No one is going to fund your start-up if you do not speak web scale. And the only web scale game in town is NoSQL. Also node.js.

I don't get if you are sarcastic or you really believe in what you wrote. I hope it's the first option.

Anyway, NoSQL is definitely a good solution for some usages, I personally created a special analytics service using Cassandra that is good to store unstructured and unrelated data to be later computed and analyzed. It would be barely impossible to achieve this without hitting on performances due to the data integrity checks that most SQL servers/engines perform. On the other hand, I use SQL everywhere else and I am happy with that. It scales well if the design is well made and it's just a matter of research and a little bit of preparation to create an SQL environment that scales. It's not easy as some NoSQL databases, but not that hard and impossible as some of these solutions are claiming to gain new customers...

On Node.js I have some doubts, even if the general nature is very scalable and is well proved as fact, there are other solutions that are good alternatives like Golang or some frameworks written in Scala, maybe on top of AKKA.

The big problem is that a lot of companies and investors are asking for scalability, but the reality is just that one service on hundreds built are going to be so successful to require a scalability plan. If you hit that target you would definitely get enough money to even migrate the technology to something better and scalable.

It is really obvious that you don't know what you are talking about. Sometimes it is better to say nothing at all.

He/she was joking.

How to determine the aliveness/deadness of a language:

1. Work out what you want to build, and functionalities that you would require. 2. Do a search for libraries in language X. If success, go to 3 else it is dead for you - look at another language. 3. Look for adequate documentation and an active, helpful community. If success, go to 4 else it is dead for you - look at another language. 4. Try building a quick and simple application. If you found it enjoyable and offers something other tools you already know don't, go to 5 else it is dead for you - look at another language. 5. Build something more substantial. If you still find it enjoyable, go to 6 else it is dead for you - look at another language. 6. Congratulate yourself that you have discovered an enjoyable and useful tool. And that you took the time and effort to explore the language yourself and made an informed decision, and not just read someone's opinion and went with it. You may also start to suspect most opinions are from people who never actually used the language for anything more that what you just did, or inherited a dreadful codebase.

I did all this and I found myself using Pharo about three years ago. I still am, and I enjoy it tremendously. Also, (Pharo) Smalltalk is the most alive language I have ever used.

What have you built with Pharo? (Genuine question...)

Libraries to access Pin (pin.net.au), Stripe (not yet complete), Twilio (almost complete). My own bindings to SQLite. Libraries to write Latex files. Currently writing web server proxies for accessing Australian government mandated web services. None are yet released, but I am aiming to make a commercial service out of them so they may never be open sourced.

Pin employee here, if you've built something that supports us we'd love to add it to our integrations page.