It was 2008, the Nasdaq was in the middle of its worst fall in seven decades, and Australian tech entrepreneur Bevan Slattery had just lost the funding for a $200 million undersea cable project from Sydney to Guam.
The loss of funding for the project, which was being conducted by his company PIPE International, a subsidiary of PIPE Networks, which he had founded with Steve Baxter, almost crippled the business and triggered the darkest moment in Slattery's business career.
"To say it was a harrowing experience in   August,   September and   October of 2008 is an understatement, and it came at a time when PIPE Networks was doing really well," he says. 
"The damage was really significant. At that point I sat down my wife and I said: 'I'm sure we'll be OK. In the worst-case scenario I think we'll be able to keep the house.'" 
This moment taught Slattery, who is one of the country's most successful entrepreneurs, even if he remains relatively unknown, two big lessons: to treasure the wisdom of older board members, and to keep on pushing if it's something you believe in.
Slattery has floated four businesses and has been heavily invested in a fifth, but in 2016 he has vowed off any new projects and instead says his focus will be on expanding his two newest companies, Megaport and Superloop.

Took a toll
Slattery saw PIPE through its rough period in 2008, and thanks to the help of some understanding suppliers and customers completed the project without the financial support of a bank. But it took a toll on him mentally and physically.
"I can remember getting about two hours of semi-rest a night. I would have the TV on and just be listening to the Dow Jones and the Nasdaq falling. In one month I lost 12 kilograms due to stress . . . and for three weeks I had pains in my chest, but I didn't want to see a doctor because I knew what they'd say," he says.
"It turned out remarkably in the end, but I said to my wife, after eight years in the business if something came up after risking so much I'd take it."
And an exit did arise. In 2010 PIPE Networks was sold to billionaire David Teoh's TPG Telecom for $373 million, catapulting Slattery up the ranks of the BRW Young Rich List in 2011, when he was aged 40, with a net worth of $103 million.
He is yet to crack the Rich 200 but that's not because of a lack of effort.
In 2015 he floated two companies, connectivity services provider Superloop and Megaport, which allows businesses to buy technology networking capacity on a pay-per-use basis. Both businesses are trading higher than their issue prices. Megaport has performed particularly well since hitting the exchange in   December, already up about 148 per cent on its issue price of $1.25 to trade about $3.10.
Slattery is executive chairman of Megaport and Superloop. In 2016 he intends to focus on the United States and European roll-out of Megaport and its expansion into Asia, and delivering on Superloop's 110-kilometre network project in Hong Kong.

Year of execution
"It's the year of execution," he says. "There's a lot of people who are part of the executive team of Megaport who have never been part of an executive team of a listed company before. I explained to them the share price doesn't matter right now. It's what it is in five years' time."
Looking back on his time growing up in the Queensland country town of Rockhampton, Slattery never imagined he would become an entrepreneur.
"As a kid I didn't think about the future much, I just had fun. On the weekends I went skiing, fishing or snorkelling. It was a pretty good lifestyle," he says.
"When I went through high school . . . in my mind I thought I'd become an accountant. I did a bachelor of business accounting degree, which I only technically completed last year. I'd realised I was getting bored at uni so I got a job at the Rockhampton City Council as a trainee local government clerk."
Slattery had always loved computers, but it wasn't until this local government stint that he realised he wanted to get into IT. He did an IT course and took on a job as a regional information manager for emergency services, before starting work for an internet service provider and eventually realising he didn't enjoy working for other people. 
This realisation led to the creation of his first business, internet content filtering company iSeek, in the late 1990s, which was sold to US firm N2H2 for $US16 million.

Survived two bust periods
His next business, PIPE Networks, actually survived two bust periods, having been founded during the downfall of the dotcom bubble. 
"With the collapse of the market we decided we wouldn't get venture capital funding, so we tweaked the model for PIPE Networks and Steve and I funded it ourselves with $50,000 each," he says.
"The best businesses are sometimes born out of the hardest times because you have to be incredibly frugal. In all my businesses when you talk about values, I talk about frugality."
After selling PIPE Networks to TPG, Slattery founded data centre business NextDC in 2010 and listed it on the ASX in   December that year.
Looking back on his days starting out in business, Slattery says the one big thing that has changed is for entrepreneurs to think globally from the outset.
"Previously, online booking business Wotif and SEEK did really well, but now unless you're in a market position where your product is ingrained in business' systems, you'll always be under the threat of competition . . . and the global players will come and get you," he says.

Use their critical mass
"Uber, for example. There are five or six local companies that help people get taxis, but when a global player comes in they use their critical mass to push you out. We saw it with Equinix in the data centre space."
But for all of Slattery's experience, his two biggest pieces of advice for entrepreneurs stem from those moments nearly eight years ago when he almost lost PIPE International. 
"Every board should have some grey hair. We went into a board meeting on the first of   December, 2008, to wind up the international business, write off $70 million and then have to look at the directors being liable for debts, but Roger Clarke, who was our chairman at the time, he said 'I don't know if that's really our decision to make. There's only one creditor [Tyco Electronics Subsea Communications]. Let them make the call and see what they do,'" he says.
"If you believe in something push as hard as you can. There was a great saying I remember from the GFC, 'the darkest night is followed by the brightest dawn'. There is something in that and it got me through."