Now you're talking about how he made that money work for his company. Might as well throw in the whole "don't pay myself or my co-founder," "work odd consulting jobs to get more cash," and "work out of my grandmother's old apartment," among various other tricks of the bootstrapper's trade.

JoS has been popular right from 2001, that probably more than anything else helped.

I know what you mean but despite the high potential return on the investment his articles gave him he still didn't throw money at it to try and make it happen quickly.

i.e. the quote suggests rather than $50,000 is all you need to start something like Fog Creek the lesson might be even starting from his position which was likely to be more privaledged than yours or mine he still kept costs as low as he could until he turned a profit.