That's not unique to startup - I'd say it's even more relevant to regular "corporate" software development, no? What's unique to real startups (for my definition of "real": the ones that solve yet unsolved technically challenging problems) is: even though you may be better off using a good ready-made infrastructure, that doesn't change the game for you as your competitors also have access to it. While using a conceptually different (more powerful?) toolset might give you an edge over the competitors and a chance to indeed solve the problem you're after. Just yesterday I talked about this: https://www.slideshare.net/vseloved/lisp-in-a-startup-the-go...