Ideas that were ahead of their time.

About 15 years ago my cousin called me and told me about the MEJATI TECHNOLOGIES of Malaysia and how they were a huge Technology company looking for an investment opportunity in South Africa.

They were apparently hard hitters looking for a seat at the table of serous players.
I asked him how deep their pockets were and he said "really deep" so I looked around and found, "SAFE".

The South African Far East initiative was planning to lay undersea cable linking the African continent with the Far East.

They were at the time selling ownership of the bandwidth to a bunch of international investors. 
The stakes were high and the money required to get in on the action was measured in blocks,  upwards of ten of million dollars each.

After making a comprehensive starter pack for the Mejati group we were told that it was "too rich for their blood". And they didn't think it would pan out;  And we left it at that.

A little while later another cousin, who was stationed in the Middle East, introduced us to an Arab cartel who had real big money to invest and this time I was sure we had found somebody who had big enough resources to invest in SAFE.

And once again we weren't able to get the required funding to get in.

The reason why nobody saw this opportunity was that I was trying to sell an undersea cable, before the internet gained traction.
They all thought it was about phone calls, and faxes, and saw a limited ceiling in that space.

This was before smartphones, and internet enabled devices.

"SAFE was subsequently commissioned, and in 2002 built by Tyco Submarine Systems of the USA with an initial capacity of 10 Gigabits per second, and current capacity of 440 Gigabits per second. Providing high-speed digital links between Europe, West and Southern Africa and the Far East."

The undersea cables are currently the backbone of the internet as we know it.
The owners are the ultimate wholesale provider of bandwidth and what I was offering is the closest thing to owing the internet and all the traffic on it.
The service provider of bandwidth, linking countries.

Clearly it was an idea that ahead of its time.