I don't think that would have worked. He needed exactly what he got: Help from established organizations. Bootstrapping that yourself is orders of magnitude har

I don't think that would have worked. He needed exactly what he got: Help from established organizations. Bootstrapping that yourself is orders of magnitude harder. Notice that the people employing him get their money elsewhere, so it's doubtful that product itself could have bootstrapped itself into a full business. Also, as soon as there is money to pay adoption of your little tool drops dramatically, because now people using it want to be damn sure it's worth it well in advance, usually even before even trying it.