Slattery, who was the founder of NEXTDC, Superloop, HyperOne, Megaport and a host of other companies, said that 14 years ago, during the global financial crisis, he “was in a real bind”.

The banks had walked away from $100m in project finance on a cable project he was building at the time.

In a LinkedIn post, Slattery said he had a plan.

“What got me through is that I had a solid business plan, customer contracts and a partner who believed in our vision,” he said.

“When the rug got pulled, I went straight to our main supplier (and only real creditor) and was transparent about what had just happened. We had already paid 50 per cent of the project and the only real issue was timing.

“Working with them and our major customer we put together a bridge finance package secured by our customer contracts to get us through to completion. It was a great success and they were paid in full a month after completion.”

He said not long after, a friend found himself in the same sort of trouble when the banks called in his $8 million of debt, despite not missing a payment.

He told him to find a supplier who would be most impacted if the business collapsed.

“See if they are open to helping you through the period by offering longer credit or even equity in the business so they can sustain you as a major customer,” he said.

“That friend of mine did exactly this and managed to secure a $10m convertible note through his main supplier, pay back the bank’s $8m debt facility and trade through. A decade later the business sold for $2 billion.

“If you’re squeezed and about to burst, check who is mostly disadvantaged by you no longer being their customer and talk to them before you hit the wall. Good luck everyone.”