I'm going to go against the grain by saying I have created a startup in Java. Why Java? Mostly because it's what I'm competent in, not because it's the best "startup" material.

But what I have done is built a framework for a website which I can easily extend. The framework is robust and easy to adapt, so once I get my first startup up and running, I can punch out more in a much quicker turn-around.

I refrained from using a bunch of existing java frameworks/technology to speed up development because I didn't know what the end product would look like and don't like the way frameworks railroad you into a particular solution and prevent you from "thinking outside the box".

So it's very old school - Servlets and JSP.

I achieve agility by now just focussing on delivering new services, and calling those services from either JSP or AJAX calls. This gives me some flexibility in the UX.

I prototype very rapidly to prove that I can do what I want to do, then round off the edges if I'm happy that it's functionality that I want to include in the pool.

I can turn around new functionality in a matter of hours for the most part.

Pete.