PSQ (NYSE:PSQH) Chairman and CEO Dusty Wunderlich outlined the company’s strategic pivot toward fintech and payments infrastructure in a recent discussion, describing a shift away from the earlier vision of pairing a marketplace with payments and credit products.
Leadership changes tied to a fintech pivot
Wunderlich, formerly CEO of Credova, said Credova was acquired by PSQ Holdings in March 2024 after the businesses identified a fit between Credova’s buy now, pay later (BNPL) offering—focused on underserved and highly regulated markets including firearms and the outdoor industry—and what PublicSquare was building with its marketplace.
Wunderlich said PSQ’s board decided in August of last year to pivot “fully into the fintech division,” where the company was seeing the most growth and best margins. He said this drove changes in the executive team toward members with fintech experience and ultimately led the board to select him as CEO.
Repositioning: from commerce platform to payments and financial infrastructure
Wunderlich said the company has repositioned itself toward payments and credit, describing fintech as a more capital-efficient model than running a marketplace or direct-to-consumer brands. He contrasted the current capital markets environment with the “ZIRP days,” when marketplace models could be scaled with significant cash and sustained losses, and said that environment has changed.
Operationally, he described simplification as focus: previously PSQ had marketplace, fintech, and brands divisions, which he said fragmented leadership attention. He said the company is concentrating on payments and credit, which can be grown with a smaller team and less capital.
He also emphasized the use of artificial intelligence to drive efficiency, noting that the business used AI in underwriting as early as 2021 and has continued adopting it across the organization. Wunderlich said he expects AI adoption to materially shift “revenue per employee” over time and described it as part of a broader push toward improved unit economics, reduced cash burn, and higher long-term profitability.
Stablecoins and a “compressed” payments stack
Wunderlich said he views the payments industry as entering a “renaissance” period, and argued that the GENIUS Act has “fundamentally changed the payments market” by ushering in stablecoins. He described stablecoins as compressing a legacy payments stack with many layers—some of which he said were built on decades-old code—reducing inefficiency and “fees on top of fees.” He said the result should be faster and more seamless transactions and more dollars flowing to merchants and consumers.
He said PSQ’s customer base may be among the first adopters of stablecoins because the company has built trust in highly regulated markets with “cancellation risk,” and because it has less exposure to legacy payment rails than some incumbents.
However, he said PSQ does not support stablecoins today. He described the company as evaluating several technology providers and prioritizing distribution—seeking feedback from merchants in its ecosystem and working to secure exclusivity for stablecoin payments—before selecting which technology to integrate. He also said stablecoins could expand PSQ’s opportunities into cross-border transactions, which he described as high-cost and complex, and also into underserved or high-risk industries.
EveryLife divestiture process underway
Wunderlich provided an update on the planned sale of EveryLife, saying PSQ decided in the third quarter of last year to divest the business, hired a banker, and has run what he described as a “fulsome process.” He said multiple interested buyers are currently deep in due diligence and that the divestiture is expected to occur over the next couple of quarters. He added that proceeds would go to the balance sheet and be reallocated to the fintech business.
Growth drivers, product strategy, and KPIs
On operating momentum, Wunderlich noted that PSQ’s payments business is relatively new, saying traditional payment processing launched in November of the prior year, and described it as starting from a “very nascent base.” He said growth in payments is expected to come more from new merchant acquisition, while the credit business is more mature and is seeing more organic expansion, including increased repeat customers. He also said a single enterprise merchant on the credit side can materially affect year-over-year growth, and that PSQ has “material enterprise clients” in its pipeline.
Wunderlich described PSQ’s current offering as:
- Consumer credit/BNPL, primarily in e-commerce (with some brick-and-mortar presence)
- Payment processing across card networks (Visa and Mastercard), credit/debit, and ACH
He said the company plans to expand credit into B2B lending, leveraging payments data to underwrite merchants and provide liquidity. On payments, he said PSQ expects to expand into alternative rails, including stablecoins.
Wunderlich also argued that bundling payments and credit creates an advantage against competitors that partner across those product lines. He said PSQ can offer one integration and one pricing structure, and that the higher-margin credit business could allow payments to act as a “loss leader” to acquire customers. He added that the credit application process yields “300+ data points,” which can be used to market back to consumers and drive traffic to merchants.
In terms of vertical expansion, Wunderlich said the company is leaning into segments with cancellation risk, highlighting nonprofit and political fundraising as areas of focus. He also said PSQ uses encrypted vaults for payments data where merchants “own the keys,” which he described as important in politically sensitive categories. He mentioned travel as another industry with elevated chargeback and underwriting complexity.
On PSQ Impact, Wunderlich said the political fundraising product is live but early. He cited WinRed as a major competitor on the Republican fundraising side, and said WinRed processed about $2 billion in the 2024 presidential election cycle (federal only). He estimated the political fundraising TAM at $2 billion to $4 billion, and described the broader global nonprofit TAM as about half a trillion dollars. For the nonprofit segment aligned with PSQ’s focus, he estimated a $5 billion to $10 billion opportunity over the next few years.
Asked what investors should watch over the next 12 months, Wunderlich repeatedly pointed to revenue per employee as his key metric, tying it to operating cash burn reduction and EBITDA improvement.
About PSQ (NYSE:PSQH)
PSQ Holdings, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, operates an online marketplace through advertising and eCommerce in the United States. It operates through two segments, Marketplace and Brands segments. The PSQ platform is accessible through its mobile application and website. The company also sells diapers and wipes to mothers online under the EveryLife brand name. PSQ Holdings, Inc is headquartered in West Palm Beach, Florida.
