Open For Business

XALF is a ladies bespoke footwear label which incorporates in its designs, the sleek metropolitan vibes of New York City and a bohemian touch. Their shoes have graced the feet of Supermodel Ai Tominaga, Award-winning TVB Actress Charmaine Sheh, and Forbes Asia's Heroes of Philanthropy 2010, Thanuja Ananthan.  Xavier Mah, founder of XALF recounts their walk to fame on Open For Business.

Founders Daniel Salehuddin and Khairul Asyraf established Fine Grit Studio in 2014 to combine their obsession and talent with wood to produce custom handmade wood furniture and products.

From a simple conversation between two young childhood friends where one asked the other, "Let's open a kopitiam", Tiffin's was born at the end of August 2014. Having no experience in the F&B industry, both Phua and Low share how they had to get hands-on with everything - from being the cooks themselves to managing the ups and downs of the business.

Franchising is one of the fastest ways to expand businesses. But when your ego takes a role in this process, you’re bound to make irrational decisions. This is what happened to David Chin, founder of Dave’s Deli. We talked about the infrastructure required to franchise a brand and how to control thousands of outlets around the world with Datuk Seri Nelson Kwok of Nelson’s Franchise, and David Chin together with his son, Brian Chin,  the second generation to take over Dave’s Deli.

Touted as the AirBnB of video production, 90 seconds is a Kiwi based company that aims to revolutionize the way videos are created and produced. The promise? To deliver quality videos that are time and cost effective, by leveraging on strategies like crowdsourcing the world for talent and introducing cloud technology that both streamlines and offers transparency in the workflow process. Tim Norton, the founder of 90 seconds shares his plans for the company, including its recent 7.5 million dollar investment from Sequoia India. 

It’s all about timing when you want to start your own business. Founders of Flexi Storage, Alex Lee and Desmond How had this idea 10 years ago but only saw the rise of demand for space in Malaysia two years ago and set up this business. The core of their business is to provide storage solutions for urbanites who are in need of the luxury of space.

MaidEasy is a booking platform that matchmakes homeowners with part time cleaners. As the lives of urban dwellers get from busy to busier and the demand for part-time cleaners have also getting higher. Meriza Mustapha, founder of MaidEasy saw the opportunity and came into this space and faced multiple challenges in running this platform. 

With an out of KL into Africa jungle experience, Out Of Africa offers an overall rustic yet homely, casual eatery focusing on serving all things home cooked since 1995. Freda Liu speaks to Founder and Owner, David on the story behind this African concept restaurant which has been around for 21 years now. 

We’ve heard of the social media hijacks by Nando’s Malaysia as well as MyBurgerLab. How did they do it so well? Chai Hui Fung, marketing director of Nando’s Malaysia and Chin Ren Yi, co-founder of MyBurgerLab chats about - with almost no budget for marketing, their staff makes the greatest marketing asset. 

Described as a new breed business generator, Investible pairs up early stage investors with aspiring entrepreneurs to uncover Australia’s top potential businesses. Co-founder Creel Price joins us to talk about their model for bridging the gap between investors and investees together, reducing the risk in startup investment.