bootstrapping
Bootstrapping is the art of starting up a company with little or no cash--it is closely related to self-funding. It is a concept near and dear to our hearts at Early Stage Legal and near and dear to the hearts of millions of entrepreneurs. Bootstrapping is difficult, time-consuming, and risky but it has its own rewards. There is nothing closer to the Platonic form of perfect entrepreneurship than that of bootstrapping a great company.
Bootstrapping is an amazingly rich term. Its origins go back to the early 19th century. Many believed that the term originally came from the legendary tales of Baron von Münchhausen. In one such tale, Baron von Münchhausen gets himself out of a swamp by pulling up on his hair. Supposedly, in an American retelling of the tale he does something similar by pulling up on his bootstraps. This gave rise to the use of the term for doing something impossible. It is thus widely considered a nearly impossible feat to start a company without significant investment of capital.
Bootstrapping has a number of other relevant meanings. When a computer "boots up" it is boostrapping its operating system "into existence." At Early Stage Legal, we like to define entrepreneurship simply as "doing a lot with very little." At its essence, we believe that entrepreneurship is about accomplishing very difficult tasks in doing a great deal without the significant resources available to large businesses. Hence bootstrapping is at the core of entrepreneurship. It is also closely related to the concept of Minimum Viable Product.