Kyle Christiansen likes to build: Businesses, onsite activations, even tech. "If I can build it, I will, prior to paying someone to do it," he says. It's how Ignite ended up with Spark, its own field operations platform, after nothing on the market fit. But when it came to a CRM, he made a different call.
Kyle is the founder of Ignite Productions, a veteran-owned experiential agency that has grown from a one-person side project to 10 full-time employees in the US, and worked with more than 200 brands, from Liquid Death to OpenAI and Claude. They bring brand experiences to life through retail sampling, street teams, festivals, trade shows, mobile tours, and brand ambassador programs. Kyle built a strong client roster by hiring operators who have planned big budgets and worked the field, and by investing in tech that handles the busy work, so his team can run big programs without adding headcount.
Check out the whole conversation here:
Build or Buy: Salesforce, HubSpot, Copper, Pipedrive, Custom-Built CRM, or Close
Kyle ran Ignite out of his own head until the team grew and Slack filled up with questions about who said what to which client. No stranger to vetting technology, Kyle tried several CRMs, and even built his own, before landing on Close.
Salesforce and HubSpot could do the job, but something as simple as adding a custom field meant hiring an engineer for work that added nothing for Ignite’s clients. Kyle wanted a CRM he could manage and change himself. Copper fit Ignite’s Google Workspace setup, but he couldn’t turn the data into the views his back office needed. Pipedrive was cumbersome to use and made it hard to see the full breadth of the business or get data out.
Kyle also tried building his own CRM and gave it about a week.
“I learned that I could build the CRM, but after putting a V1 test with the team, it would take me 40-plus hours a week just to maintain it, fix it, and develop it.”
Kyle Christiansen, Founder at Ignite Productions
That’s when he committed to Close, roughly two and a half to three years ago. It did the core job well and could still bend to how Ignite works.
Why Close: Simple for the Team, Open Enough to Build On
Kyle was upfront with every CRM he talked to: Ignite would never be a big seat count, and people outside of sales needed to see what was in the CRM. At Close, he found a team that took that seriously and worked through a setup that fit Ignite, without asking him to pay extra for support.
In Close, Kyle found three things he hadn’t gotten elsewhere:
- An interface anyone could pick up without CRM experience
- A team willing to work through Ignite’s specific needs with him
- An open API that let him connect his CRM data to the rest of his tools
Through that API and Close’s MCP server, Kyle gets CRM data to everyone who needs it without paying for users who will never work a pipeline.
Close also scales with Ignite’s clients. A single brand can generate thousands of opportunities a year for Ignite, each with its own contacts, owners, and event date, and Kyle keeps every one in Close. Those deals feed the Claude-built dashboards Ignite’s operations team works from, so operations sees what’s coming before a deal is signed. That matters because staffing and logistics often have to start before a deal is officially inked, and “a music festival is not moving.”
Where Ignite Builds: Spark and a Connected Stack
Field reporting was a different story. At Red Bull, Kyle waited 48 to 72 hours for event recaps while leadership asked what a five- or six-figure activation had actually moved. Other platforms he looked at didn’t fit the needs of custom field programs. So Ignite built Spark, which sends clients check-ins, photos, and results in real time.
On a single night, Ignite can run hundreds of sampling activations in bars across the country. As soon as the field team submits a recap, and clients can log in and walk into their Monday morning meeting ready to speak to how the event performed. That’s the information a brand needs to decide whether to pivot, run PR, or put paid social behind a launch while it still matters.
"This tool has allowed us to build that trust with our clients, for them to see the wins and also the things that didn't go great."
Kyle Christiansen, Founder at Ignite Productions
The Result: Competitive Client Quotes and Earlier Event Prep
With Close at the center of its connected stack, Ignite has automated about 95 percent of its operation and deployment cycle. That gives it an edge in two places: Competitive client quotes and a head start for operations on every event. By the team’s estimate, the stack saves 40 to 60 hours of manual coordination in weeks with hundreds of events, and gets operations started on prep one to two days earlier at full capacity.
The edge on quotes comes from staffing client projects with fewer people, since automation does a lot of heavy lifting. Kyle puts the savings for a single client anywhere from thousands to hundreds of thousands of dollars in headcount they no longer have to fund. Ignite also relies on Close for the forecasts behind its cash flow and P&L planning. That early view protects his team and gives visibility into cash flow.
“I want to ensure my employees are not always feeling like their backs are against the wall on last-minute asks. And previously in other CRMs, they were.”
Kyle Christiansen, Founder at Ignite Productions
More of Ignite’s work now comes from retainers, working closely with brands to create full event calendars. And the brands keep getting bigger. Recently, Ignite worked OpenAI’s DevDay in San Francisco.
“Only eight years ago, I decided to go all in, and I was lucky to just find a brand that paid my team’s salary. Now I’m able to stand in San Francisco and work on a project with the leading AI lab. I never thought I would be there today.”
Kyle Christiansen, Founder at Ignite Productions
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