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. 9 hr ago

    Due Diligence, Due Rent

    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 discrimination, or simply gives bias a spreadsheet to hide behind. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    Due Diligence, Due Rent

  2. 1 day ago

    Taking Nyonya Flavours to Texas

    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 founders: know your exact numbers, and cut failing product lines fast before they drain the business. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    Taking Nyonya Flavours to Texas

  3. 2 days ago

    No Fowl Play: Rethinking Asian Fried Chicken

    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 transition and national ambition, the company is now actively seeking a strategic investor. Anand joins us for a candid conversation about the financial and emotional realities of surviving the first year in the F&B industry. We unpack the ups and downs of cash flow management, the strategic necessity of moving away from a traditional retail dining room model, and whether fried chicken genuinely belongs in sports nutrition.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    No Fowl Play: Rethinking Asian Fried Chicken

  4. 6 days ago

    Beyond The Business: How Entrepreneurs Are Building Malaysia

    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 shape a more prosperous Malaysia. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    Beyond The Business: How Entrepreneurs Are Building Malaysia

  5. 27 Aug

    Malaysia's Lost National Treasures, Rediscovered

    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 costs of completely changing a business model. We explore what happened to the platform's early shareholders after the pivot, the margins of manufacturing physical supplements, and whether a Malaysian herbal brand can genuinely compete in the US wellness aisle. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    Malaysia's Lost National Treasures, Rediscovered

  6. 26 Aug

    The Management Buyout of M+C Saatchi Malaysia

    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 join us to unpack the exact financial and operational mechanics of their management buyout, where the profit margins genuinely sit within their new consultancy arm, and whether Malaysia's creative economy can survive an era where clients increasingly want to do the work themselves. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    The Management Buyout of M+C Saatchi Malaysia

  7. 24 Aug

    Breaking the Mould of the Malaysian Craft Business

    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 deliver genuine impact. Friends Craft Cooperative was built to be the exact opposite, focusing on high-quality, scalable manufacturing that stands on its own merit. Chern joins us to unpack the operational realities of running a three-in-one craft business and how they manage to compete with manufacturing giants like IKEA and Taobao. We explore the cooperative's highly unusual democratic profit distribution, and why Chern insists on earning the exact same salary as his senior team, and his strategic plans to make himself entirely replaceable. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    Breaking the Mould of the Malaysian Craft Business

  8. 21 Aug

    The Malaysian Launching an LLM Into Orbit

    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 disrupt the inaccessible satellite parts market. Ken joins us to discuss the realities of building and launching a satellite on a bootstrapped budget. We explore his pivot from co-founding a massive crypto derivatives exchange to starting a zero-revenue aerospace hardware business, and unpack the real economics of commercial space rideshares, the process of qualifying homemade hardware for orbit, and how Swordholder Technologies plans to bring affordable infrastructure to the booming space economy. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    The Malaysian Launching an LLM Into Orbit
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