Paul Graham wrote this[0] back in the day about tech stacks. I think this is still kind of true, but there's many more people across many stacks today that can work around some of the shortcomings. I guess it would still be important-ish at a small startup, but you still have to hire for it. There's much more JS/python/java/etc these days, so you have to fight that tide while you grow.

Profitability also may correlate differently; smaller places usually focus on growth instead, right?

[0] http://www.paulgraham.com/avg.html