Open For Business

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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. 22h ago

    Can A Pan Mee Restaurant Become An FMCG Brand?

    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.

    Can A Pan Mee Restaurant Become An FMCG Brand?

  2. 2d ago

    Borenos: Why Did The Chicken Cross The South China Sea?

    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 to us about the decision to build a homegrown brand rather than importing another foreign franchise. We also discuss the absolute limits of relying on the Sabahan diaspora as a primary customer acquisition channel in the Klang Valley, and exactly what structural changes are required for more East Malaysian enterprises to successfully go national. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    Borenos: Why Did The Chicken Cross The South China Sea?

  3. 3d ago

    The Business of Beds That Disappear

    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 realities of their global supply chain - pairing European mechanisms with Chinese materials and Malaysian assembly, and what genuinely makes a transformable bed structurally safe. We also dissect their new AI software, to explore what the tool actually accomplishes. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    The Business of Beds That Disappear

  4. 6d ago

    Going the Distance: Atlas Collectif's Run at the Global Market

    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 omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    Going the Distance: Atlas Collectif's Run at the Global Market

  5. Sep 10

    In a Nutshell: Malaysia's Biggest Coconut Story

    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 investment mode. Executive Director Joe Ling joins us to discuss the global coconut trade, Linaco’s zero-waste manufacturing model, and the impact of ingredient adulteration on the wider category. We also explore the strategic shift toward owning their own plantations and why they are finally considering external capital to fund their next phase of growth. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    In a Nutshell: Malaysia's Biggest Coconut Story

  6. Sep 9

    46 Years Keeping Malaysia's Trucks Moving

    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 business. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    46 Years Keeping Malaysia's Trucks Moving

  7. Sep 8

    Beyond ECF: pitchIN Bets On LEAP, SMEs, & P2P Finance

    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.

    Beyond ECF: pitchIN Bets On LEAP, SMEs, & P2P Finance

  8. Sep 7

    Still Sparkling: Supergulp Two Years On

    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 profitability by its second year of operations. Julian returns to unpack the intense operational realities of this rapid two-year expansion. We discuss the distinct go-to-market strategies required to penetrate three completely different Southeast Asian markets, and the constant financial tension between reinvesting capital for aggressive growth versus maintaining profitability. Finally, we examine the increasingly crowded functional beverage space, and what it takes to defend market share as an early mover. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    Still Sparkling: Supergulp Two Years On
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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
    2K
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2026 BFM Media Sdn Bhd
  • Show Website
    Open For Business

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