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. 1 DAY AGO

    Foodie Media: From RM1 A Day To RM75M IPO

    From making less than RM1 a day as a Penang food blog, to ringing the bell on a RM75 million ACE Market IPO. Foodie Media’s co-founders share their recipe. In 2016, it was just a side hustle, a simple food blog called Penang Foodie fueled by cents from AdSense. Fast forward 9 years, and that side hustle has transformed into a digital media juggernaut with over 46 million followers across a portfolio of 37 lifestyle brands, ranging from KL Foodie to Malaysia Homie. Fresh off their 2025 ACE Market debut and now armed with RM50 million in cash reserves (as of their Q1 results), husband-and-wife duo Lim Pinn Yang and Ang Rui Mei join BFM’s Open For Business to unpack their story from scrappy content creators to public company executives. Learn about: The "4 C's" Engine: How they evolved from pure media publishing to monetising Creators (KOLs), Commerce (live streaming), and Community (offline events like the KL Foodie Fest). The Pasar Pagi Playbook: How Ping Yang's childhood mornings watching his father sell multi-tools at the morning market helped shape the company's content-to-commerce philosophy. Co-Founder & Spouse Dynamics: The messy reality of dating while building a startup, resolving fierce disagreements, and learning to divide operational roles. Surviving the Algorithm: How they mitigate platform risk ("rented land") across Meta, Google, and ByteDance to sustain 46 million followers. The IPO Reality Check: Navigating a RM75M public listing, why you shouldn't build a company just to go public, and the psychological toll of checking your own stock ticker. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    46 min

  2. 2 DAYS AGO

    How AquFish Is Turning Fish Farms Smart

    Aquaculture is one of the fastest-growing food production sectors, but it’s also exposed to volatility, rising feed costs, water quality risks, and unpredictable climate patterns. AquFish believes artificial intelligence can change that. Founded by Rafiq Razali, AquFish is building AI and machine learning tools designed to help fish farms move from reactive decision-making to predictive operations. By combining sensors, analytics, and real-time monitoring, the company aims to improve yield, reduce losses, and optimise farm performance. We explore how the idea came about, the technology stack behind smart aquaculture, where the business stands in terms of fundraising, and what it takes to scale an agri-tech startup in Malaysia’s evolving food security landscape. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    22 min

  3. 3 DAYS AGO

    Carsome, But For Car Servicing? ServAuto's RM24M Raise

    Would you trust a TikTok live streamer to sell you car servicing? Armed with US$6 million (RM24 million) in recent funding, ServAuto is betting that you will. Co-Founder & COO Phoy Yong Hao unpacks how they are digitalising the traditional workshop ecosystem. The ex-Carsome executive breaks down how ServAuto uses an online-to-offline (O2O) model driven heavily by TikTok live commerce, having already served 30,000 customers and expanded to 150 workshops in just one year. Learn about: The TikTok Conversion Engine: Why ServAuto relies heavily on TikTok live streams to answer high-intent customer questions and drive actual sales (with a claimed 10 million monthly views). The "Mom & Pop" Consolidation: How ServAuto standardises pricing, parts sourcing, and customer retention for neighbourhood workshops without outright replacing them. Tinting as Customer Acquisition: Why window tinting acts as the ultimate entry point for new car owners, bringing them into the ServAuto ecosystem. Preventing Platform Leakage: How ServAuto stops workshops and customers from bypassing their platform by controlling product quality and offering unbeatable wholesale parts pricing. The Carsome Synergy: The strategic advantage of sharing investors, an after-sales partnership, and a direct talent pipeline (via Carsome Academy) with the used-car giant. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    39 min

  4. 4 DAYS AGO

    The Evolution Of Oxwhite

    Once known for its 120-day pre-order white shirts, Oxwhite has since evolved into an omnichannel retail brand with physical stores, a broader product range, and fresh capital raised through equity crowdfunding. Co-founder CK Chang joins us to discuss Oxwhite’s shift from online disruptor to retail player, the challenges of scaling beyond a single product, and what the next chapter of growth looks like. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    27 min

  5. 5 DAYS AGO

    Using “Tiny Homes” To Build A RM150M Hotel Chain

    In 2017, Adrian Chia turned a holiday joke into Big Tiny, a "tiny house" hospitality group that now manages over 1,000 keys across 22 countries. With RM150 million in revenue (2025) and positive cash flow since 2018, the company has big, non-tiny, ambitions ahead. The journey began with SG$200,000 of their own money and a prototype that took six months to build in Adrian’s own garden before being shipped to the Australian wilderness. Backed by SG$4.2 million in funding, Big Tiny now operates an end-to-end model where they design, manufacture, and manage these "tiny hotels" on other people's land. Adrian joins BFM to unpack:  The IKEA of Housing: How a patented flatpack design allows professional teams to ship units globally and assemble a fully functional "tiny hotel" in just three hours. The "Micro-Hotelier" Ecosystem: How Big Tiny connects investors, land partners, and hospitality management. The Asset-Light Loophole: Mitigating land risk by registering homes with VINs so they can be moved if a landowner relationship sours. The "Sale & Leaseback" Engine: How selling units to investors funded rapid expansion while retaining management rights. The Pandemic Stress Test: How transparency saved the company when revenue hit zero, retaining 95% of investors. The 50/50 Goal: Shifting the revenue mix from manufacturing sales to recurring rental income. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    37 min

  6. 19 FEB

    15 Clinics and Counting. What’s Next For Kyno?

    In Malaysia’s fragmented primary care landscape, Dr. Saifulhaziq Noorman is building something more structured. Through Kyno Primary Care and its 14-clinic Poliklinik Amalmedik network, he’s attempting to scale a healthcare business that blends specialist services with community clinics. And now, he’s raising capital via equity crowdfunding to accelerate that vision. We explore the commercial logic behind the model, how the group generates revenue, why this is the right time to bring in investors, and what it takes to scale a clinic network in a tightly regulated industry.  From unit economics to expansion strategy, this conversation goes beyond medicine and into the mechanics of building a healthcare business in Malaysia See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    29 min

  7. 18 FEB

    Pulling The Rug From Tradition

    For many heirs in Malaysia’s family businesses, the biggest decision is not how to grow what they inherit, but whether to stay at all. Kelvin Khandhar, a third-generation carpet trader, chose to step away after nearly a decade to start Victoria Carpets from scratch. He joins us to talk about the unspoken pressures of succession, why leaving can feel harder than starting over, and how a new generation is redefining value, quality, and long-term thinking in traditional industries. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    27 min

  8. 15 FEB

    Battery Subscription For Commercial Vehicles?

    What if your truck battery never failed again? For a logistics firm, a dead battery is more than just a nuisance, it’s a broken timeline, spoiled cargo, and lost revenue. Dennis Yong, CEO of VXI Crest, is out to eliminate that risk by turning the humble starter battery into a visible, data-driven asset. Through a joint venture called Advanced Accumulators, Dennis is replacing traditional lead-acid batteries with IoT-enabled Lithium Ferrous Phosphate (LFP) technology. These "smart" batteries store up to 400% more energy at half the weight and allow fleet managers to monitor health in real-time. They even feature an "Over-the-Air Jumpstart", a remote function that lets a manager start a stalled truck from a dashboard hundreds of miles away. Dennis explains why he’s betting on the underserved "marathon runners" of the road, commercial trucks and vans, and how his "frenemy" strategy with industry veterans YSK Marketing and FJ Union is helping him scale a regional battery empire across Malaysia. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    24 min
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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
    1.9K
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2026 BFM Media Sdn Bhd
  • Show Website
    Open For Business

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