What began with a single stand-up comedy show at Zouk KL’s Velvet Underground in 2009 has expanded into a regional live entertainment force, selling over 500,000 tickets, hosting 350 global talents, and touring across 30 cities.



Co-Founder and CEO Rizal Kamal joins BFM’s Open for Business to unpack LOL Asia’s 17-year journey, the brutal economics of the live events trade, and why he’s pushing past the transactional promoter trap to build a scalable, asset-owning intellectual property (IP) engine.



He breaks down how the company is capitalizing on shifting post-pandemic consumer behaviors, where traditional clubbing and alcohol consumption are in decline, and audiences demand high-value, sober live experiences like their new wellness concept, Thrive Play. 



Rizal also details his asset-light regional expansion across Australia and Southeast Asia, how AI acts as a "genius partner" for rapid event prototyping, and why he is working with a 60-association coalition to abolish Malaysia's British era entertainment tax.

What began with a single stand-up comedy show at Zouk KL’s Velvet Underground in 2009 has expanded into a regional live entertainment force, selling over 500,000 tickets, hosting 350 global talents, and touring across 30 cities.Co-Founder and CEO Rizal Kamal joins BFM’s Open for Business to unpack LOL Asia’s 17-year journey, the brutal economics of the live events trade, and why he’s pushing past the transactional promoter trap to build a scalable, asset-owning intellectual property (IP) engine.He breaks down how the company is capitalizing on shifting post-pandemic consumer behaviors, where traditional clubbing and alcohol consumption are in decline, and audiences demand high-value, sober live experiences like their new wellness concept, Thrive Play.&nbsp;Rizal also details his asset-light regional expansion across Australia and Southeast Asia, how AI acts as a "genius partner" for rapid event prototyping, and why he is working with a 60-association coalition to abolish Malaysia's British era entertainment tax.

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.

LOL Asia’s 17 Years: From Comedy Promoter to IP Owner

What began in 2012 as an enterprise PC broker has evolved into one of Southeast Asia’s largest re-commerce operators, processing over half a million pre-owned devices annually across Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, and the Philippines.



Founder and CEO Julius Lim joins BFM’s Open for Business to unpack how CompAsia built a vertically integrated ecosystem that generated RM180 million in revenue and nearly RM20 million in profit after tax last year.



He details the operational shift from pure-play e-commerce to an aggressive 85-store physical retail footprint, explaining how brick-and-mortar touchpoints serve as both a customer acquisition channel and a direct device-sourcing engine.



Julius also breaks down the mechanics of their high-margin Renew and Go program, his approach to managing consumer credit risk, and why debt capacity is driving their planned RM400 million to RM500 million Main Market IPO by 2027.



We Discuss:


The Evolution from Enterprise PCs to Smartphones: Why the initial B2B computer brokerage model shifted in 2017 to capture higher-velocity, higher-value consumer smartphone demand.


Overcoming the Trust Deficit: Professionalising secondhand trade-ins through proprietary white-label diagnostic software, automated AI grading, and certified data wiping.


The Offline Retail Paradox: Why CompAsia aggressively expanded from 7 to 85 physical stores to solve sourcing bottlenecks and lower customer acquisition costs.


The Renew and Go Profit Engine: Structuring a 36-month installment and 12-month upgrade cycle to target underbanked consumers without credit cards.


The 2027 Main Market IPO Rationale: Why going public is essential to unlocking the debt and equity capital required to fund inventory and scale the program to 1 million subscribers.

What began in 2012 as an enterprise PC broker has evolved into one of Southeast Asia’s largest re-commerce operators, processing over half a million pre-owned devices annually across Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, and the Philippines.Founder and CEO Julius Lim joins BFM’s Open for Business to unpack how CompAsia built a vertically integrated ecosystem that generated RM180 million in revenue and nearly RM20 million in profit after tax last year.He details the operational shift from pure-play e-commerce to an aggressive 85-store physical retail footprint, explaining how brick-and-mortar touchpoints serve as both a customer acquisition channel and a direct device-sourcing engine.Julius also breaks down the mechanics of their high-margin Renew and Go program, his approach to managing consumer credit risk, and why debt capacity is driving their planned RM400 million to RM500 million Main Market IPO by 2027.We Discuss:<ul><li>The Evolution from Enterprise PCs to Smartphones: Why the initial B2B computer brokerage model shifted in 2017 to capture higher-velocity, higher-value consumer smartphone demand.</li><li>Overcoming the Trust Deficit: Professionalising secondhand trade-ins through proprietary white-label diagnostic software, automated AI grading, and certified data wiping.</li><li>The Offline Retail Paradox: Why CompAsia aggressively expanded from 7 to 85 physical stores to solve sourcing bottlenecks and lower customer acquisition costs.</li><li>The Renew and Go Profit Engine: Structuring a 36-month installment and 12-month upgrade cycle to target underbanked consumers without credit cards.</li><li>The 2027 Main Market IPO Rationale: Why going public is essential to unlocking the debt and equity capital required to fund inventory and scale the program to 1 million subscribers.</li></ul>

Ditching E-Commerce? Pre-IPO CompAsia’s 85-Store Bet

For years, Secondlifeasia was recognized as a hardware-heavy device repair business. But as the company sets out to raise RM5 million at a near-RM38 million valuation, it is undergoing a high-stakes operational shift.



Squeezed by a structural hardware margin trap, driven by Apple’s iron grip on parts pricing and surging component costs, the company is facing the decline of repair culture, as consumers choose instant trade-ins over physical part replacements.

The answer to this? Software.



Secondlifeasia claims it can transform into a scalable ecosystem for financed, pre-loved devices.

Co-Founder and CEO Jerome Teh joins Open for Business to defend their new trajectory. We dive into the assumptions underpinning their financial projections and dissect their signature "switch-off deterrent", a proprietary, remote device-locking technology designed to mitigate an $11 billion global fraud problem and turn high-risk pre-loved electronics into safe, high-yield financial assets for risk-averse financiers. 



Finally, we question the true execution risk of their pivot and regional playbook as they attempt to scale across the highly fragmented consumer markets of Thailand, Vietnam, and Indonesia.

For years, Secondlifeasia was recognized as a hardware-heavy device repair business. But as the company sets out to raise RM5 million at a near-RM38 million valuation, it is undergoing a high-stakes operational shift.Squeezed by a structural hardware margin trap, driven by Apple’s iron grip on parts pricing and surging component costs, the company is facing the decline of repair culture, as consumers choose instant trade-ins over physical part replacements.The answer to this? Software.Secondlifeasia claims it can transform into a scalable ecosystem for financed, pre-loved devices.Co-Founder and CEO Jerome Teh joins Open for Business to defend their new trajectory. We dive into the assumptions underpinning their financial projections and dissect their signature "switch-off deterrent", a proprietary, remote device-locking technology designed to mitigate an $11 billion global fraud problem and turn high-risk pre-loved electronics into safe, high-yield financial assets for risk-averse financiers.&nbsp;Finally, we question the true execution risk of their pivot and regional playbook as they attempt to scale across the highly fragmented consumer markets of Thailand, Vietnam, and Indonesia.

Fixing Phones Is Dead? Secondlifeasia’s Software Pivot

Following a RM96 million acquisition by German-listed DDB, Jon Woon, Founder and CEO of Infinium Robotics, unpacks what’s next for the indoor autonomous drone space.



We discuss how the company successfully pivoted from an economically unviable restaurant food-delivery experiment into a logistics play, the development of patent-pending indoor navigation software that flies entirely without GPS signals, and how a single autonomous drone can audit up to 20,000 pallet locations over a single weekend.



Jon also shares how Infinium actively de-risked its business from low-cost Chinese hardware competition by transforming into a drone-agnostic system integrator, leveraging a resilient 70% OPEX rental revenue model to seamlessly scale across Malaysia, Singapore, and Australia.



Finally, we explore the next frontier of logistics through Physical AI and digital twin technology, explaining why a massive global automation gap, where 90% of warehouses still rely on manual stock-taking, presents a massive runway for their upcoming expansion into Europe and North America.

Following a RM96 million acquisition by German-listed DDB, Jon Woon, Founder and CEO of Infinium Robotics, unpacks what’s next for the indoor autonomous drone space.We discuss how the company successfully pivoted from an economically unviable restaurant food-delivery experiment into a logistics play, the development of patent-pending indoor navigation software that flies entirely without GPS signals, and how a single autonomous drone can audit up to 20,000 pallet locations over a single weekend.Jon also shares how Infinium actively de-risked its business from low-cost Chinese hardware competition by transforming into a drone-agnostic system integrator, leveraging a resilient 70% OPEX rental revenue model to seamlessly scale across Malaysia, Singapore, and Australia.Finally, we explore the next frontier of logistics through Physical AI and digital twin technology, explaining why a massive global automation gap, where 90% of warehouses still rely on manual stock-taking, presents a massive runway for their upcoming expansion into Europe and North America.

LOL Asia’s 17 Years: From Comedy Promoter to IP Owner

In 1 playlist(s)

Open For Business

Social links

Follow podcast

Recent clips