Bootstrapping

I once asked why it is not easier to send up something the size of a basketball as opposed to larger payloads. And I learned that an earth to orbit massdriver is impractical, and that rockets are not easier for launching small payloads because of the size of the cross -section going through the atmosphere or something like that. But would a tether system that could handle only very small payloads be much easier or cheaper or quicker to deploy? People are so into operating small creative robots, that if you could launch many small packages a day you could quickly have a swarm of tele-operated robots that would slowly but surely build some sort of structure on the moon. I am sure that many creative things could be done like this, but only if there is a way to launch very small things much more easily and cheaply than launchinglarge things. I guess a literal interpretation of the idea of starting with small systems that build or become big systems. Is there any way to start small by actually launching small things?