Where it sits
It travelled the full length of this line, and lost its original meaning entirely on the way.
Tell it apart
| Aspect | Bootstrapping | Burn rate |
|---|---|---|
| Fuel | Revenue | Investment |
| Runway | Indefinite or immediate | Calculable |
| Ownership | Retained | Diluted |
| Failure mode | Stagnation | Running out |
| Associated with outside capital | No | Yes |
| Has a funding deadline | No | Yes |
| Can outrun revenue | No | Yes |
| Ends in | Slow growth | A round, profit, or a close |
Bootstrapping doesn't abolish the burn rate — the founder's own savings burn too. What it removes is the funding deadline: the countdown runs to the month revenue has to cover the bills, not to the next round. Revenue IS the runway, which is a harder constraint and a much simpler one.
What it doesn't mean
It originally meant a PHYSICAL IMPOSSIBILITY — a violation of the laws of motion. An 1888 textbook posed it as a problem to be explained. The inspirational reading is a later inversion of a phrase that was coined to mean 'this cannot be done'.
Grit does not supply the starting capital. In a 2014 Gallup poll, 77% of small businesses cited personal savings as a source of their startup funding; separate benchmarking puts the average startup's requirement at roughly $10,000 — which is a sum some people have and others do not.
What it really means
The phrase means the opposite of what it is used to mean, and both ends of the reversal are documented.
A bootstrap is the loop at the back of the top of a tall boot, first documented in 1870, used to pull the boot on. To pull yourself up by your bootstraps is to lift your entire body by tugging on something attached to your body — which is a violation of the laws of motion, and it was coined to say so.
By 1871 the figurative sense meant a physical impossibility. An 1888 physics textbook posed it as a problem to be explained: why can't a man lift himself by his boot-straps? It was a teaching example about why some things cannot be done.
Somewhere between then and now, the phrase for an impossible task became the phrase for the thing you should have done instead of complaining.
Which makes it an unusually loaded word for a business model, and it is worth separating the two.
The business practice is real and often sensible: build on internal cash flow and personal savings, take no outside capital, keep the ownership. The trade is explicit — growth capped by revenue in exchange for not answering to anyone. For many businesses that is the better deal, and it removes an entire category of failure.
The ideology attached to it is where the original meaning matters. It credits grit, and leaves out the starting capital. In a 2014 Gallup poll, 77% of US small businesses cited personal savings as a source of startup funding, and separate benchmarking puts the average startup's requirement at roughly $10,000.
Ten thousand dollars is not a character trait. It is either in an account or it isn't — which is very close to the point the 1888 textbook was making about the boots.
Where it comes from
the loop at the back of a tall boot, first documented 1870
'Pull oneself up by one's bootstraps' originally described a PHYSICAL IMPOSSIBILITY. Comstock used the image in 1838, the set phrase is attested from 1871, and an 1888 physics textbook posed it as a problem: why can't a man lift himself by his boot-straps?
- 1830
Comstock's A System of Natural Philosophy already uses the picture of someone trying to raise himself by the straps of his boots.
- 1838
Comstock's Youth's Book of Natural Philosophy uses the image for something that cannot be done: raising yourself into the air by pulling at your bootstraps.
- 1953
The computing sense arrives — a fixed instruction sequence that loads an operating system, which is where 'boot' in 'boot up' comes from.
In real life
- Two friends open a bakery with their own savings and put each month's takings into a second oven rather than taking money from investors — the business sense of bootstrapping.
- The computing sense: when you switch a computer on, a tiny built-in program loads a larger one, which loads the operating system — which is why we say it 'boots up'.
- The original sense was a puzzle about the impossible: an 1888 physics textbook asks why a man cannot lift himself by pulling on his own boot-straps.
Questions
Q01Where does 'bootstraps' come from?
The loop at the top of a tall boot, documented from 1870 — used to pull the boot on.
Q02Did it always mean self-reliance?
No. By 1871 it meant an impossible task, and an 1888 physics textbook used it as a paradox: why can't a man lift himself by his boot-straps? The motivational sense is an inversion.
Q03How do most small businesses fund themselves?
In a 2014 Gallup poll, 77% of US small businesses cited personal savings as a source of startup funding — the next most common source, a loan or line of credit, was cited by 41%. This page explains the terms and is not financial advice.
Sources
- Etymonline — bootstrap.
- Bootstrapping — Wikipedia.
- Wordorigins.org — bootstrap (Comstock, 1830 and 1838).