I would argue a growing startup shouldn't worry about supporting 2% of the user base. You're needlessly allocating resources, and adding additional overhead for a tiny fraction of probably non paying customers. I really believe the era of having to worry about IE8/9 is over.

https://www.w3counter.com/globalstats.php

Yeah... if you look at global stats and extrapolate to your own company you're doing yourself (and your company a disservice). It completely depends on what you're selling and who your customers are.

Sure, okay, I'll tell my CEO that 2% of our customers just don't matter, becuase - yanno, the progress of the internet needs to happen.

Or I could just use jQuery from the start and not think about this problem again.