SME Today talks to Paul Kelbie and James Barrington Madders, the founders of Incentifi.
Incentifi is the first ever employee benefits and rewards platform that integrates travel rewards, gamified incentives and employee wellness. It encourage employees to essentially get their steps in and prioritise preventative wellbeing to receive rewards and discount off their travel and holiday – you don’t have to run or be a fitness fanatic. No matter what level/ role you might be.
How did you start your business?
incentifi started from something deeply personal. Both of us had experienced loss in our close family circle, which made us step back and really think about what matters most: health, time, and the people around us. We first connected on Instagram around three years ago through a shared interest in business. At the time, one of us was working in recruitment and reached out to the other, who was already working in luxury travel consultancy and continues to do so today, for support with a recruitment trip. What started as a simple collaboration quickly developed into something more. After meeting in person for the first time, it became clear that we shared the same vision and ambition, and from that moment, we knew we wanted to build something together. The name incentifi actually came from booking sales incentive trips in the early days. We first launched as an online incentive travel service across cities worldwide, but we quickly realised it wasn’t scalable because it became too labour-intensive. That’s when we stepped back and reshaped it into a subscription platform, giving businesses access to wholesale travel experiences to reward and motivate their teams. Burnout and stress are real challenges. We saw a gap, people need clear, motivating tracking tied to meaningful wellbeing incentives. We’ve now started internal testing, and our soft launch is just around the corner, which is really exciting!
How do you evaluate the past ups and downs of your business?
We’ve had moments that felt like they could really change things, including nearly securing a high-profile investor from the professional football industry, but unfortunately, it didn’t quite happen. Experiences like that have taught us not to celebrate too early. That said, we’ve also had some real highs, such as securing partnerships with well recognised brands like Healf, which feels like a genuine milestone and a great sign of the direction we’re heading in.
What is a typical day like for you?
No two days are ever quite the same, but we do have regular calls with the team to stay aligned and keep things moving. A lot of the day is spent chatting with partners and brands, exploring new opportunities and making sure everything is ticking along as it should, so it’s pretty full on most of the time. One of us is still running a business in the US, which means a mix of early starts and late evenings depending on time zones. However, a big focus for us right now is content and brand building, just making sure we are telling the story properly and that people really understand what incentifi is and how it is genuinely different from competitors. There is always a lot going on at once, but that’s just part of building a business from scratch.
What are the biggest challenges to being an entrepreneur?
One of the challenges we have had is access to funding, particularly as we are in the early stages with a bold idea and no revenue yet. It means we must find creative ways to demonstrate that our startup is worth backing, even before the numbers can back it up. And through all of it, we have to keep finding our own incentives to keep going, even when the path gets hard.
How do you handle the stress that comes with responsibility?
Exercise, full stop. Staying physically fit isn’t separate from running a business, it’s a big part of it for both of us. It helps clear the head, keeps energy levels up and makes it easier to deal with whatever the day throws at us. As we are responsible for a company, a team and a vision, looking after our physical and mental state is not just a personal thing; it directly affects everything and everyone around us.
How do you take care of your own and your workforce’s mental health?
It starts with exercise; that’s the foundation for both of us personally. But beyond that, it really comes down to honest, clear communication with the team. We’re in startup mode, and we’re upfront about what that means. It’s not a nine-to-five environment, and the mindset required to build something like this isn’t for everyone. We’d rather be straight about that from day one than have people feel blindsided by the reality. Being founders is a blessing and a curse, often at the same time. What we try to do is make sure everyone around us genuinely buys into the mission, not just the role, and feels like a real part of what we’re building together. That shared sense of purpose is what carries people through the difficult stretches and moments.
What’s your definition of success?
The day we are not attached to a phone, or a screen is, genuinely, the day we will know we’ve made it. But success is a journey, not a destination. Being healthy comes first and everything else follows from that. As a business point, success is knowing that the platform we’ve created genuinely helps people, and that organisations have happier, more motivated and more engaged teams because of incentifi. Our dream is that the platform we’ve built actually changes how people feel about their health, their work and their daily life. Personally, it’s about knowing that something that started as an idea has gone on to positively impact so many lives and, in doing so, has changed ours too.
How did you win over your first investors or business partners?
Genuinely, it came through a social media message rather than a polished pitch. One of our first investors had been following one of us on social media and drawn in by the way both of us encourage staying fit whilst running a business, and health being a non-negotiable rather than a luxury. Having that shared view became the foundation of a real relationship, so when we started raising, they invested in us almost immediately, which we feel incredibly grateful about. It was less about a pitch deck and more about belief. People invest in people first, and the best reason you can give an early investor is the confidence that we, as founders, are dedicated to making the business a success.
What’s your most satisfying entrepreneurial moment so far?
Having an Ivy League lecturer, someone far more accomplished than we are, look at what we’re building and call it “brilliant” is genuinely humbling. It’s also incredibly meaningful when people choose to invest their trust, their name and their money into our startup. One other moment that really stands out is when someone, having seen what we had done previously, looked us in the eye and said, “Yes, they would back us.” Particularly in this economic climate, with the rising cost of living, people investing thousands of pounds because they believe in incentifi is something not taken lightly, not for a second.
Have you ever felt unsure of a decision you made?
Never. Not because we have always been right, but because every decision is made with clarity and we stand by it. We know we will make mistakes as we grow the business, but we will learn from them and do better next time, so that incentifi becomes a platform that genuinely helps people and improves their daily lives.
How do you plan on growing your business?
We plan to scale first through employers, using travel and financial incentives to drive the kind of engagement that traditional wellbeing platforms have honestly never achieved. From there, the ambition is to expand into insurance, healthcare, and consumer channels, becoming the platform that sits at the heart of health, wellness, incentives, and commerce. We want incentifi to be the most engaging employee wellbeing platform in the UK, and then one day to take incentifi global. But the ultimate goal is to help reset the relationship between health and money, because healthy behaviour should create real economic value for everyone, not just those who can already afford premium wellness.