Open For Business

For more information on BFM's SME event, click the link here. In 2014, the first SCORE Marathon drew 3,674 runners. Two months ago in Putrajaya, the 2026 edition drew 51,077 across two days - and was officially entered into the Malaysia Book of Records as the largest running event in the country's history. That is a fourteen-fold increase in twelve years, achieved by a company that has never raised a ringgit of external funding. When Patricia Tan and her partners founded SCORE in 2013, they built it the way you build a brand rather than the way you organise an event. Systems, governance, commercial thinking, and a portfolio of owned intellectual property: SCORE Marathon, KL Half Marathon, KL Women Running Festival, the Malaysia Pickleball Championship. Today SCORE is an eight-figure, profitable, entirely bootstrapped business. And it was recently appointed by Sport Singapore to organise the BYD Singapore International Marathon this December. Patricia joins us to talk about the economics of mass participation…

For more information on BFM's SME event, click the link here. Everyone has visited a car dealership, yet almost nobody understands the underlying economics. The actual margin on selling a vehicle remains thin; dealerships actually make their money through servicing, parts, and financing. Janessa Kuek operates AG Autoworld, a massive Johor-based Proton 4S dealer group and part of her family's larger enterprise. Under her second-generation leadership, the group recently swept eight major awards at Proton's global conference, securing the PROTON CEO Award and officially cementing its position as Malaysia's highest-volume dealer group. But the traditional auto retail model is currently colliding with a technological shift. Proton’s e.MAS brand now dominates the Malaysian electric vehicle market, capturing over sixty percent of national EV registrations this year. Because EVs require fundamentally less mechanical maintenance, the lucrative aftersales engine is disappearing. To combat this structural threat,…

For more information on BFM's SME event, click the link here. When Inbaraj Suppiah was last on this show, JomHack was a hackathon company - designing and running 48-hour innovation sprints for corporates and government agencies. It is now, to a considerable extent, a school. For the past year JomHack has run a free 30-day Python bootcamp. Daily classes, no fees, and no coding background required. 380 students have been through it, every place sponsored by JomHack itself. Running alongside that is something considerably larger. In 2024 Gamuda approached Inbaraj to design and implement a free AI Academy, in partnership with Google Cloud, training people in fullstack AI development over three-month cohorts. It is now on its eighth cohort in Kuala Lumpur, its sixth in Sabah, and its maiden edition in Sarawak . All of it free to the participant. Which raises the obvious question: who pays, and why? Inbaraj Suppiah returns to the studio to talk about how a company built on hackathons ended up building a talent…

The Contrast Club opened in Damansara Heights around three months ago: a communal Finnish stone sauna, pool-sized cold plunges, and a hot magnesium pool. You move between them - hot, cold, hot again - in a shared space rather than a private room. That communal choice is the whole idea. Contrast therapy already existed in Kuala Lumpur, but mostly in small rooms built for one or two people. Their bet was that recovery works better as something you do alongside other people — a third space that isn't home and isn't the office. Co-founders Paul Leo Versley and Lyv Koh join us to talk about building a physical, capital-heavy business from scratch, the operational reality of heating a sauna and chilling plunge pools in a tropical climate, and on their hardest problem - persuading people that recovery is a habit, not a treat. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Every day, Malaysians discard roughly 13,800 tonnes of food. A significant portion of this isn't consumer waste - it is perfectly edible surplus that merchants produce to manage the unpredictability of daily walk-in traffic. Value Food was built to solve this inefficiency. The app allows merchants to package their unsold inventory into "Value Bags," selling them at a fraction of the original price. This model allows businesses to recover sunk capital on food destined for the landfill, while providing customers with heavily subsidised meals. Despite being entirely self-funded, the startup has already achieved profitability and successfully onboarded over 500 merchant outlets, including global hospitality players like Hilton and Marriott. The platform drives revenue through three distinct streams: merchant subscriptions, per-bag transaction fees, and a unique monetization angle tied to corporate ESG reporting. By proving that sustainability can directly impact a merchant's bottom line, the platform has managed…

Spanish Cellar KL is a fully bootstrapped, three-million-ringgit gourmet import business supplying the Malaysian market with premium Spanish olive oils, farmhouse cheeses, wines, saffron, and cured meats. The company operates across three distinct revenue streams: B2B distribution to restaurants and hotels, direct-to-consumer retail, and private dining events. Founder Victor Dejesus’ trajectory in the F&B import sector is quite unconventional. After arriving in Malaysia on a corporate assignment with IBM, he resigned to remain in the country, launching his first Spanish import enterprise in 2000. He successfully scaled that initial company to six million ringgit in revenue before selling a 70 percent stake to local partners. However, as he watched that entity narrow its operational focus and scale to roughly RM30 million without him at the helm, he made the rare decision to walk away from the massive enterprise he created and restart his original, wider-ranging concept entirely from scratch. Victor joins us…

Otti is a corporate training and research institute focused on what it calls "Human-AI Synergy". The Institute teaches professionals to aggressively leverage AI for productivity without sacrificing independent, critical human thought. Co-founded in 2020 by neuroscientist Aster Wei alongside Cambridge-trained psycholinguist Chang Yin Jue and REDtone technopreneur Dato' Wei Chuan Beng, Otti now generates seven-figure revenue across five distinct streams, recording roughly 740 percent growth since its first operational year. The institute successfully secures B2B and B2G contracts, boasting a client roster that includes Novartis, Grab, Standard Chartered, DHL, and government entities like the Ministry of Health. Aster joins us to discuss bootstrapping a B2B training institute to seven figures, why she argues that most corporate AI training is selling the wrong framework entirely, and the difficult work of breaking founder dependency to build a company that can scale without its original creators. See…

Three women who have been friends for thirty years each built a business in wellness. Raja Jesrina Arshad scaled PurelyB into an eight-figure superfood brand. Diane Chia co-founded Millennia Village, an integrated lifestyle destination for active seniors. Sarah Lian built Supparetreat, a women-focused wellness community. Then they built something together. The Women Wellness Festival began as a gathering and is now, Malaysia's largest women's wellness event. Two editions, both sold out. The third edition runs on the 3rd and 4th of October at the Hyatt Regency Kuala Lumpur at KL Midtown - Two full days, more than fifty sessions, and a speaker list that includes squash legend Datuk Nicol David, and two-time Hyrox world champion Hannah Prescott. But behind the breathwork and the women's circles is a genuine operating business. Sponsors to sign, a venue to fill, a programme to curate, vendors to vet, hundreds of delegates to move between rooms on schedule, and a set of numbers that has to work. Sarah Lian and…

Paws Rehab is Malaysia's leading animal rehabilitation centre, operating as a highly profitable, mid-six-figure enterprise. Founded in 2012 by Sydney Chik, a UK-trained physiotherapist who traveled to the US to become a Certified Canine Rehabilitation Practitioner, the clinic addresses a gap in the local veterinary market. Offering advanced hydrotherapy, laser therapy, and pulsed electromagnetic field therapy, the fully bootstrapped business treats pets suffering from arthritis, spinal injuries, and paralysis. Over fourteen years, the clinic has processed thousands of complex medical cases and established a robust B2B referral pipeline with traditional veterinary practices. Today, Paws Rehab is expanding its commercial footprint beyond physical clinical hours by launching proprietary joint supplements, specialised rehabilitation products, and digital education platforms. Sydney joins us to talk about bootstrapping a niche medical service from day one, how to build a veterinary referral network from scratch,…

Modern factories operate on extreme precision, meticulously tracking yield histories, supplier metrics, and machine maintenance schedules. Yet, they possess almost zero institutional memory regarding their own hiring history. Revo is an HR technology platform built to fix this operational blind spot. Rather than replacing a company's applicant tracking software, Revo sits underneath existing systems to map exactly where a manufacturer’s best hires actually originate, pinpointing specific competitors, schools, and plants, to rank new candidates against historical success data so hiring managers "never hire from zero." The company was co-founded in January 2025 by former national squash players Andrew Lee and Randy Lim. Andrew joins us to discuss why hiring remains the only major business function historically immune to data, how the platform effectively identifies passive candidates and builds bench strength, and the strategic rationale behind leaving Silicon Valley to build a globally competitive enterprise…

Chef Ben Chua operates a highly specialised, fully bootstrapped sourdough baking studio out of Tropicana Avenue, Petaling Jaya. Following a deliberate, unconventional eight-year apprenticeship (which spanned a finance degree, a stint as a Grab driver, and an unpaid bakery internship while working as a commis chef at two-Michelin-starred Dewakan) he built a physical education business rooted entirely in human transformation. Over a thousand students from more than thirty nationalities have since passed through his doors at Reserved.KL. Revenue has jumped from RM100,000 in 2024 to RM350,000 in 2025, and is currently tracking toward half a million ringgit this year. The entire financial model however, rests on one founder in one room, with a strict hard cap of ten students per class. Chef Ben joins us to unpack the unit economics of a solo teaching business and the exact mechanics of escaping the founder bottleneck. We discuss the strategic paradox of attempting to scale via online courses when his core thesis…

After spending two decades building apps, websites, and CRM systems for Southeast Asian enterprises, Steve Wan watched his clients pour increasing budgets into traditional digital advertising models for diminishing returns. Realising that interactive campaigns effectively captured consumer attention but were prohibitively expensive to custom-build, he launched RewardinMe. Today, the bootstrapped, no-code platform allows brands to independently deploy interactive mechanics such as spin-to-win, scratch cards, and quizzes, across web, social, and in-app channels. Steve joins us to discuss the platform's core commercial proposition - zero-party data, what a massive logo list actually means for the bottom line of the company, and RewardinMe’s recently launched AI agent, designed to fully automate campaign strategy, creative generation, and reward recommendations. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

When award-winning architect Katrine Cheong last appeared on the show in December 2024, the conversation centered around the design mechanics of building Little Precious, a premium confinement centre in KL Eco City. Today, she returns to discuss a drastically different reality: the shifting economic ground beneath the maternity business. Since opening in 2020, her single-site, 20,000-square-foot facility has served over a thousand mothers, operating with 60-plus medical professionals and a strict one-to-two nurse-to-baby ratio. With packages starting north of RM31,000, it is effectively a luxury hotel that carries the exorbitant staffing bill of a private hospital. Katrine joins us to discuss the hard unit economics of the confinement industry. We unpack the mechanics of occupancy and break-even points, if she will continue to champion a single-site model rather than scaling, and the brutal reality of retaining specialised nurses amidst a national shortage and aggressive poaching from Singapore. See…

Ghostbird Coffee started in 2015 out of operational frustration. After transitioning from the IT industry to help found The Owls Café, Thomas Ooi and Tiong Hsien Qing realised they wanted absolute control over their most critical supply chain element: their coffee. What began as a small Seputeh roastery built to supply their own shops has scaled into a massive nationwide B2B operation. Growing from roughly RM1.5 million in 2020 to RM7.07 million in 2024, the fully bootstrapped business currently generates between RM600,000 and RM800,000 monthly, with a clear operational target to consistently clear a million a month. The business now executes across seven distinct revenue streams—spanning roasting, B2B wholesale, e-commerce, a retail coffee bar, co-roasting, roastery consultation, and running major events like the Malaysia AeroPress Championship. Beyond their operational footprint, the founders are making a massive strategic bet on Malaysian Liberica. Traditionally dismissed as a cheap, sea-level filler crop…

Ling's Focacceria operated on an incredibly focused business model: one type of dough, transformed into a menu of focaccia loaves and sandwiches featuring Malaysian flavors like otak-otak, and vadai. Built by a former corporate communications and copywriting professional with zero F&B background, the Mutiara Damansara shop survived a brutal first year of poor management and severe debt. By tightly restructuring the business, founder Choy Ee Ling successfully cut payables, grew year-two revenue by 12 percent, and entered her third year completely debt-free. By the time the shop’s lease was up for renewal, the bootstrapped business was generating over six-figures in revenue and sitting firmly in the black. Then, she shut it down. Ling joins us to discuss the mechanics of digging a retail shop out of vendor debt, how social media fundamentally changed her customer acquisition, and exactly what happens to a company's sales when a founder announces they are closing a profitable business for good. See…

Faramore is a bootstrapped, direct-to-consumer footwear brand solving a highly specific market gap: affordable, handmade shoes designed exclusively for women with wide, chubby, or bunion-prone feet. Operating on a strict pre-order model to maintain clean cash flow and eliminate excess inventory, the brand prices its entire catalogue under RM95. By leveraging organic customer acquisition through founder Farah Che Lamin's personal Threads account, Faramore has rapidly scaled to roughly RM500,000 in revenue within its first year. This hyper-niche focus is a calculated response to a harsh entrepreneurial reality. Farah previously spent seven years successfully building her first footwear brand, LANIA, only to shut it down after being overwhelmed by aggressive market copycats. With Faramore, she executed a decisive strategic pivot, betting that a product meticulously engineered from the ground up for an underserved demographic provides a structural moat that is fundamentally harder for mass-market manufacturers…

How do you turn a Pan Mee restaurant into a scalable FMCG business? For Meet Mee, the answer came when COVID forced the company to rethink how it could reach customers beyond its restaurants. Co-Founder Chan Foo Chuen shares how the company developed its instant Pan Mee, built a business across e-commerce and retail, and grew annual revenue from under RM1 million in 2020 to more than RM10 million in 2025, while still working towards profitability. We discuss: Why Meet Mee moved from restaurants into packaged food. The product development challenges behind instant Pan Mee. How the company built its e-commerce and retail business. Why growing revenue does not necessarily mean being profitable. Meet Mee's plans to increase production and enter the Indonesian market. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Founded in Kota Kinabalu in 2015, Borenos Fried Chicken is an independent fast-food chain that has steadily grown into a highly successful eight-figure enterprise. Over the past twelve months, the company has aggressively scaled from six to eleven outlets, officially establishing a foothold in the Klang Valley with locations in Puchong, Damansara Uptown, and Bandar Baru Bangi. Along the way, the business has proven its market demand, securing Grab's Crowd's Favourite Western Food award three years running and a BrandLaureate World Halal award. Despite posting strong per-outlet revenue in its home state, crossing the South China Sea has presented its founders with fresh operational hurdles. And after eleven years building brand equity and community backing in Sabah, Borenos has effectively had to start from zero in West Malaysia - acquiring customers from scratch while competing directly against hundreds of established global franchise outlets. In this Malaysia Day special, Co-founder & CEO Janice Yeo talks…

As residential floor plans across the Klang Valley continue to shrink, Mocof has built a highly profitable, seven-figure business by addressing the gap in spatial efficiency. Operating under the SPAZE label, the company manufactures premium transformable furniture, such as wall beds that fold into shelving and sofas that convert into beds, engineered with high-end European compressed-air mechanisms. The fully bootstrapped business has maintained steady 8 to 10 percent year-on-year growth for fifteen years, operating premium showrooms in Pavilion KL and Setia City Mall while securing lucrative B2B contracts with ANSA Hotel and Paramount Property. Despite this established retail and manufacturing success, founder Eric Cha is now betting the company's next aggressive growth phase entirely on software. Mocof is developing a proprietary AI layout tool designed to ingest condominium floor plans and instantly generate optimised, space-saving designs with fully validated upfront costs. Eric joins us to discuss the…

Atlas Collectif is a performance running apparel brand operating out of Kuala Lumpur and Dubai, producing technical kits built on design, performance, and sustainability. Within three years of launching, the brand has scaled to over RM3 million in annual revenue, recording 178 percent year-on-year growth. Operating with a lean core team of just six people, the business has successfully established 20 distribution points across five countries and secured major strategic partnerships, including a three-year deal with adidas that will evolve into a full capsule collection in 2027, and a partnership with the KL Half Marathon to outfit roughly 8,000 runners. Co founder Hugh Koh joins us to discuss building a globally competitive athletic brand from Kuala Lumpur. We also discuss the USD 400,000 seed round to accelerate its physical and international expansion, and how the company utilises community as their primary customer acquisition channel, building highly localised run clubs across five global cities. See…

Linaco is Malaysia's largest coconut ingredient manufacturer, exporting coconut milk, cream, and ready-to-drink coconut water to more than forty countries under brands like Rasaku and Cowa. Operating production facilities across Batu Pahat, Bandar Enstek, and Kalimantan, the company supplies modern retail supermarkets, restaurants, and industrial food manufacturers. Last year, the group successfully crossed half a billion ringgit in annual revenue, achieving this massive scale without taking a single ringgit of outside capital in two decades. Despite this financial milestone, the business is navigating the most violent period of coconut price volatility in living memory. With global benchmarks nearly tripling due to drought, pests, and international buying surges, Linaco is executing a massive RM400 million vertical integration strategy in Sabah to grow its own supply and protect its margins. Furthermore, after twenty years of strict self-funding, the business is officially preparing to enter an aggressive…

YonMing Group is a fully bootstrapped commercial vehicle aftermarket giant operating across Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, Myanmar, and Hong Kong. The business model spans five distinct revenue streams, including supplying genuine parts for European heavyweights like Volvo, Scania, Mercedes-Benz, and Iveco. Additionally, the company operates dedicated workshops and 24-hour breakdown teams, sells used parts and whole trucks, and serves as the appointed Malaysian distributor for Chinese manufacturer Shacman. Finance Director Kau Hau Jian joins us to unpack the hidden financial engine of parts distribution and the currency risks involved in a thin-margin industry. We also discuss the strategic impact of Chinese trucks disrupting a market traditionally dominated by European brands, the operational hurdle of digitising an industry built entirely on human relationships via the YM Super App, and how the impending electrification of commercial fleets will alter the economics of the parts…

A decade after pioneering equity crowdfunding (ECF) in Malaysia, why and how is pitchIN expanding beyond startup fundraising toward a complete private-to-public capital ecosystem? Kashminder Singh, Co-Founder and Chief Strategy Officer of pitchIN, joins Open For Business to discuss the platform’s evolution and ambitions as a digital funding hub serving mature, profitable enterprises alongside tech startups. Kashminder shares how pitchIN navigated the post-pandemic "funding winter" by diversifying into corporate advisory services, initial exchange offerings (IEOs), and secondary market liquidity via PSTX 2.0. He also breaks down their upcoming peer-to-peer (P2P) debt financing rollout, strategic alignment with regulatory updates for LEAP and ACE market listings, and plans for executive succession and fresh capital raising. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Supergulp is a bootstrapped functional beverage brand built on delivering scientifically recognised prebiotic fibres (specifically inulin and acacia gum) in a traditional soda format. Designed to address the high-carbohydrate, low-fibre diets prevalent across Southeast Asia, a single can delivers approximately half of an adult's recommended daily fibre intake. The strategic premise is straightforward: rather than forcing consumers to drastically overhaul their dietary habits, the company improves the nutritional profile of a product they are already drinking. When founder Julian Koh last appeared on the show in October 2024, the brand was just months old and stocked in roughly 80 local outlets. Two years later, the business has aggressively scaled to over 1,000 retail locations across Malaysia, Singapore, and Indonesia, with Thailand slated as the next target. Operating entirely without institutional funding, the seven-figure business has roughly tripled its revenue year-on-year and successfully achieved…

Let's Coopi Roasters is a fully bootstrapped micro-roastery that recently expanded into its own commercial shoplot, the Coffee Lounge. Generating between half a million and a million ringgit annually, the business model relies heavily on B2B operations, with 70 percent of revenue driven by wholesale contracts. The company successfully supplies custom espresso blends and single-origin beans to cafes spanning from Shah Alam and Petaling Jaya to Terengganu and Brunei, while retail sales and specialized coffee education make up the remaining 30 percent of the business. Operating with a collaborative mindset, founder Hamizah Hamzah is navigating the operational reality of scaling a wholesale business without yet owning her own roasting machine. Beyond the immediate economics of coffee, she is leveraging her previous seven-year career as a behavioural therapist through a strategic partnership with EmployAble. Together, they are developing targeted vocational and job-readiness training for neurodivergent teenagers…

RujukRent is a tenant screening platform built to verify a prospective renter's identity, employment, and rental history within three days, entirely with their consent. Currently operating as a fully bootstrapped, solo venture, the platform operates on a pay-per-use model for landlords while remaining free for property agents. Despite its early stage, the business has already secured a strategic memorandum of understanding with the Malaysian Institute of Estate Agents (MIEA) and is actively developing a commercial leasing version of its product. Founder Dinesh Venkitesan, a lawyer by training, joins us to discuss the harsh realities of building a data business in a market that severely lacks data. We unpack the strict legal parameters of what can and cannot be checked, the financial mechanics of a pay-per-use model without subscriptions, and the path to scaling a solo bootstrapped startup. We also discuss the competitive landscape, and the difficult question of whether tenant screening actually eliminates…

WAY Sauce is a Malaysian brand that makes all-natural Nyonya, ready-to-use cooking sauces and pastes , including rendang, satay, and pulut lemak, with zero preservatives, MSG, or artificial additives. Certified to rigorous BRC, IFS, and Halal standards, the family business operates across both its proprietary brand and white-label OEM manufacturing, exporting to markets like Japan, Taiwan, Singapore, the UK, and the United States. Despite this international footprint, the operational reality of producing all-natural products is incredibly challenging. Co-founder & COO Benson Tan joins us to discuss the intense financial squeeze of manufacturing FMCG goods, navigating the constant tension between volatile raw material costs and the hard price ceiling that retail consumers are actually willing to pay. We also unpack securing shelf space in seven international markets, and the complexities of building products around Malaysia's most volatile ingredients. Benson also shares a blunt operational philosophy for F&B…

Asian Fried Chicken is an independent food and beverage business operating out of Seremban that offers a cleaner approach to comfort food. The menu features fresh, preservative-free, and MSG-free fried chicken paired with wholesome sides like broccoli quinoa and sweet potato fries. Having successfully survived its first 15 months - a critical milestone given that 60 percent of Malaysian F&B businesses close within their first year - the company is generating six-figure revenues and achieving intermittent profitability. However, the operational reality of the business dictates that walk-in dining traffic alone is not enough to sustain growth. In response, founder Anandasingam Thuraisingam has executed a decisive pivot toward B2B catering, targeting corporate clients, schools, and hospitals. Following a successful partnership with the Negeri Sembilan Cricket Association, the business is doubling down on a specific niche: becoming Malaysia's premier sports, community, and event food partner. To fuel this…

What does it mean for a business to contribute to nation building? For Merdeka, we speak to six Malaysian entrepreneurs working across urban development, STEM education, the creator economy, social enterprise, rural communities and financial inclusion, and explore how their businesses are helping to build a more prosperous business ecosystem in Malaysia. Image Credit: Shutterstock See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

PurelyB is a wellness brand selling traditional Malay herbal supplements such as Pegaga and Tiger Milk Mushroom, formulated with Universiti Malaya-derived extracts. The company is actively expanding its physical footprint globally, establishing a US storefront, exhibiting at the Natural Products Expo West, and securing a finalist spot for the American natural products industry's highly watched NEXTY award. However, the business model looked completely different a decade ago. PurelyB originally launched as a venture-backed digital wellness portal, amassing 80,000 monthly visitors, acquiring a yoga community platform, and raising funds through an equity crowdfunding campaign designed for its own readers. Founder Raja Jesrina Arshad eventually executed a massive pivot, completely transforming the company from a digital media platform into a physical consumer packaged goods business with inventory, manufacturing, and a complex rainforest supply chain. Jesrina joins us to discuss the financial and operational…

In February 2026, after twenty-three years as part of a London-headquartered global network, M+C Saatchi Malaysia completed a management buyout. The agency is now one hundred percent Malaysian-owned, led, and staffed, officially operating as M+C Saatchi KARSA. While they retain the Saatchi name under a licensing agreement, the agency’s strategic direction, profit and loss, and future are now entirely in local hands. For founder Datin Sri Sharifah Menyalara Hussein (Lara Hussein), this independence is not a safety parachute, but a liberation - a chance to operate with the agility of a startup, backed by over two decades of industry experience. Alongside Chief Creative Officer Darren Lee, the leadership team is actively rebuilding the traditional integrated creative agency into a consultancy model. They are executing this pivot while battling fierce industry headwinds, including cautious clients, eroding margins, competitors undercutting prices, and the rising trend of in-housing. Datin Sri Lara and Darren…

Friends Craft Cooperative is Malaysia's largest community craft centre, operating a successful pottery and wood studio in Seksyen 13, Petaling Jaya. The fully bootstrapped business executes three distinct models at once: renting affordable studio access to hobbyists, training apprentices from low-income backgrounds through a sponsored programme, and manufacturing commercial furniture and restaurant tableware. Through this diversified approach, the cooperative generates between half a million and a million ringgit in revenue and has doubled its growth every year for the past three years. Founder Teoh Jia Chern operates the business with a sharp critique of the local artisanal space. He argues that much of the industry survives on "pity purchases" - expensive objects sold to T20 consumers and corporate CSR budgets entirely on the strength of the "handmade" label, rather than the quality of the product itself. Because this model relies on elite sustainability and a high price floor, it can never scale or…

The commercial space industry is moving away from exclusive government monopolies to an era where securing a rideshare slot on a commercial rocket is now accessible to private citizens. Ken Chan is proving exactly how accessible this new frontier is by building KENSAT, a 2U CubeSat, entirely from his home. Outfitted with an NVIDIA Jetson running a compressed language model for in-orbit computing, the satellite will soon launch on a SpaceX rideshare, marking the first time a Malaysian private individual has put a satellite into orbit. While launch costs have significantly decreased, Ken quickly discovered that internal satellite components remain heavily priced for institutional buyers and suffer from months-long lead times. With zero prior hardware experience, he designed his own power and radio boards to bypass these bottlenecks. After successfully passing the rigorous vibration testing required for launch, these homemade components became the foundation of Swordholder Technologies, a solo venture built to…

In 2012, three doctors opened a family clinic in Pasir Gudang with a simple but radical proposition: to provide good quality healthcare at prices ordinary working families could afford. Fourteen years later, that single clinic has rebranded as Mediwira and expanded into a formidable network of 22 outlets, comprising thirteen dental clinics, seven medical clinics, and two doctor-led medispas. It generates over RM20 million in annual revenue, and now the fully bootstrapped group has set a target to reach 100 outlets across Malaysia by 2030. What makes Mediwira unusual is its ownership structure. Rather than relying on salaried employees, every single clinic is run by a doctor or dentist holding real equity as a partner. To reach their 100-clinic goal, the group must find nearly 80 more clinician-partners willing to buy-in amidst a national doctor shortage, all while standardising operations across dozens of outlets without destroying the unique local ownership that makes them successful. Dr Mok joins us to…

In 2023, after nine years studying and working in New York, Michael Ang came home to join his family's hospitality business. Today PHASE2 runs full-service restaurants, casual dining, café concepts, a central kitchen, food production, consumer packaged goods, and beverage development under one roof, anchored by fifteen authentic Taiwanese-style outlets across the Klang Valley generating around RM30 million in annual revenue, entirely self-funded. MJ will tell you the food is almost the easy part. What's hard is everything underneath it: the operational discipline, supply chains, culture, and technology that determine whether a restaurant group can scale. He joins us to unpack why menus can be copied but operating excellence can't, and what a Southeast Asian expansion and eventual IPO ambitions could look like over the next five years. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It is one of the most common paradoxes in business: an entrepreneur builds a company from scratch, grows it to multi-million-dollar revenues, and ends up trapped inside the day-to-day machine they created. They work through grueling hours, put out operational fires, and realise that scaling up has also scaled their stress. Chan Boon Yong and Low Huoi Seong, co-founders of The Better Business School, join BFM’s Open For Business to discuss how their executive education platform helps operators transition into strategic leaders running profitable, purposeful assets. They break down their core curriculum, combining a "Courageous Leadership" mindset shift with the four pillars of the Scaling Up framework (People, Strategy, Execution, and Cash), to explain how neuroplasticity, Asian-centric case studies, and peer forum support prevent founders from defaulting back to old habits once training ends. Download The Better Business School 2025 Insights report for full key takeaways, and apply for their upcoming…

If you've ever tossed out a bottle of used cooking oil without a second thought, you've handed away a rapidly appreciating commodity. The aviation industry is racing to decarbonise, and the feedstock for that shift is sitting in home kitchens and restaurant fryers across the region. Vinesh Sinha has spent sixteen years building the infrastructure to capture it. Founded in 2010, FatHopes Energy is now Malaysia's leading used cooking oil collector and distributor with its own digital traceability system. But the biggest change this year is an estimated US$500 million Sustainable Aviation Fuel refinery in Port Klang. Vinesh joins us to unpack where the refinery stands after an independent feasibility study, the challenges and opportunities ahead, and how volatile fuel prices are shaping the economics of clean fuel at scale. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Unicorn insurtech Bolttech has raised over US$600 million to build its global B2B2C insurance distribution platform, which now processes US$85 billion in quoted annual premiums and operates across 39 markets. Rob Schimek, Co-Founder and Group CEO of Bolttech, joins BFM’s Open For Business to discuss his transition from corporate leadership at AIG to pioneering embedded protection technology. He explains how Bolttech's orchestration layer enables telecom partners, retailers, and device makers to offer tailored protection products, details the capital-intensive infrastructure required to scale across four continents, and outlines the company's financial transition toward sustained EBITDA profitability and self-funded growth. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Founded twelve years ago, Rhymba Hills has steadily grown into a highly decorated, internationally recognised premium botanical infusion brand. The fully bootstrapped business has secured the prestigious Great Taste Award in the UK and a gourmet award in Paris, while successfully exporting to highly competitive markets including London, Japan, and Dubai. The company has also been appointed as a Strategic Partner for Visit Malaysia Year 2026 and currently supplies premium raw materials to one of the largest tea companies in the country. Despite the string of global achievements, the operational reality of the business tells a story of immense entrepreneurial endurance. Rhymba Hills is profitable and successfully holds premium retail shelf space, yet after more than a decade of grinding through gruelling two-year sales cycles and overcoming constant rejection, the business still generates under a million ringgit in annual revenue. Founder Ciinndey Wong has navigated the long-steeped growth entirely on her own…

Grub by Ahong & Friends is a wildly popular, no-frills steakhouse tucked away in a shophouse behind Happy Mansion in Section 17, Petaling Jaya. Operating with a partially self-service model, and limited seating that strictly demands advance booking, the restaurant serves up premium cuts ranging from New Zealand striploin and Wagyu to Beef Wellington. The core menu is intentionally limited, supplemented by a rotating set of specials driven entirely by what Ahong feels inspired to cook. Funded by family and friends, the business generates six-figure revenue and has achieved early-stage profitability. However, the operational reality of running an independent restaurant is intensely demanding. Founder Ahong controls almost every single detail of the business himself, to the point where simply keeping the doors open is considered his biggest milestone of the past year. The fiercely outspoken Ahong talks to us about the industry's toughest issues, offering sharp critiques on the hidden costs of underpriced food,…

If you sell products in a physical supermarket, decades of established tracking by companies like Nielsen ensure you know exactly how much product moved, your market share, and what your competitors charged. But in the Southeast Asian e-commerce sector, a market that generated US$157 billion in gross merchandise value last year, that clarity completely vanishes. With product listings constantly changing, sellers bundling items into single SKUs, and categories named differently across six countries and six languages, the online market lacks a single source of truth. After spending a decade navigating this, Simon Torring partnered with former McKinsey advisor Sarabjit Singh to build a solution. Founded in 2022, their data company Cube successfully estimates online sales down to the individual SKU level. Today, the platform serves over 20 enterprise clients, including L'Oréal and IKEA, and has grown to a team of more than 70 staff. Following a US$3.7 million Series A funding round in April 2026 led by Betatron…

Malaysia is ageing faster than almost any other country in Asia, yet the infrastructure to support this demographic shift barely exists. Addressing this massive gap is Seniora, a fully bootstrapped, seven-figure integrated elder care operation. Spanning across centres in Taiping, Penang, and Johor Bahru, the business offers a comprehensive suite of services including elder day care, home nursing, physiotherapy, and active ageing programmes. Crucially, every member of their care team is certified in Montessori dementia care, ensuring a highly specialised approach to cognitive wellness. Having recently opened two new centres, secured a Malaysian distributorship for cutting-edge cognitive wellness technology, and launched a Senior Learning Community, the business is scaling aggressively. Founder Chew Siew Mei joins us to discuss the realities of building an elder care operation in a market that does not yet fully believe it needs one. We unpack the complexities of running day care centres, the uphill battle to…

Hotels face a persistent shortage of marketing talent who truly understand their operations, while generalist agencies often fail to grasp the precise nuances of hospitality. Having spent over two decades collectively inside premium and luxury hotel brands, Lai Yen Yee, Melissa Mohan, and Juliana Yong saw this gap firsthand. In 2018, Yen founded Purple Giant to provide the industry with marketing strategies that not only look impressive but are actually executable on the ground. Today, the proudly female-led boutique agency serves major hospitality and lifestyle brands across Malaysia, including Shangri-La Rasa Ria, and Sheraton Petaling Jaya. Delivering everything from public relations to content production and campaign management, Purple Giant has grown into a bootstrapped, early seven-figure business. The agency achieved this scale entirely through referrals and word of mouth, successfully securing highly coveted recurring retainers from premium hotel properties. Yen and Melissa join us to discuss the…

Cloud Space is a Malaysian cloud and artificial intelligence transformation company that delivers cloud migration, AI deployment, cybersecurity, and managed services. Despite widespread industry hype, its co-founders identified a critical flaw in the market: 80 percent of local businesses remain stuck in the AI pilot phase. Most organisations understand the need for these technologies but consistently fail at execution due to unprepared personnel and poor change management. Cloud Space focuses on the people and processes required to actually solve this last mile of operational transformation. In just three years, the company has scaled to over 50 professionals and nearly RM30 million in annual revenue, experiencing a 130 percent year on year growth trajectory. This momentum earned them two consecutive Google Cloud Partner of the Year awards and recently culminated in a massive RM18 million strategic investment from Gamuda. Two of its six co-founders, Aaron Chong and Kishan Singh join us to discuss the…

Wahine Capital was built around a persistent problem within the financial ecosystem. Women in Malaysia outlive men and are disproportionately exposed to financial vulnerability during divorce, illness, and widowhood. At the exact moment they most need access to their family's financial information, they very often cannot get it. To solve this, the fintech company built W Vault, a platform that successfully earned recognition at the UN Women's Empowerment Principles Awards and was shortlisted by the Securities Commission's fintech accelerator. Despite these notable achievements, Wahine Capital is officially closing down. Co-founder Rejina Rahim joins us to unpack exactly what happened and the timeline of when she finally knew the business could not continue. We discuss the tangible impact the closure has on its existing users, what she is proudest of, and the crucial operational lessons she would apply differently. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

According to a 2025 report, ransomware is present in 88 percent of all data breaches affecting small-to-medium enterprises, making them the primary targets rather than just collateral damage. Despite the severe financial and emotional toll these attacks take on small companies and non-profits, the cyber security industry remains largely tailored for massive corporations, creating a severe state of "cyber inequity". Recognising this massive gap, Gaurav Keerthi left a two-decade career at the very top of Singapore's national cyber security and defence infrastructure to protect these highly vulnerable underdogs. Gaurav founded Strongkeep to become the "IKEA of cyber security," abandoning complex, over-engineered bespoke solutions in favour of highly accessible, affordable protection. By bundling four essential pillars - anti-malware, phishing protection, credential management, and secure server configurations - the platform dramatically raises the security baseline for companies without dedicated IT teams.…

When you eat a croissant from a Malaysian bakery chain or a mousse cake from a hotel buffet, there is a strong chance the chocolate coating was made in Shah Alam. Founded in 2008 by Ng Boon Yeap and Ir. Dr. Ng Yuit Ju, Le Bourne Sdn Bhd is one of Malaysia's leading manufacturers of industrial chocolate. Rather than competing for consumer attention on retail shelves, the company operates as the crucial hidden ingredient behind the scenes, supplying premium couverture and compound chocolates to food manufacturers, bakery chains, pastry schools, and FMCG brands. Operating heavily in the B2B space, Le Bourne prioritises strict quality control in a market often flooded with cheap compound alternatives. This commitment is supported by a state-of-the-art manufacturing facility equipped with an in-house laboratory that monitors every batch. This operational excellence has allowed Le Bourne to successfully export 80 percent of its production to over 20 countries across Asia. Boon Yeap joins us to discuss the…

What started in 2005 as a developer training center called iTrain has evolved into 1337 Ventures, one of Malaysia's key players in the startup business and investing ecosystem. Over twenty years, Founder and CEO Bikesh Lakhmichand has backed startups and founders, guiding them through the "Valley of Death." However, with early-stage venture capital tightening across Southeast Asia, 1337 Ventures is shifting its playbook. Bikesh joins BFM’s Open for Business to discuss why the firm is expanding its focus toward traditional small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and mid-market companies, helping them professionalise board structures, clean up financial governance, and prepare for institutional capital or public listings Bikesh also shares his pragmatic framework for vetting AI startups, the mechanics of 5x–10x founder buyouts as an alternative exit path, 1337's rollout of boutique private equity and multi-strategy funds, and plans to bridge Indian deep-tech solutions into Southeast Asia. We Discuss The…

When Nuraizah Shamsul Baharin last appeared on the show in March 2024, MADCash was focused on building an alternative credit score for women marginalised by traditional banking through zero-interest microloans. Since then, the platform has scaled massively, disbursing over RM4 million to more than 1,500 female entrepreneurs across Malaysia, Singapore, and Tajikistan. This tangible impact recently earned them major international acclaim, winning the Catapult Inclusion Southeast Asia 2025 prize and becoming the very first Malaysian company to win the prestigious EFICA award in Dubai by live audience vote. Despite this global recognition and rapid growth, MADCash is undergoing a profound structural evolution. Realising that their foundational principle of purely zero-interest funding is unsustainable beyond project-to-project lending, the team is boldly shifting to Murabahah financing. By implementing this Shariah-compliant, cost-plus model, the platform can generate its own revenue from lending activities,…

What began as a tool to help kindergartens, tuition centers, and music academies digitise their paperwork has evolved into an operating platform for 3,000 learning centers across Southeast Asia. Today, AOne manages everything from scheduling and attendance tracking to automated tuition billing. Founder and CEO Dr. Darren Gouk returns to BFM’s Open for Business as AOne attempts to raise up to RM6 million at a pre-money valuation of RM20 million via equity crowdfunding (ECF) campaign on pitchIN. He addresses the company's path to profitability, its RM3.5 million break-even target, and the stickiness of this platform. Darren also details how AOne is deploying fresh capital into predictive agent AI, unlocking direct-to-consumer marketplace monetisation for parents, and positioning the business for an eventual M&A exit with global EdTech conglomerates. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.