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.

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.

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.

Open For Business

Discover fresh concepts, tackle obstacles, and unleash growth - Open For Business is the dynamic show where BFM engages with entrepreneurs, business leaders, and industry trailblazers, igniting inspiration, sparking success, and exploring new business models.

Can Stablecoins Make FX Fairer?

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.

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.

Beyond Networking: Turning Founder Loneliness into a Business

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.

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.

Washing Away the Pressure to Scale

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.

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.

Can Stablecoins Make FX Fairer?

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