The Story of Enable: Building the Future of B2B Incentive Management

The Story of Enable: Building the Future of B2B Incentive Management

Sometimes the biggest business opportunities come from unexpected places. For Enable, it started at a flying school in the UK, where a young software developer’s passion for aviation led to a discovery that would reshape how global companies manage billions in rebates and incentives.

In a recent episode of Category Visionaries, Enable CEO Andrew Butt shared how a chance encounter at a flying school sparked a business transformation. “I met the owner and Founder of what’s now the largest distribution company in the UK, a company called DCs Group, and he was learning to fly helicopters and I was kind of there building software applications,” Andrew recalls.

Those conversations revealed a critical pain point in the distribution industry. “There was a huge amount and an increasing amount of income coming in from suppliers in the supply chain in the form of incentives and rebates…and this clearly was becoming a huge part of profitability in the supply chain and also a real growth driver, but there wasn’t any modern software to manage it well.”

The status quo was alarming: companies were managing billions in incentives through “all sorts of manual systems, home built systems, excel spreadsheets kind of limping along trying to use active ERP systems which don’t do this well.” This inefficiency wasn’t just a minor inconvenience – it was leaving significant money on the table for distributors and manufacturers alike.

Enable’s solution transformed rebate management from a manual headache into a strategic advantage. But perhaps more importantly, they recognized that software alone wasn’t enough. They needed to elevate the entire practice of rebate management and the professionals behind it.

“These guys often might find it hard to explain to their colleagues and friends what they actually do…they are underserved and just not kind of celebrated at all. And these guys really are moving the needle,” Andrew explains. By creating a community around these practitioners, Enable didn’t just sell software – they created a movement.

The move to Silicon Valley marked a turning point in Enable’s journey. “Being here has helped…in terms of talent, some of the people we’ve brought on board, very skilled operators that have achieved hypergrowth before, and we wouldn’t have kind of bumped into them just in anywhere,” Andrew reflects. The ecosystem’s understanding of how to build category-defining companies has been crucial to their growth.

That growth has been remarkable: from 80 people to 450 in just two and a half years, with over 10,000 companies now using their platform. “We’re about 150% up year over year right now,” Andrew shares, demonstrating the massive market demand for their solution.

Looking ahead, Enable’s vision extends far beyond rebate management. “Every B2B company has different types of incentive agreements with its partners, with its suppliers, with its customers, and we want to be the definitive platform that everyone uses,” Andrew explains. “Just like DocuSign is the standard for Esignature, we want to be the standard for any B2B incentive.”

The numbers behind this vision are staggering. From their current base of 10,000 companies, Andrew aims to reach “a million in five years.” Their geographical expansion is equally ambitious, targeting growth from their current presence in five countries to “maybe 100 countries in five years.”

But perhaps most importantly, Enable envisions evolving from a software solution into “a platform where companies can manage their existing trading relationships and also discover new trading relationships and new incentive opportunities.” This transformation from tool to ecosystem could reshape how B2B companies structure and optimize their trading relationships.

What started with a conversation at a flying school has evolved into a mission to transform how businesses manage their most critical relationships. Enable’s story shows that category creation isn’t just about building new technology – it’s about recognizing overlooked opportunities, elevating underserved professionals, and ultimately creating new ways for businesses to work together.