Open For Business

The education sector has seen drastic changes in a short period of time, with students from red zones not allowed to go back to colleges or universities and almost 300 schools forced to be closed down. Private institutions have voiced out their concerns of struggling with virtual learning, particularly on the topic of not being able to travel to schools and facing the risk of closing down. Joining us is Jonathan Lau, CEO of German Educare, sharing his effort to address these issues. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Sirius Support is a company that manages over 120 support services, remotely. Whether it’s helping to streamline remote working, improving responsiveness for your support teams, or if you need transformation consultancy, Sirius has you covered. What makes this company really interesting though, is how they were formed remotely, without either of the founders meeting each other.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

They say the path to a person’s heart is through their stomach, and for Malaysians, food is definitely one of our country’s passions. With the F&B industry taking a hit in 2020, Kenneth Lai, co-founder of cloud kitchen, Vacrea, discusses how he kept three food companies up and running through the pandemic.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

They say the path to a person’s heart is through their stomach, and for Malaysians, food is definitely one of our country’s passions. With the F&B industry taking a hit in 2020, Kenneth Lai, co-founder of cloud kitchen, Vacrea, discusses how he kept three food companies up and running through the pandemic.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

There’s a lot of paperwork involved when buying a new car. And maintaining a car takes effort as well. Arief Imran, founder of SERV, wanted to digitalize the entire process by creating a one-stop platform for vehicle owners. After years of trial and error, SERV is now quickly gaining popularity and plans to expand not just nationally but regionally in the near future. We speak to Arief about operating a vehicle-based platform during the pandemic, the gap in the market SERV wants to close, and planning for growth so that when business returns to normal, SERV will be ready for anything. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

There’s a lot of paperwork involved when buying a new car. And maintaining a car takes effort as well. Arief Imran, founder of SERV, wanted to digitalize the entire process by creating a one-stop platform for vehicle owners. After years of trial and error, SERV is now quickly gaining popularity and plans to expand not just nationally but regionally in the near future. We speak to Arief about operating a vehicle-based platform during the pandemic, the gap in the market SERV wants to close, and planning for growth so that when business returns to normal, SERV will be ready for anything. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

During the movement control order (MCO) in mid-march last year, the country was seeing  over 800% sales increase in cooking appliances online. MCO really brought out the cook in a lot of us. Leveraging on that situation is Khalid Gibran, founder of X Promosi Sdn Bhd, by shifting his business from selling kitchen wares to retailers, to now selling it directly to the customers. Thus born My Cooking Story, an online shop selling professional kitchenware as well as a  social media community dedicated for home cooks.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

When the travel industry came to a grinding halt due to the pandemic, the co-founders of airbnb management company Plush Services had something dreamy up their sleeves. They supplemented revenues by launching an online DTC bedsheet brand, Kapas Living. The duo speak to us about the bed linen market in Malaysia, changing consumer purchasing behaviour, and give us a 101 on what makes great sheets.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Although Sixty Bites has been a go-to burger joint in Kuala Lumpur for a few years, owners John Tey and Amer Ezzadeen knew that it was time to refresh the brand and expand their network. The duo plan on opening more outlets and serving a wider area with a new central kitchen. We speak to John and Amer about taking over Sixty Bites in 2019, picking the pandemic as a time to grow, and sticking with the “curbside aesthetic” even as they scale into a much larger venture. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Being a student right now is tough. Your school life has been upended, you don’t get to see your friends in person, and your education hangs on the strength of your WiFi connection. So how do you find the motivation to study in these times? Gamification has a big part to play, and speaking about that is Stanley Han, CEO & cofounder of KooBits.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.