Ask HN: Would a .Net back-end put off potential acquisitors?

I know the .Net tech stack very well, warts and all. I feel I could get to market quicker than if I were to build out using something JVM based or even node.js.

Would this put off potential suitors? My gut instinct is that it probably would to an extent, but I'm not sure it'd outweigh my personal advantage of experience. If it makes any difference, I am funding this myself initially.

So in your opinion should I bite the bullet or go with what I know?

As much as I don't like the .NET stack myself, you should go with what you know, unless you're specifically looking to learn something new. There's enough risk in starting up as it is without burdening yourself with learning an entirely new stack.

I wouldn't think so. Your tech stack is going to be one of the last things they care about. Besides, .Net is very well established so if anything they'll take comfort in that.

It's all about the product and users.

Thinking about potential problems with an exit before you've even started building something is frankly ridiculous. Just start. What anyone might buy in a few years time if you're successful will be very different to what you build now because you will learn things about what the customer wants along the way. Whether that's shifting to a more appropriate language is something that only time will tell.

If you have a great product that you can get live quickly and works then it won't matter if you even write it in COBOL (don't write it in COBOL though) - ASP.Net & SQl Server (even the free version) also work very well together and have great performance.

There are of course licensing costs if you run on Windows and don't use MONO but these shouldn't really be an issue in comparison to all your other costs

Also there are a lot of ASP.Net/C# developers around (just look at odesk) which will help you build your team faster (unlike Ruby or Scala developers, which are great languages, just harder to recruit and also attract higher wages).

My advice... build a proof on concept as quickly as possible - if .net is your thing then use that vs. wasting time learning something else. The chances are that your concept may need to be reworked so why waste time...

Good luck!