Nice anecdote, but was it because of the language or because a small motivated team gets much more done than a big enterprise that is bogged down in meetings?
How about this: Python is only ~1.5 times more popular than Java, and Ruby is way below Java, and yet if you look top successful YC startups, Python has 17% of valuation, Ruby has 52% and Java is merely 1%. You can, of course, choose to interpret it in a multitude of ways, but at least one of them is that if you pick Java for your startup, you are unlikely to be successful (or, alternatively, people who are unlikely to build a successful startup are more likely to choose Java).
https://charliereese.ca/y-combinator-top-50-software-startup...