[aristofun]

JVM is a heavy old begemoth. That is the core reason behind it not being popular among startups.

This doesn't mean it's bad (sometimes you need big gun, something mature and advanced), just out of many startups' immediate scope.

[john_scotland]

Java is not heavy. You can use GraalVM native compilation, and it will be as light as Golang. Modern frameworks like Quarkus or Helidon are lightweight. Sure, if you are working for an old style Java shop stuck with Java 8 and JavaEE. That's another story...

[aristofun]

"heavy" here is used in a very broad, general sense - that includes legacy, features, traditions, existing codebases, practices, reputation, community, libraries, ecosystem, mindset, infra, learning curve etc.

Having few examples that jumps out of the tradition doesn't make something as a whole suddenly different.