My startup switched from python to Java and saw our productivity explode. Using modern Java versions in a non enterprise way (no frameworks, minimal oop, minimal DI, functional features like immutable objects, optional, etc) is quite nice. Our ability to deliver performant and working features was orders of magnitude faster than python. The ecosystem of libraries is crazy deep which also helps build quickly.

I won’t deny there’s a lot of bad Java written, but IMO it’s actually one of the best languages for a startup if any of your code needs good performance.