IgniteDrive Labs
A site manager and an attendant reviewing a tablet together on a car wash lot
IgniteDrive Labs · A field-first studio for professional car washing

We work on hard problems in car washing.

We get close to the operation and the people running it, work out what's actually happening, and build something that makes it better — a system, research, technology, or a product.

Friction is where the opportunity is. It isn't always where you think it is.

See what we're working on Bring us a problem →
On the bench · Autumn 2026

What we're working on right now.

Client work, funded research, and products we're building ourselves. Four problems, one way of working.

Work 01 Client work Enterprise estate

Car Wash Tech Stack Design

What does your operation actually need technology to do?

Most enterprise stacks were never designed. They accumulated — a platform here, an integration there, a spreadsheet to cover the gap. We map the system the operation actually runs on, including the parts nobody licensed: the morning export, the printed checklist, the person in the middle who makes two systems talk.

The answer might be a car wash platform, a product from another industry, an integration, an automation, something built — or leaving a working thing alone. We don't sell any of them.

One engagement, four parts
01 Map the real stack. Software, data, integrations, spreadsheets, PDFs, manual handoffs and the workarounds people built to cope.
02 Find the friction that matters. Duplicate entry, reporting nobody trusts, tools bought and never used. Complexity is fine when it's earning something.
03 Explore the options honestly. Buy, connect, automate, build, remove, or leave it alone — judged against the operating problem, not the category.
04 Sequence the decisions. What stays, connects, changes, disappears, gets bought or gets built — and in what order the operation can absorb it.
ACCUMULATED INTENTIONAL POS CRM SHEET PDF TIME & ATT OPS CAMERAS WE MAP IT POS CRM OPERATING DATA REPORTING RETIRED
The output
Current-state map Future-state design Prioritized roadmap

If the work lands on the POS, Sentinel's independent platform evidence becomes an input — requirements, options, remaining gaps. Often it lands somewhere else entirely.

SAME WORK WHAT HAPPENS
Work 02 Measuring Standing program
Sentinel / Technology Intelligence

POS Intelligence Program

De-risk the biggest technology decision you'll make this decade.

12 areas  ·  700+ checks  ·  Every six months

Every six months we run each major platform through the same standardized work, then verify what we see at working washes. POS companies do not pay to participate. We don't rank, score, or declare a winner — the result is a realistic picture of what life with each platform is actually like, so we can help operators make a more informed, confident decision.

No scoreNo rankingNo winnerJust real data
Talk to us about this →
Diagram of four connected rings of people linked into a loop
Work 03 Installing Client engagement

The 90-Day Sales System

What separates the high performers from those struggling to break past member plateaus?

Years spent inside car wash sales programs taught us the system rarely breaks at the script. It breaks in the chain of accountability.

Ninety days on the frontline work — script, incentives, training, coaching — and on the chain that has to hold it: CEO, operations, regional, site manager, salesperson.

Behavior Coaching Measurement Cadence
Work 04 Building IgniteDrive-funded product

Sentinel

We wanted to understand the industry better. So we started mapping it.

Nobody can tell you how many tunnel car washes exist, who owns them, or what changed last quarter — not precisely. We're building the model that can: the physical footprint first, then companies, markets, technology, and movement over time.

Coming Q4 2026
US map of illustrative car wash operator density by state, with metro clusters and recent acquisition callouts (Mountain-West entry, Sunbelt roll-up, Southeast add-on)
Sentinel · location intelligence, work in progress US · operator density

Different problems. Same way of working. Every engagement is bounded and ends in something you can point to.

A system built A decision made Performance that moved

An artifact is only worth something if the operation is measurably better for it. We agree up front on what should move, and we go look at whether it did.

Bring us a problem →
The Lab notebook

Where the thinking gets worked out in public.

Site visits, operator interviews, data studies, things we learned building Sentinel. Writing is how the ideas get tested before the work does.

All field notes →
POS & technology landscape 8 min read

The car wash industry isn't behind — we're thinking about it wrong.

"Ten years behind retail" is a comparison, not a diagnosis. Underneath it are three specific frictions, and only one of them is about software.

The constraint isn't technology. It's absorption.

Read the note →
Membership behavior 5 min read

Do rejection streaks hurt sales performance?

Rejection fatigue is a myth — the real streak effect runs the other way.
Sales systems 8 min read

Sales performance is a system problem, not a talent problem.

The best teams aren't better at selling — they're better at running a system.
Membership economics · LTV 7 min read

Membership health is about LTV — but not the way we're calculating it today.

One average LTV can hide two completely different businesses.
Why this Lab exists
Kyle Doyle, founder of IgniteDrive Labs Kyle Doyle — Founder
Car washing since 1994 Built car wash POS Enterprise operator Product builder

Kyle Doyle

inConnect on LinkedIn →

Three decades, one habit: find a messy car wash problem, understand it properly, turn it into a system, build something around it.

Kyle grew up in the car wash industry, attending trade shows and working alongside his dad starting at 16. Since then his career has moved between operations, technology, sales, marketing and product development. That range is what IgniteDrive Labs is built around: seeing the whole problem, not just one piece of it.

Compuwash CEO  ·  Built the first cloud-based car wash POS  ·  Sold to Sonny’s
Russell Speeder’s → Summit Wash Holdings VP Marketing & Customer Experience  ·  Joined pre-PE  ·  Helped navigate the transition and growth from 18 to 40 locations
Salespath Founder  ·  Built the industry’s first frontline sales enablement platform  ·  Sold to Rinsed
Rinsed VP  ·  Salespath & industry strategy

The Lab is small on purpose. You work with Kyle, and with the specialists the problem calls for.

Bring us a problem

What isn't working as well as it should?

If it's consequential, a bit messy, and worth understanding properly, we want to hear about it. Operators, technology companies, suppliers, investors — it always starts the same way.

No scope required. First call is a conversation, not a pitch — and if we're not the right people, we'll say so.

Message sent

Thanks, — we'll be in touch.

We read every note personally. Expect a reply within two business days to start the conversation.