Preston Holmes

Preston Holmes

Cofounder and CEO, Ascend Performance Marketing

Door to door community solar in New Mexico and Colorado. Knoxville, Tennessee native.

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About

I started Ascend Performance Marketing in January 2026 at 21. We are a door to door sales company that signs local families up for community solar. Subscribers get solar credits on their electric bill and pay less for those credits than they are worth, with no panels and nothing to install. The power comes from solar farms built right in their community.

Today we have 40 reps on five teams: three in Albuquerque, one in Alamogordo and one in the Denver area of Colorado. We sign up subscribers for SunShare and US Solar, serving PNM customers in New Mexico and Xcel Energy customers in Colorado. Our best day so far was 800,000 kilowatt hours booked in a single day. I spend most of my time recruiting, training and leading the team, and I still knock doors.

I grew up in Knoxville, Tennessee. At the Webb School of Knoxville I played on the 2021 soccer team that went 20 and 0 and won the Division II-A state championship, then played Division I soccer at East Tennessee State University. Building a sales floor turned out to demand the same things as a locker room: standards, coachability, and people who show up every day.

Preston Holmes under a solar panel at a community solar farm Rows of solar panels at a community solar farm under a blue sky
Out at a community solar farm, the kind our subscribers help support.

The path

  1. KnoxvilleGrew up in East TennesseeKnoxville is home, and I am still a Tennessean.
  2. 2021State champions at WebbThe Webb School of Knoxville went 20 and 0 and won the Division II-A state title. I was also vice president of the school's Latin club.
  3. 2023Division I soccer at ETSUDefender for the East Tennessee State Buccaneers men's soccer team. Roster page
  4. The roadDoor to door, every productPest control, political canvassing, satellite TV and fiber internet, where I built and managed a fiber sales team.
  5. 2026Started Ascend at 21A door to door community solar company, started in January.
  6. Now40 reps, five teams, two statesAlbuquerque, Alamogordo and the Denver area, with a best day of 800,000 kWh. Next is a million.

For press

Preston Holmes is the cofounder and CEO of Ascend Performance Marketing, a door to door sales company that signs households up for community solar in New Mexico and Colorado. He started it in January 2026 at 21 and has grown it to 40 reps on five teams. He grew up in Knoxville, won a state title with the Webb School of Knoxville and played Division I soccer at East Tennessee State.

Interviews, speaking and partnerships:

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