Case Study
How onCORE Origination achieves 10x faster lead generation and 3 GW of projects with Paces
Ryan Zeiser, Founding Partner of onCORE Origination
Background:
Ryan Zeiser is a founding partner of onCORE Origination alongside Joseph Tassone Jr. and Kory P. Fretto. onCORE is a leading renewable energy origination team dedicated to identifying and procuring strategic locations for renewable energy projects, including battery storage (BESS), utility-scale & community solar (PV), EV charging, data centers, and wind. They have originated over 3 GWs and 300 projects over the last three years.
Unique approach:
onCORE uses an "assembly line approach" where specialized team members rapidly identify high-volume opportunities. They work to deliver "Triple Net Positive" projects through comprehensive upfront due diligence that de-risks sites early, aligns stakeholder interests, and ensures only the highest-quality opportunities with the highest chance of NTP reach clients.
The challenge
For onCORE Origination, efficiency isn't just a competitive advantage; it's the foundation of their entire business model. But in the early days, achieving the speed and scale they envisioned proved challenging.
The team needed a way to execute their assembly-line approach at the volume required to keep GIS analysts, cold callers, and project managers working at full capacity, without sacrificing the quality of sites entering their pipeline.
- Manual, fragmented workflows: onCORE's team toggled between hosting capacity maps, Google Earth, and parcel systems to build lead lists, spending countless hours manually reviewing street views and satellite imagery to assess site viability.
- Scaling constraints: As an early-stage company, Ryan personally built every lead list, in addition to managing other critical business functions, resulting in an unsustainable workload that limited the company's ability to grow.
- Speed to site control: As co-founder Joe Tassone emphasizes, "Sprint at the beginning, not at the end." This philosophy of frontloading due diligence is core to onCORE's model, but executing it required the right data infrastructure to identify and vet sites rapidly before competitors could secure the best properties.
The solution
Paces' platform and team provide onCORE with the tools and support needed to execute their unique operational model at scale:
- Streamlined search functionality: Instead of drawing polygons and running complex queries in traditional GIS systems, onCORE's team can now specify their criteria and generate large lead lists in minutes, keeping their entire assembly line moving efficiently.
- Centralized, high-quality data: With critical datasets like zoning, environmental, grid infrastructure data consolidated in one platform, onCORE no longer toggles between multiple systems—enabling them to rapidly vet sites with tools like Permitting Predictor and confidently advance more projects to NTP.
- Partnership and responsiveness: Beyond the platform, onCORE actively collaborates with the Paces team to adapt features for their unique needs, particularly for distributed generation BESS projects that require specialized workflows.
"By having all that data in one place...we can build those lists much quicker. And now with Permitting Predictor and the zoning side of things, we can also go in and we might axe out a whole county just from moratorium or something like that. So again, it's all about efficiency."
The impact of Paces on onCORE's workflow and success is clear:
Scalable growth across markets
onCORE confidently expanded from a few markets to 20 markets with a 10-person team, delivering over 3 GWs and 300 projects in just three years using Paces' nationwide data coverage.
Operational efficiency unlocked
Paces enabled Ryan to balance lead generation with other business responsibilities in onCORE's early stages. Today, their GIS team rapidly builds and vets large lists, consistently supplying team members with quality leads.
10x faster lead generation
What previously took 8 hours to identify 500-1,000 quality property owners now takes 80 minutes, enabling onCORE to operate at unprecedented speed and volume.
"I don't know how another company could do what we do without [Paces]. You just won't be able to be as efficient or achieve the scale that you're looking for."
A deeper look:
onCORE Origination's story with Paces
When Ryan Zeiser co-founded onCORE Origination in 2017 alongside Joseph Tassone Jr. and Kory P. Fretto, they brought an unconventional edge to renewable energy development. The co-founders have a background in telecom, where they'd spent over 20 years in development and site acquisition. This background proved invaluable as they transitioned into renewables, but the early days still required a scrappy, hands-on approach.
onCORE's origins trace back to work with Borrego Solar in New York and Massachusetts on community solar projects. At the time, advanced GIS systems were virtually nonexistent. "Back then, it was only a couple of markets and there was not much data or advanced GIS systems," Ryan recalls. The team flipped between hosting capacity maps and Google Earth, manually overlaying parcel data. "It was pretty basic and super time-consuming. It was all manually done."
Despite these limitations, onCORE found early success. After delivering a couple of hundred megawatts for Borrego, they tackled Con Edison's 5 MW standalone DG BESS projects in New York City. JoeTassone Jr, co-founder of onCORE recalls: “We've done well over 100 projects in the city across Staten Island, Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens - helping our client build out one of the largest portfolios of 5 MW DG BESS projects in ConEd. And this was with limited tools, just built on hustle and relationship building.” This became onCORE's education in BESS development and a launching pad for their business.
By 2022, they rebranded as onCORE and began scaling and building a team nationwide. However, growth exposed a critical gap: their assembly line approach, where GIS analysts, cold callers, and project managers each focus on their core strengths, only works if site identification produces large, high-quality lead lists quickly. As an early-stage company, Ryan personally handled all prospecting while managing other founder responsibilities. "That's a full-time job in itself," he says. The manual process was unsustainable.
That's when onCORE discovered Paces. As one of Paces' earliest users, Ryan immediately saw its potential. The input-based search function eliminated hours of manual work. "You can just put exactly what you're looking for into a search rather than having to draw polygons... that was a game changer for us."
But more critically, Paces consolidated the data onCORE needed to identify risks upfront: zoning, environmental, and three-phase power information that many markets and other providers don't readily provide. Tools like Permitting Predictor allow the team to eliminate entire counties with moratoriums before wasting resources on outreach. This upfront vetting prevents costly mistakes: "If a property looks good on the surface, we send a letter and they call us back. Our project managers talk to them for 20 minutes and then they hit a flag with zoning. That's an hour of wasted time across the team that we can cut out just by having more data up front."
The comprehensive coverage also became essential to onCORE's expansion strategy. As they constantly added new states, they switched to a nationwide plan. "We're very careful about where we enter, who we work with," Ryan explains. "We never want to over promise and under deliver." Without reliable three-phase data and comprehensive datasets, entering new markets would mean significantly more upfront work and resource constraints. But with Paces, onCORE has the foundation to evaluate and pursue more viable sites. "Paces is awesome. This is our foundation. Every time we go work with a customer, if they don't have Paces, we're telling them to get Paces," says Joe.
Today, onCORE has delivered over 3 GW and 300 projects across 20 markets, expanding into data centers, EV charging, and other emerging opportunities. The transformation has been profound for Ryan and onCORE. "Knowing that we can very quickly enter into a market, build a site list and get letters, calls, and emails going…it's made our business a lot more scalable."
