My recollection of the 80's and 90's was that almost all businesses required a solid chunk of cash to start.
The idea of bootstrapping is only valid in recent 1-2 decades because it is now possible to start businesses without a chunk of cash, thus "bootstrapping".
I'm not convinced bootstrapping existing under another name in the 80s.
For the pedants, I'm not saying it was impossible to start a business in the 80s and 90s without cash, just saying that such a path was rare enough to not have a common name such as "bootstrapping".
In fact, prior to Amazon ec2, even Internet businesses required typically the cash to buy/house a server in a data centre which was often thousands of dollars, and even that was considered incredibly cheap for access to a global market compared to what it used to cost prior to the web.
The idea of bootstrapping is only valid in recent 1-2 decades because it is now possible to start businesses without a chunk of cash, thus "bootstrapping".
I'm not convinced bootstrapping existing under another name in the 80s.
For the pedants, I'm not saying it was impossible to start a business in the 80s and 90s without cash, just saying that such a path was rare enough to not have a common name such as "bootstrapping".
In fact, prior to Amazon ec2, even Internet businesses required typically the cash to buy/house a server in a data centre which was often thousands of dollars, and even that was considered incredibly cheap for access to a global market compared to what it used to cost prior to the web.