Open For Business

BFM Media

The flagship entrepreneurship show on BFM, featuring personal business stories from early stage start-ups, all the way to billionaire octogenarians in Malaysia and abroad. Notable guests include Martin Cooper (father of the mobile phone), Julian Assange (founder of WikiLeaks), Ralph Henry Baer (father of video games), Tony Buzan (Mindmap Guru), Isaac Tigrett (Hard Rock Cafe founder), Robert Kiyosaki (Financial Guru), Nick Vujicic (motivational speaker) and more. Tap into this valuable resource of shared experiences for the SME industry, which also touches on news, issues and trends affecting the business community and beyond.

  1. 1d ago

    Why Networking Is Broken, and What Happens When You Fix the Room

    Most professional networking events fail because they focus on collecting business cards rather than building genuine connections. Jude Ashvin realised this after experiencing a highly curated after-work social event in Belgium. Drawing on his background managing the business and logistics for the Malaysian live band Rhythm Nation, he decided to bring this refined approach home to Kuala Lumpur to tackle the growing epidemic of professional loneliness. Launched in January 2025, Just After Work is a networking platform designed specifically for the evening post-work window. Instead of sterile hotel ballrooms, the platform hosts vetted attendees at carefully selected venues to ensure high-quality interactions.  Jude talks to us about how Just After Work successfully vets and matches attendees to create a high-trust environment, the rollout of recurring concepts like Padel & Connect and The Women's Circle, and their upcoming regional expansion into Jakarta and Singapore ahead of a major networking festival in 2027. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    32 min

  2. 2d ago

    Why A ‘Big Health’ Entrepreneur Built A Nasi Lemak Brand

    Hagen Chen originally built a fully bootstrapped, seven-figure F&B group starting with Toast Maker, a healthy sandwich and coffee concept for busy professionals. However, his latest venture marks a significant pivot. Stepping away from health-focused cafe fare, Hagen recently launched Jiran-jiran, a brand new community-centric concept dedicated to serving traditional Malaysian nasi lemak. What makes Jiran-jiran particularly unique is how it was created. Hagen set himself an intense operational challenge to conceptualise, build, and launch the entire brand from scratch in exactly 60 days. This rapid execution ties directly into his core business thesis. He argues that a food brand's true competition is not the similar shop down the street, but the entire timeframe of a person's hunger. If a business fails to satisfy a hidden need within that specific window, they lose the customer completely. Hagen joins us to discuss the intense reality of successfully launching a restaurant concept in under two months, the operational mechanics of running a central kitchen to support a multi-brand group, and what healthy food brands often get wrong about the local market. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    30 min

  3. 5d ago

    The Cafe That Grew By Shrinking

    Most cafes do not survive ten years, and those that do typically rely on relentless expansion to stay afloat. Naj & Belle reached this rare milestone by doing the exact opposite. Founded in 2015 by Annabelle Liau and Datuk Najib Hamid of The Serai Group, the premium dessert and dining cafe launched in Subang with a foundation built on a deep family passion for hospitality. Famous for introducing Malaysia's first Watermelon Cake, the brand quickly expanded to a second outlet in Bangsar and began aggressively pushing toward a third, fourth, and eventually fifth location. That is when Bryan Chen, armed with a culinary background and years of watching the founders build the brand, made a critical intervention. Recognising the operational strain of rapid scaling, he made the difficult call to halt expansion, close underperforming locations, and completely overhaul their internal systems. By choosing to scale back and tighten their backend operations, the team prioritised business health over top-line growth. Today, Naj & Belle stands as a fully bootstrapped, seven-figure, family-run enterprise operating two highly sustainable outlets. Second-generation operators and Directors Bryan and Leora Chen talk to us about what it actually costs to manage premium food margins and labour, why they deliberately walked away from a multi-outlet expansion strategy, and their strategic plans for the next decade, which include a growing events arm, halal certification, and the dream of opening in Penang. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    34 min

  4. 6d ago

    Acquiring Your Way to the Top: GenCap's Blueprint for SME Succession

    Across Malaysia and Southeast Asia, thousands of profitable businesses are quietly approaching a major crisis. Their founders are entering their sixties and seventies, and the next generation either does not want to take over or is simply not ready to lead. This succession gap leaves many highly successful enterprises in a vulnerable position, threatening businesses that took decades of hard work to build. GenCap Partners was established to step directly into this void. Founded in August 2024, the Singapore and Malaysia-based acquisition firm targets the lower mid-market, focusing on businesses generating RM10 million to RM50 million in revenue. By raising capital and partnering with experienced operators, GenCap has already acquired a medical software provider, an accounting firm, and a premium preschool in under two years. Co-founders Zachary Lee and Zad Ngor explain why acquiring an established, profitable company is often a much smarter entrepreneurial path than building a tech startup from scratch. They explore the operational realities behind their three recent acquisitions, their ambition to build the region's first serial acquirer of SMEs, and what retiring Malaysian founders must know to confidently sell their life's work. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    43 min

  5. Jun 23

    MicFront's Formula for Turning Fear Into Confidence

    MicFront is not a traditional public speaking class; it is a psychology-first education model. Co-founded in 2017 by Mas Mahathir and licensed counsellor Dr Jolynn Ch'ng, the academy operates on the thesis that speaking anxiety is a psychological barrier rather than a mechanical flaw. This distinct curriculum differentiator has proven highly successful commercially, allowing the company to scale rapidly into a multi-vertical education business. Mahathir and Dr. Jolynn talk to us about how they successfully transitioned the business away from relying solely on founder-driven marketing to build a sustainable network, the specific criteria they look for when selecting franchisees, and the commercial strategy behind their upcoming attempt at the Malaysian Book of Records with a massive 1000-student speaking event. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    29 min

  6. Jun 22

    He Bet Everything On The Experience Economy. He Was Right.

    KC Purusotman began his career at just 15 years old by throwing parties. Twenty-five years later, he operates one of Malaysia's most diverse and dynamic hospitality companies. Continuum Hospitality Group manages an expansive portfolio that features the Pinkfish Music & Arts Festival alongside prominent nightclubs like Kyo KL. In the culinary space, the group also operates the rapidly expanding Malay fine dining brand Cili Kampung and the Italian restaurant Stefania. Beyond traditional hospitality, KC co-founded Lion Music Group, the label responsible for launching the hit Malaysian girl group Dolla. The journey to this scale was heavily tested during the pandemic. To survive the lockdowns that severely impacted the F&B industry, KC took out two personal loans and bought out a partner, betting everything that the post-pandemic experience economy would eventually return stronger than ever. That calculated risk paid off. Today, the group is aggressively expanding, pushing Pinkfish into massive arena shows and preparing to take its dining concepts regional. KC joins us to discuss what it truly takes to build, manage, and scale an operation that spans dining, nightlife, and music. We break down the complex financial realities of running a high-end nightclub, explore why building a music label made strategic business sense for a hospitality operator, and examine his ambitious roadmap to take his homegrown Malaysian brands to an international audience. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    39 min

  7. Jun 21

    The App Equipping the Frontline Workers Behind Every Great Experience

    Frontline staff in hospitality and facility management are often treated as the forgotten workforce. Many lack corporate email addresses and are forced to endure long, tedious training sessions through traditional learning management systems. Matthew Spriegel saw this disconnect and founded Atiom, a behavioural technology platform built specifically for service industries. Acting more like TikTok than Netflix, the mobile app delivers bite-sized, daily microlearning modules to build atomic habits without overwhelming the user. Instead of reading PowerPoint slides, employees use Atiom to practice handling difficult guest scenarios through AI-powered roleplay in a safe environment. The platform also offers peer recognition, real-time feedback, and a gamified points system to keep staff engaged and improve daily performance. Importantly, Matthew insists their AI strategy is strictly designed to augment human potential and support service connections, rather than replace human workers entirely. This focus on frequency over volume has proven highly successful. Atiom has doubled its revenue for three consecutive years without relying on massive institutional funding rounds. Currently serving major hotel groups like Accor and IHG, the company is now expanding aggressively into the facility management sector to support the hidden workers behind global corporate offices. Matthew joins us to discuss the business of behavioural change and his vision to build the category-defining performance platform for service-first industries. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    31 min

  8. Jun 18

    Turning an RM29M Heritage Site Into a Michelin Key Hotel

    In 2016, a faded 1930s Art Deco building in Kuala Lumpur's Chinatown sold for RM29 million. Once the tallest building in the city, its architectural history had been completely obscured by commercial signboards and neglect. Justin Chen and his family's Singapore-based real estate group, Arcc Holdings, acquired the building and spent six years carefully determining its commercial future. The result is Else, a 49-key boutique hotel that opened in September 2022 to fill a clear gap in the Malaysian hospitality market. Rather than importing foreign concepts, the property champions local creative talent through collaborations with Malaysian designers, chefs, and artists. Three years later, the hotel is operationally profitable, growing at a steady 15 to 20 percent year-on-year, and holds the rare distinction of being the only Malaysian property to earn both a Michelin Key and a spot on the Tatler Asia Top 100 Hotels list. Justin joins us to discuss the financial realities of heritage hospitality, and what the group plans to build next now that they have successfully proven their concept. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    39 min
See All (2K)

About

The flagship entrepreneurship show on BFM, featuring personal business stories from early stage start-ups, all the way to billionaire octogenarians in Malaysia and abroad. Notable guests include Martin Cooper (father of the mobile phone), Julian Assange (founder of WikiLeaks), Ralph Henry Baer (father of video games), Tony Buzan (Mindmap Guru), Isaac Tigrett (Hard Rock Cafe founder), Robert Kiyosaki (Financial Guru), Nick Vujicic (motivational speaker) and more. Tap into this valuable resource of shared experiences for the SME industry, which also touches on news, issues and trends affecting the business community and beyond.

Information

  • Creator
    BFM Media
  • Years Active
    2010 - 2026
  • Episodes
    2K
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2026 BFM Media Sdn Bhd
  • Show Website
    Open For Business

More From BFM89.9

You Might Also Like