> But learning from the past is not a weakness.

What's the lesson you are learning from?

The lesson I see is that any language, even PHP, will give you success if you "build something people want".

I read lots of startup "shutdown" stories - and I've not read one that mentioned the choice of "PHP" (or any language) as the reason for shutting down.

So if your comfortable with PHP - punch out what you need to get started...