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As homes across Malaysia prepare to light up for Deepavali, three friends are having their busiest weeks of the year. Parveena Selvarajah of Saray, Vinodhini Gangadara Vadivel of Muse by Vino, and Nithya Pushpanathan of Tablescapes by Nithya, each grew their own brand independently, from sarees to handbags to dining-wear, while cheering each other on. Along the way they also joined forces on cultural showcases like the Chitra Edit. In this Deepavali special, all three join us in the studio to talk about building their brands, sourcing and curating for Malaysian customers, what the festive rush really looks like behind the scenes, and why friendship might be the best business strategy they have. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Alex Koh grew up in a Bata shoe store run by his parents, and spent more than 20 years designing and developing shoes for brands like Hush Puppies, Vincci and Bata, and making hardware in China for factories that supplied Jimmy Choo and Burberry. In January 2024 he launched his own label, Scenshuz: women’s heels designed in Kuala Lumpur and handmade in Malaysia, built on a simple idea that beautiful shoes shouldn’t have to hurt. One month later, he lost his sister, the person who inspired the brand and believed in it first. Bootstrapped and sold mostly through pop-ups and Instagram, Scenshuz is now doing between RM650,000 and RM700,000 a year in revenue. Alex joins us to talk about designing shoes for women, building a brand on comfort, and finding purpose through grief. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

After nearly two decades working with international game studios including Ubisoft, EA and Unity, Alitt Khaliq returned to Malaysia to build a game development company of his own. Founded in 2024 with Brian Kim, Albrite Studios is developing its first original title, Project XII, while taking on selected development partnerships to support their growth. Alitt joins us to discuss the business of building a game studio in Malaysia, the realities of financing and developing original game IP, and what it takes for a Malaysian studio to compete in the global PC and console market. We discuss: Why Alitt left established international studios to build a company in Malaysia. The business case for developing original games rather than focusing solely on outsourced work. What it takes to finance and bring an original game to market. How Albrite balances original IP development with co-development projects. The ambition to grow into a sustainable studio with a portfolio of original titles. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Daryl Diong started Z21 in 2019, when he was 20, with RM5,000. Today Z21 is the centre of three companies. Z21 builds online stores designed to turn visitors into buyers, Convex focuses on web optimisation, and A22A trains companies to use AI in marketing and content. Together they help brands connect with customers directly through their own websites and build a stronger presence on social media. Z21 has been profitable since its first month, with clients including Love, Bonito, Clarks and Naelofar. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Malaysia’s kopitiam culture owes a great deal to the Hainanese: the kopi roasted with butter and sugar, the kaya toast, the chicken chop. But many of the old recipes and methods are being simplified, or quietly disappearing. JJ Phun grew up in that tradition. His family’s story goes back to a 1938 coffee shop at the Kluang railway station, and in 2005 he took that heritage to the Klang Valley as Kluang Station, opening its first outlet at 1 Utama. Now he and his brother are starting again with Arang, a modern Hainanese kopitiam they launched in 2026. It is self-funded, and they say it is already a seven-figure business in its first year. JJ joins us to talk about turning heritage into a business, what two decades of running kopitiams has taught him, and why culture only survives when it stays commercially relevant. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Everyone glamorises entrepreneurship. Jeremiah Su would rather talk about the part nobody posts: going broke, losing friends, and the loneliness of running a business with no one who really gets it. After nearly two decades in branding and video production, including co-founding the agency Superminted, Jeremiah started The Beyond in 2022. It began as a group of business-owner friends complaining about bad clients, and has grown into a community he says has more than 800 members, built around “anti-networking”: games, live debates, karaoke and real talk, from Kuala Lumpur to Manila. It is still bootstrapped and pre-revenue, backed by sponsors and partners, with a flagship festival, BeyondFest, returning to KL in November. Jeremiah joins us to talk about the culture of failure, whether community can become a real business, and what happens when the founder is the bottleneck. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In 2021, a Malaysian mother handed her daughter a bottle of used cooking oil, simply wanting it out of her kitchen. That single bottle birthed a household cleaning block that cut grease so effectively it stopped her husband's hands from blistering. Today, that kitchen experiment operates as Soapan Santun, a bootstrapped, plastic-free brand upcycling household waste—from used cooking oil to surplus avocados—into handmade soaps and shampoo bars. Founded by former teacher Anna Lee and former banker Louis Koh, the business successfully commercializes the circular economy on a micro scale. The founders launched the company with roughly RM1,000 and broke even within six months. Today, they drive between RM100,000 and RM150,000 in annual revenue entirely debt-free. But operating as a two-person manufacturing machine carries a brutal vulnerability. When the founders had a baby, social media algorithms shifted, and consumer spending softened, they watched their revenue drop by ten percent. They face a hard physical ceiling on their growth: their daily output remains strictly capped by the number of moulds they own and the sheer manual labor required to self-print and hand-fold every single product label. To break this physical revenue ceiling without destroying their margins, the founders are executing a strategic pivot into digital education. Anna and Louis join Audrey Raj to unpack the unglamorous mechanics of bootstrapping a physical product brand on micro-capital. They discuss the vulnerability of relying on social media for customer acquisition, the transition from selling physical soap to selling courses, and their radical, anti-growth five-year plan: earning just enough to hire exactly one employee, and then deliberately stopping. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Companies spend a fortune training their people. But what happens weeks later, when a manager faces a difficult conversation or a hard decision and the trainer is long gone? KC See has spent 42 years in the training business. He founded Quest Learning Group in 1984 and has trained and mentored more than 1,600 professional trainers across Asia. This year he launched QuestBytes, an AI-powered, human-enabled platform. It uses AI to understand a person’s problem and match them with a qualified coach or mentor across four areas: leadership and culture, financial wellness, health and wellness, and business excellence. The company is in early commercialisation, has signed a partnership to reach the members of the Hong Kong-based AsiaCEO community, and is preparing for its first external raise through crowdfunding. KC joins us to talk about the gap between learning and doing, why he believes AI cannot replace human judgement, and what it takes for a training veteran to build a technology business. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

When a Malaysian business gets paid in Singapore dollars, the money usually takes a detour through the US dollar, picking up fees and delays along the way. Sera wants to take out the detour. Sera is an on-chain exchange that lets payment companies, wallets and businesses swap one country’s stablecoin directly for another, Singapore dollars for ringgit for example, settled in seconds. It never holds its users’ money. Live on Ethereum since May 2026, it has processed more than US$7 million in volume, and it plugs into apps like YouApp, which lets travellers pay any DuitNow QR merchant with stablecoins. Founder Douglas Gan has been building tech companies since 1997, from ShowNearby to cross-border wallets. He joins us to explain stablecoin FX in plain terms, how a free-to-use exchange plans to make money, and why he thinks Malaysia is quietly one of crypto infrastructure’s biggest talent pools. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Most technology knows your taste through what you buy, search for or click on. Lekondo thinks what you actually wear says far more. Founded by Malaysian Yeng Tan, who grew up in Taman Tun Dr Ismail, the New York-based app lets people post their outfit of the day. AI picks out each item and builds a digital closet over time, and users can see how people dress around the world. Since launching in January 2026, it says it has passed 100,000 users in more than 50 countries. In 2025 Lekondo went through a16z speedrun, Andreessen Horowitz’s accelerator programme. It has since raised about US$3 million from investors including Verdict Capital and Japan’s DG Daiwa Ventures. Yeng joins us to explain what a “third space for fashion” is, how a free app turns style into a business, and what it takes for a Malaysian founder to raise from Silicon Valley. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

While the AI ecosystem is filled with developer meetups and technical hackathons, a gap remains for non-technical professionals, creatives, and entrepreneurs who need hands-on familiarity with AI tools. PROMPT:CITY is tackling this space by collaborating with cultural events like Urbanscapes 2026 to reach everyday consumers and hobbyists where they spend their time. Wong Joon Ian, Founder of PROMPT:CITY, joins Open for Business to discuss how he is building a sustainable events and media platform around AI education. He breaks down the unit economics of ticket sales versus corporate sponsorships, the rise of "vibe coding" and bespoke software, navigating creative backlash against generative tools, and his strategy for expanding the platform across Asia-Pacific subcultures. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In 2015, a professional wedding planner preparing for her own marriage hit a brick wall. Despite her industry connections, she collided with the premium bridal market’s quietest rule: top-tier designers cut their gowns for one body type. If a bride falls outside those rigid proportions, the luxury tier shuts its doors.  Rejecting the standard industry compromise of cheap lookalikes, East Chin flew to Barcelona. There, she discovered independent European ateliers crafting extraordinary, inclusive garments without the famous-name markups, and she returned home to build The Gown Atelier around them - Four hundred gowns spread across a lot of different labels, so that the bride nobody else could dress would walk down the aisle in something she loved. East joins us to strip away the romance of the wedding industry and expose the arithmetic of renting dresses. We break down the reality of competitor price wars, and discuss exactly why a premium gown that once paid for itself in two rentals now demands five. We also explore the logistical machine behind Malaysia Bridal Fashion Week, and the expensive lesson East learned when she realised her own personal taste did not match the market she served. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Jaedals was created to kill the historical compromise between comfortable “trekky sandals” and style. But the brand's true differentiator lies in its unconventional production engine. Rather than relying wholly on traditional factory assembly lines, the company employs underserved women across Singapore who sew and embellish the sandals directly from their own living rooms.  After spending nearly two decades building global campaigns for advertising agencies like Ogilvy and TBWA, founder Maggie Dumra launched the brand last year and immediately weaponised her corporate experience to scale the business. Today, Jaedals operates a flagship store in Orchard Road's Mandarin Gallery and secures premium shelf space at Club 21 and KrisShop. By deliberately reinvesting every dollar back into product and team development, the bootstrapped company tripled its revenue over eighteen months without taking a single cent of institutional equity. Now, the brand is pushing into its first international market: Malaysia. Maggie joins us to unpack the precise unit economics of a Jaedal sandal and the real financial trade-offs of her decentralised production model. We explore why the company actively chooses to delay profitability, and whether a brand deeply tied to one city's culture can successfully capture the Malaysian market. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Batik Boutique is accelerating its retail expansion with the launch of its 1,500-square-foot flagship outlet at Merdeka 118, alongside achieving B Corp recertification with a 92-point score. The social enterprise saw a 75% year-to-date growth in its B2B segment and a 20% rise in B2C retail, further boosted by a viral moment when Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim wore their joint-designed shirt at the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia. Amy Blair, Founder and CEO of Batik Boutique, joins Open for Business to unpack how the brand capitalised on its Formula 1 collaboration with the Bahrain International Circuit. She discusses managing artisanal supply chains alongside retail expansion, utilising AI for operational efficiency and B2B design, and balancing corporate gifting with long-term brand equity. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

For more information on BFM's SME event, click the link here. Gyms in Malaysia aren’t known for big profits, and there’s no shortage of them. So why would seven friends who train together open another one? COR3 in Kota Damansara is a “box,” the term functional fitness folks use for their gyms. It’s a semi-outdoor space packed with barbells and weights. Six months after opening, it already has more than 150 members. Joanne Lim and Eddie Yap, two of the seven co-founders, join us to talk about why they started COR3 and how the business works. We discuss:  Seven founders, no single boss: How a group of friends from very different careers makes decisions together, and how they funded the gym. Fitness meets hospitality: What sets COR3 apart, how they make first-timers feel welcome, and why they put community and good coaching first. The business side: Why they chose a semi-open space, how they plan to grow, and their partnership with AirAsia ahead of Malaysia’s first HYROX race this December. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.