sometimes on revenue that drove good top line, but really bad gross margin, our overall unit economics.

It was there for a press release. That area is changed. Like, we're hyper-focused now on if we're going to get revenue, it's gotta be accretive revenue. It's gotta have good unit economics. That takes investment into the product. It takes thoughtful strategy into how we're targeting markets and how we're positioning ourselves in markets. The use of proceeds are gonna be there to drive those principles and move us closer to profitability.

Wonderful. All right. Last one, unless you can answer it, and I have a follow on. All right. Dusty, you've touched upon a couple metrics on the call. What would you say are the KPIs we should follow to measure your success in running the business?

Yeah, great question. Things we're really focused on, we're a growth company. We have to see that there is top line growth. Again, that top line growth needs to be strategic and needs to be smart. You know, a big part of what we're looking at is we wanna drive down that Adjusted EBITDA loss, and we eventually wanna turn that positive. I mean, that just has to happen over time as a business. There should be natural friction there between that revenue and then how that's impacting that Adjusted EBITDA at the end of the day. The other component that we're looking at very closely is our operating cash flow. Are we driving that down over time?

Because that has a lot to do with our unit economics, in our opinion, is how efficiently are we using cash based on the revenue we're driving. That's another core metric we're looking at. Of course, the one I keep hitting on is revenue per employee. I think this is going to be an extremely important metric in the era of AI. I think it's going to get completely repriced in the market as we start to leverage AI. It's something we're thinking about a lot in a way we're gonna see how efficiently are we leveraging AI by driving Revenue per Employee.

Excellent. All right. I'll end with a statement, and then you can treat my statement as a question if you want. All right. What I've appreciated as a longtime follower of PSQ Holdings is that I view your company as values-based or values-aligned organization. And what I appreciate is that I do think you have a very strong Fintech business. When you finish the divestiture process and focus on the Fintech business, I think investors will be real appreciative of the operating results there. And I am hopeful and confident that you'll unlock that. I'll leave it with a statement, and if you wanna treat that as a question, go ahead.

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, it's absolutely top of mind. As we said in the comments, we have several interested buyers at the table. We agree this is an important aspect. One of the things that I've done since I've taken this seat is, I have taken a deep dive into the EveryLife business, and we're continuing to make good, efficient gains there. We're treating it, even though it is in discontinued ops, we're treating it with the same philosophy as the Fintech business. We're gaining, I think, really good efficiencies. It's just making the asset more valuable and more attractive for a sale, Tom.

Thank you, Dusty.

There are no further phone questions. I will now turn it back to William for some written questions.

Thanks, Rob. Although most of the questions were answered in the active Q&A, we'll end with one last tech question that we received here to finish up the call. Dusty, with the recent pivot towards Fintech first and the leadership transition, what are the three most critical milestones for the company in 2026, and as it proves to shareholders that it can move away from its original quote-unquote political brand to a sustainably profitable market Fintech leader?

Yeah. That's a great question. Thank you for submitting that question. It definitely dovetails off what I was talking to Tom about. His statement at the end is right. We have to finish our divestiture process, which will allow us full and total focus on the Fintech business going forward. Then it is that natural tension between driving top line revenue, but making sure the unit economics of that top line revenue are being seen not only from reducing operating cash flow, but also reducing our loss on Adjusted EBITDA. That's how we're thinking about and measuring the success of our Fintech business and the pivot that we're making. We'll see material improvements in all of those areas as a mark of success in 2026.

That will conclude our question and answer session. Please go ahead.

Yeah. We thank you everyone for, and Tom, Darren, thank you for the thoughtful questions today. Much appreciated, the way you guys follow our story and, thoughtfully analyze our company and for the submitted questions this week as well. We look forward to doing Q1 results here in, a short period of time. Thanks, everyone.

That concludes today's conference call. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.