Bootstrap Network

The Bootstrap Network is an organization of entrepreneurs founded in Austin, Texas in 2003 by Bijoy Goswami.{{cite news|url=http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/06_12/b3976458.htm|title=A League Of His Own: Entrepreneur Bijoy Goswami reinvents the schmoozefest|date=Spring 2006|work=BusinessWeek|accessdate=28 February 2010|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20100125071147/http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/06_12/b3976458.htm|archivedate=25 January 2010}} The members, who are all founders of companies, give each other advice on building companies, the name referring to starting a company without outside financing, or 'bootstrapping'.{{cite news|url=http://austin.bizjournals.com/austin/stories/2009/02/23/focus4.html?b=1235365200^1782258|title=Bootstrapping for success|last=Kwon|first=Jean|date=20 February 2009|work=Austin Business Journal|accessdate=28 February 2010}}

By 2006, the network had over 500 members in Austin and sister networks in 10 other cities in the US and India. By 2009, it had 1,000 members.{{cite news|url=http://austin.bizjournals.com/austin/stories/2009/03/16/story11.html|title=Bijoy Goswami: Founder, Bootstrap Austin|last=Kwon|first=Jean|date=13 March 2009|work=Austin Business Journal|accessdate=28 February 2010}} Gary Hoover, founder of Hoover's and Bookstop has called Bootstrap Austin "among the most effective tools for entrepreneurs that I have ever seen - and I've seen a lot."