I’ve been interested and reading up in startups in NYC, curious to see what stacks they use to power their applications.

A guy with background in Java set up a Java shop. Another company runs .NET as chosen by their CTO, and also because Microsoft allows startups use their software free/cheap for the first few years under Bizspark. An online publication that runs on WordPress is being moved to Drupal because the CTO is an expert in Drupal.

Question: Does the benefit of expertise in a particular stack outweigh the benefit of using modern solutions that are more attractive to programmers?

What do some seasoned experts think? This deck by Joe Stump provides some advise:

As far as technology, go with what you know. – Marc Cuban

The technology stack you choose is an implementation detail. – Joe Stump

What do you think? Ruby/Python/PHP are easy choices nowaways, but would you go with Java/.NET for building your next big project? How about a newcomer – node.js?