Long-time NYC energy services / data shop (EnergyScoreCards, Predict). Rebranded a Momentum-adjacent AI tool in 2026 — discussion below is about whether to compete or partner.
Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery? — May 11–12, 2026 #
Source: #sales-general
Jason (Product/BuildSci) — 2026-05-11
I wonder why BP is doing this at all though.
Marc (CRO) — 2026-05-11 11:08
why they are doing it at all? (don't you think all these shops understand that they do ultimately have to evolve?_
or why doing it at all without us?
Marc (CRO) — 2026-05-11 11:09
one more thing that I shoudl have thought to put into this bucket.... while I don't think this company is imitating us... they have some similarities:
The key insight wasn't "better heat pumps" — it was that the real bottleneck is all the repetitive human coordination work around projects:
educating owners
collecting building data
sizing systems
generating scopes
rebate paperwork
contractor coordination
quote comparison
project sequencing
Their thesis is basically that retrofit markets don't scale when every project is treated like bespoke consulting.
Their implementation is single-family specific and still heavily dependent on Manual J / modeling assumptions in a way I'm skeptical of. But strategically, the core idea feels right:
the winning platforms will compress soft costs, repetitive advisory work, and project development friction into standardized workflows + software.
Also notable: they frame themselves as reducing contractor overhead, not replacing contractors. That feels very similar to how we should continue positioning Momentum.
Jason (Product/BuildSci) — 2026-05-11 11:11
I also listened to that volts podcast last week--thanks for flagging here. They also own the customer relationship, provide a service (not just SaaS), and sub out the work to the contractors. That's pretty different from what we're trying to do.
Marc (CRO) — 2026-05-11 11:21
I didn't get the sense that they subbed to contractors as the GC. Was that your take?
Sealed was definnitely "turnkeying" with contractor subs and while I admired Andy Frank over there, I think they kinda went close to under and have severely pivoted. This David Roberts interview of Andy remains one of my all time favorite pdocasts... I literally agreed with everything Andy had to say and that never happens.... so it would be instructive to go back and see what he got wrong... and I think subbing to contractors could have been part of it: https://podcasts.apple.com/ie/podcast/volts-podcast-andy-frank-on-how-to-sell-whole-home/id1548554104?i=1000560077775
(along with betting on the IRA...)
I do think that owning or at least having some influence over the owner relationship is important to us. Kinda like Procore... a software company targeting contractors... but not till the owners told the contractors to use it. I think that a truly accessible market facing website is part of that.... along with proven track record from early priming the pump projects with whoever will work with us now.
Jason (Product/BuildSci) — 2026-05-11 11:30
This is from around minute 50 of the podcast:
That's right. We're one of the only entities in the market not trying to pull dollars out of their pockets. When I was a small contractor, owner-operator, everybody was trying to sell me something. We have a different perspective in that we just want to help these guys build their businesses. Dollars only go one way. That does mean the homeowners pay us to get the work done, and we backstop everything. We take on the risk of these projects. We're accountable to change orders, we're accountable to the success of the project, and we're accountable for the warranty over the long haul of the work as well. That puts the pressure on us to make sure we get it done correctly and puts us in the trenches to make sure we really understand how to get it done well.
That's how you make money. You're getting more from the homeowner than you're giving to the contractor, because otherwise you wouldn't make any money and there would be no reason to do this.
Marc (CRO) — 2026-05-11 11:45
ok. you are right. i guess there is much more pressrue to do that with single family. So that doesn't apply to us. This company may in the end do no better than Sealed. What I liked most was the problem they picked to work on. And I also like how they broke down the business model:
Their argument was that retrofit contractors may show decent gross margins on paper, but a huge amount gets burned on:
One particularly insightful point: in a fully commission-based sales model, there is NO scaling advantage on customer acquisition. Whether you're a small contractor or a huge one, acquisition still costs ~8–10% of every deal forever. That creates a structural ceiling on margin improvement.
The pitch was essentially:
contractors could potentially make less revenue per individual job but achieve better margins, higher close rates, and more total annual revenue if project development and sales friction were compressed through software + standardized workflows.
(I have been telling the consultants the whole less money per deal but more deals things forever and they haven't bitten fwiw though -- I think the difference is that the pitch to contractors is simply: do more contracting and do less of the stuff you hate... while with consultants, they consider some what we do to be core)
Jason (Product/BuildSci) — 2026-05-11 11:50
Totally agreed on that
Jon (Customer Success Lead) — 2026-05-11 17:55
A bit late to this party but a few thoughts:
Wow Bright Power did a bigger rebrand on that tool than I expected. Last I heard it was just a new module for EnergyScoreCards ("Predict"), and it wasn't clear how much marketing or sales support it would get. Seems like a makeover though I still have a lot of questions.
Bright Power has been interested in doing more decarb over time, in better using their big database, in creating a platform for the whole retrofit cycle at least since I joined in 2007. It's true they could have decided (and still might!) to use our platform, but it's not shocking and not new that they want to have their own.
Do we have to compete everywhere or is there still a way to say that Momentum works for standard NYC buildings and if you have a big national portfolio with larger buildings there may be value in the Bright Power platform....? And are they interested in the full contracting/ implementation piece we're working on? I guess we'll see.
NESEA: Bright Power and EDK submitted proposals to showcase their AI tools (though without much detail). In the content committee call late last week I suggested we try to get them to present together... I'd like to discuss this with some of you to figure out what makes sense for us and for NESEA before I take the next step.
I just scheduled time with Colleen at Bright Power next Friday 5/22 and my plan was to also discuss the data sharing/buying/exchange idea. Seeing how "Predict" has evolved I think I'll need to huddle with one or more of you before this meeting.
Marc (CRO) — 2026-05-11 21:28
I wish them the best... per my other string.... one thing on my workplan that I will not do is: "Explore a data product with Bright Power"
That said... if we have scopes in Momentum that need Cx bid out... I am sure their retrofit services team will be interested in bidding and I will reach out to them for that.
Jon (Customer Success Lead) — 2026-05-12 09:41
Makes sense @Marc (CRO), and to be clear, while I was not asking you to pursue data sharing with Bright Power it was in my workplan as a small item under Thought Leadership on page 2 which I think is related to both Future Housing and potential improvements to our data model "May include exploring acquisition of EnergyScoreCards data set." If this is something you don't want me to pursue - let me know and let's discuss!
Strategy Notebook
Long-time NYC energy services / data shop (EnergyScoreCards, Predict). Rebranded a Momentum-adjacent AI tool in 2026 — discussion below is about whether to compete or partner.
Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery? — May 11–12, 2026 #
Source: #sales-general
Jason (Product/BuildSci) — 2026-05-11 I wonder why BP is doing this at all though.
Marc (CRO) — 2026-05-11 11:08 why they are doing it at all? (don't you think all these shops understand that they do ultimately have to evolve?_ or why doing it at all without us?
Marc (CRO) — 2026-05-11 11:09 one more thing that I shoudl have thought to put into this bucket.... while I don't think this company is imitating us... they have some similarities:
The key insight wasn't "better heat pumps" — it was that the real bottleneck is all the repetitive human coordination work around projects:
educating owners collecting building data sizing systems generating scopes rebate paperwork contractor coordination quote comparison project sequencing
Their thesis is basically that retrofit markets don't scale when every project is treated like bespoke consulting.
Their implementation is single-family specific and still heavily dependent on Manual J / modeling assumptions in a way I'm skeptical of. But strategically, the core idea feels right: the winning platforms will compress soft costs, repetitive advisory work, and project development friction into standardized workflows + software.
Also notable: they frame themselves as reducing contractor overhead, not replacing contractors. That feels very similar to how we should continue positioning Momentum.
https://transcripts.volts.wtf/streamlining-the-difficult-work-of-whole-home-retrofits
Jason (Product/BuildSci) — 2026-05-11 11:11 I also listened to that volts podcast last week--thanks for flagging here. They also own the customer relationship, provide a service (not just SaaS), and sub out the work to the contractors. That's pretty different from what we're trying to do.
Marc (CRO) — 2026-05-11 11:21 I didn't get the sense that they subbed to contractors as the GC. Was that your take?
Sealed was definnitely "turnkeying" with contractor subs and while I admired Andy Frank over there, I think they kinda went close to under and have severely pivoted. This David Roberts interview of Andy remains one of my all time favorite pdocasts... I literally agreed with everything Andy had to say and that never happens.... so it would be instructive to go back and see what he got wrong... and I think subbing to contractors could have been part of it: https://podcasts.apple.com/ie/podcast/volts-podcast-andy-frank-on-how-to-sell-whole-home/id1548554104?i=1000560077775 (along with betting on the IRA...)
I do think that owning or at least having some influence over the owner relationship is important to us. Kinda like Procore... a software company targeting contractors... but not till the owners told the contractors to use it. I think that a truly accessible market facing website is part of that.... along with proven track record from early priming the pump projects with whoever will work with us now.
Jason (Product/BuildSci) — 2026-05-11 11:30 This is from around minute 50 of the podcast:
That's right. We're one of the only entities in the market not trying to pull dollars out of their pockets. When I was a small contractor, owner-operator, everybody was trying to sell me something. We have a different perspective in that we just want to help these guys build their businesses. Dollars only go one way. That does mean the homeowners pay us to get the work done, and we backstop everything. We take on the risk of these projects. We're accountable to change orders, we're accountable to the success of the project, and we're accountable for the warranty over the long haul of the work as well. That puts the pressure on us to make sure we get it done correctly and puts us in the trenches to make sure we really understand how to get it done well.
That's how you make money. You're getting more from the homeowner than you're giving to the contractor, because otherwise you wouldn't make any money and there would be no reason to do this.
Marc (CRO) — 2026-05-11 11:45 ok. you are right. i guess there is much more pressrue to do that with single family. So that doesn't apply to us. This company may in the end do no better than Sealed. What I liked most was the problem they picked to work on. And I also like how they broke down the business model:
Their argument was that retrofit contractors may show decent gross margins on paper, but a huge amount gets burned on:
commissioned sales reps (~8–10% of deal value) uneccessary truck rolls manual quoting + sizing homeowner education rebate/admin overhead low conversion rates
One particularly insightful point: in a fully commission-based sales model, there is NO scaling advantage on customer acquisition. Whether you're a small contractor or a huge one, acquisition still costs ~8–10% of every deal forever. That creates a structural ceiling on margin improvement.
The pitch was essentially: contractors could potentially make less revenue per individual job but achieve better margins, higher close rates, and more total annual revenue if project development and sales friction were compressed through software + standardized workflows. (I have been telling the consultants the whole less money per deal but more deals things forever and they haven't bitten fwiw though -- I think the difference is that the pitch to contractors is simply: do more contracting and do less of the stuff you hate... while with consultants, they consider some what we do to be core)
Jason (Product/BuildSci) — 2026-05-11 11:50 Totally agreed on that
Jon (Customer Success Lead) — 2026-05-11 17:55 A bit late to this party but a few thoughts:
Marc (CRO) — 2026-05-11 21:28 I wish them the best... per my other string.... one thing on my workplan that I will not do is: "Explore a data product with Bright Power" That said... if we have scopes in Momentum that need Cx bid out... I am sure their retrofit services team will be interested in bidding and I will reach out to them for that.
Jon (Customer Success Lead) — 2026-05-12 09:41 Makes sense @Marc (CRO), and to be clear, while I was not asking you to pursue data sharing with Bright Power it was in my workplan as a small item under Thought Leadership on page 2 which I think is related to both Future Housing and potential improvements to our data model "May include exploring acquisition of EnergyScoreCards data set." If this is something you don't want me to pursue - let me know and let's discuss!