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. 20h ago

    Replacing SWIFT With Stablecoins for Cross Border Payments

    Traditional cross-border payments are plagued by a severe lack of predictability. Relying on an outdated correspondent banking network and the SWIFT system, global money transfers are often slow and leave customers waiting without any clarity on when their funds will arrive. Raj Kamal, an executive with two decades of experience in the payments industry, realised the core issue was a lack of universal regulation. In 2022, he founded TransFi, betting that fiat-pegged stablecoins could provide instant settlement without the need for trusted counterparties, effectively bypassing the cumbersome legacy system entirely. Focusing heavily on emerging markets, TransFi allows customers to transact using familiar local payment methods like DuitNow. Behind the scenes, the platform seamlessly converts the local currency into stablecoins to move the value across borders, before instantly paying it out in the recipient's local currency. This ensures a faster, highly predictable experience where the end-user never actually has to handle cryptocurrency. To manage this safely at scale, the company heavily integrates AI for rigorous global compliance checks, real-time transaction reconciliation, and automated customer service capabilities. Serving institutions, large remittance companies, and e-commerce merchants, TransFi operates at a cost up to 50 percent lower than traditional alternatives. This operational efficiency has driven massive growth, leading to a $19.2 million Series A funding round led by Turing Financial Group in March 2026. Having already processed over $1 billion in volume with 16 times revenue growth since their seed round, Raj joins us to discuss his strategy for hitting $5 billion in transaction volume this fiscal year and why he believes stablecoins will completely reshape the global payments industry by 2030. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    28 min

  2. 1d ago

    Same Founder, Different City, Completely Different Business.

    In April 2019, Muhammad Hamizan Zaidi opened Affogato, a popular coffee and ice cream dessert cafe in Kuching. Capitalising on a loyal community following, the concept soon expanded into a second lot right next door to become Oregano by Affogato, a pasta-forward restaurant blending Sarawakian ingredients with Italian fusion. Together, these ventures built the foundation of a seven-figure multi-brand F&B business. Encouraged by his success in Sarawak, Mizan made the bold decision to expand into Petaling Jaya. However, the operational realities of West Malaysia proved vastly different from his home base. Facing the stark contrasts and intense pressures of running an F&B outlet in Kuala Lumpur compared to Kuching, the Petaling Jaya expansion struggled. To rescue the business, Mizan successfully secured capital from new investors, executing a major strategic pivot that saw the PJ location completely rebrand from Oregano into Warung Jakarta. Mizan joins us to discuss the realities of expanding an independent F&B brand across the South China Sea. We explore the distinct differences in consumer behaviour and operational demands between the Kuching and KL markets. He also shares the heavy emotional responsibility of managing a team through a business rescue, and why his ultimate goal for his portfolio is building deep, sustainable artisan character rather than chasing aggressive scale. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    22 min

  3. 2d ago

    Why Indelible Ventures Bets on B2B, Not Consumer Tech

    While the rest of Southeast Asia’s startup ecosystem was chasing consumer-driven "unicorn" narratives and burning cash on a race for user growth at all costs, Indelible Ventures took a completely different path. Since its launch, this early-stage venture capital firm has avoided consumer hype to bet heavily on B2B enterprise software. Managing Partner Kevin Brockland joins us to explain why he avoids consumer tech and how the B2B landscape is reaching a critical turning point. He also discusses why a growing number of Malaysian founders are choosing to completely bootstrap using AI tools rather than seek dilutive venture funding, why the fundraising environment for VCs is the worst it’s been in a decade, and how early-stage capital is migrating away from overrated markets toward overlooked regions like the Philippines and Japan. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    45 min

  4. 5d ago

    Hand-Stamped and Hard-Earned

    Most fashion businesses begin with a gap in the market. Kayla Batik Design began with a mother who couldn't find colourful batik clothing for her one-year-old daughter. So she decided to make it herself. What started as designing a single dress for her toddler, has become a fully bootstrapped, profitable modern batik brand stocked in boutiques and department stores across Malaysia and as far as George Town, Penang. Kayla Batik Design makes contemporary batik clothing and lifestyle accessories for all ages: from baby bibs and kimonos to adult shirts and dresses, scarves, bags, and coasters. All designed by founder Jaime Sya, made by local tailors, using hand-stamped cotton batik.  Jaime joins us to talk about what it takes to build a design-led brand when you're learning as you go — the inventory gambles, the quality control nightmares, and why she believes consistency and customer listening are the only strategy that actually works. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    24 min

  5. 6d ago

    The Malaysian Who Moved to India to Make Pandan the Next Matcha

    Matcha took a decade to go from Japanese tea ceremony to global café staple. Shivaani Suppiah believes pandan, that fragrant green leaf that flavours everything from kaya to nasi lemak across Southeast Asia, is ready for the same journey. Her target market: India. Her base: Pondicherry, a former French colony on the southeastern coast, chosen specifically for its mix of locals, international travellers, and food-curious entrepreneurs.  It's Pandan Only launched in mid-2025 and has already sold out every batch it has produced, with 60 to 76 percent product margins. The flagship product is a fully vegan Pandan Coconut Spread or kaya, currently supplied by Malaysian bakery VickedGood while Shivaani sets up her own commercial kitchen in Pondicherry. She walks into cafés with samples. She runs tasting events. And she is raising her first seed round of approximately RM42,000 to buy a 125-litre commercial machine and scale production to meet the waitlist already forming. Shivaani joins us to talk about what it actually takes to introduce a completely unknown flavour to a new country from scratch — the on-the-ground hustle, the margins behind a premium artisan product, and the bigger argument that Malaysia has ingredients the world has not yet discovered. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    22 min

  6. Jun 30

    The Sustainability Metric You Can Actually Taste

    When Mathew Howe was last on Open For Business in July 2024, Grobrix had just announced its partnership with Green City Growers in Boston and was projecting 500% quarterly revenue growth from its Farming-as-a-Service subscription model. The question then was whether a banker-turned-urban-farmer with a patented Lego-inspired green wall system could build a serious commercial business across Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, and North America. Two years on, the answer is coming into focus. Grobrix now manages over 70 commercial farming locations across Singapore, KL, and Boston. Clients include CBRE, LinkedIn, and W Hotels. Annual recurring revenue has crossed $1 million. And the company is rolling out Grobrix 2.0: an IoT and cloud-connected version of the wall that allows remote monitoring and control of each farm from anywhere in the world. But the story Mathew most wants to tell is not about technology. It is about what happens when a corporate office grows its own food, and why he believes urban farming is the most underrated tool in the corporate wellness playbook. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    28 min

  7. Jun 29

    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

  8. Jun 28

    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
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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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