Bootstrap

Verb · Noun · Startup & VC

Definitions

  1. Bootstrap in technology has two primary meanings, both rooted in the idea of starting from nothing. In startup culture, bootstrapping means building a company using personal savings and revenue rather than external investment, retaining full ownership and control. Bootstrapped companies grow organically, constrained by their own revenue, which enforces discipline and profitability but may limit growth speed. Notable bootstrapped companies include Mailchimp, Basecamp, and GitHub (before its eventual VC round). In computing, bootstrapping refers to the process of starting a computer system, where a small initial program (the bootstrap loader or bootloader) loads progressively larger programs until the full operating system is running. The term comes from the phrase pulling yourself up by your bootstraps, since the computer must somehow start itself without yet having an operating system. In web development, Bootstrap is also the name of a popular CSS framework originally created at Twitter for building responsive, mobile-first websites.

    In plain English: Building a business using only your own money and the money the business earns — no investors, no venture capital, just grinding it out.

  2. In computing, bootstrapping (or booting) is the process where a simple program loads a more complex program, which loads a yet more complex one, until the full system is running. Your computer bootstraps every time it starts: BIOS loads bootloader loads kernel loads OS.

    Example: 'The compiler bootstraps itself — it's written in the same language it compiles. You need an existing compiler to build the first version.'

    Source: computing origin

Etymology

1880s
From the impossible phrase 'pull yourself up by your bootstraps' — originally meaning an absurdly impossible task
1950s
Computing adopts the term for a machine loading its own operating system — equally circular in concept
2000s
Startup culture uses 'bootstrapping' to mean self-funding a company without external investment, reclaiming the can-do meaning

Origin Story

Pulling yourself up by impossible footwear since the 1800s

The phrase "pull yourself up by your bootstraps" originated in the early 19th century as a description of an **impossible** feat — you literally cannot lift yourself by pulling on your own shoes. The earliest known reference is from an 1834 publication describing a fantastical claim of pulling oneself over a fence by one's bootstraps.

In computing, **bootstrapping** became the perfect word for the seemingly impossible process of starting a computer: how does a computer load its operating system when it needs an operating system to load anything? The answer — a tiny hardcoded program (the bootloader) loads a slightly bigger program, which loads a bigger one still, until the full OS is running. Each stage pulls the next one up by its bootstraps.

The term spread to compilers (a compiler for language X, written in language X, that compiles itself), startups (building a company without outside funding), and web frameworks (Twitter's Bootstrap CSS framework). In every case, the core meaning is the same: starting from almost nothing and building yourself up through a clever chain of self-reference.

Coined by: 19th-century English idiom; computing usage from 1950s

Context: Early computing, 1950s

Fun fact: The first GCC (GNU C Compiler) was written in C and compiled using existing C compilers. Once it could compile itself, the original compilers were no longer needed. This bootstrap paradox is sometimes called the 'chicken and egg problem' of compilers.

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