0 a piece of leather or other strong material at the back of a boot that you use to help you pull the boot on --
1 to improve your situation or become more successful, without help from others or without advantages that others have: --
His father had bootstrapped himself out of rural poverty to earn a university degree in business.
Nolan bootstrapped himself into the film business, cobbling together bits of 16-millimetre film stock with $6,000 to make his first feature.
He bootstrapped the company, pouring all his energy into it.
I met a young engineer who had bootstrapped a company to offer mobile internet advertising services to brands.
We can complete it step by step however long the road is and it can't be completed however short the road is if you don't even mark your footprint.
We kunnen het stap voor stap voltooien, hoe lang de weg ook is en het kan niet worden voltooid, hoe kort de weg ook is, als je niet eens je voetafdruk markeert.