Tim DaviesCEO Projekt Rising - The expert AI partner for SMEs

Bootstrapping Your Business: Self-Funding Explained

10 Sept 2025

Watch on YouTube

A short explainer on bootstrapping (self-funding) for startups and side hustles, defining the term, its origins metaphorically, and outlining benefits (safer, self-funded growth) and constraints (limited cash access, sector-dependent costs). The speaker emphasizes common needs—software, hardware, teams, CRM—can make bootstrapping restrictive for tech businesses.

So bootstrapping. Do you know where the term bootstrapping came from? I don't. So originally it came from the idea of lifting oneself up with your own bootstraps which ironically is an almost impossible task. So bootstrapping is self funding your business. So a lot of the time this really falls into areas where you might be having a side hustle so you might use your own savings, you start something on the side, it starts slow and it's self funded. It's probably the safest way to start and build a business but it's obviously very restrictive because you've not got that immediate access to cash which ultimately is the fuel to grow your business and it's also dependent on the sector that you're working in. So if you're building anything from a tech business you might say well that's just labor intensive but actually you might need to buy software, hardware, you might need to invest in teams, you might need to invest in CRM systems, whatever it is.