[KingOfCoders]

1.) Yes 1a.) Scala was a bad choice, but it was chosen because I love the language.

2.) When founders ask me about what language to choose, I tell them: "Choose one where you easily find developers, then you can't go wrong".

[wpietri]

Totally. I think the right way to pick a language for a startup is to find some smart, experienced devs to hire and let them pick (modulo reasonable business constraints). The popular languages all can do a wide range of things effectively. The more important factor for productivity is how well the team knows and likes the tools.

As an example, we know that PHP is a "fractal of bad design"[1], but I can't deny that Facebook as a business is doing just fine.

[1] https://eev.ee/blog/2012/04/09/php-a-fractal-of-bad-design/