I disagree. For starters, I care what I build my site in. I'd have a lot more fun using say python or (if I'm lucky) lisp or Haskell than I would using PHP. And more fun = easier.
Secondly, developers who might join your company are going to care. Developers are more than the technologies on their resumes. Good ones can learn new technologies quickly. And they might even be happier learning something new.
This view is typical of business people. There isn't anything wrong with that, and it's necessary to a certain degree. But as he scales up, I hope that he can find someone who can help him make a more informed technical decision.
(And for the record, this isn't necessarily targeted at ASP.NET. I can think of worse technologies to work with)
That's the thing though - you and I think programming is fun and awesome, whereas this guy thinks business is fun and awesome, and programming is just a means to do what he wants to.
What I think is a valuable lesson here though, is that he stayed focused on his goal of "put out the site", whereas with hackers it's easy to have a real goal of "Use technology X and write some awesome code" with a tertiary goal of "ship a product". Always be focused on getting your product out the door, even if you don't make perfect technical decisions.
Hey, wait a minute. Just what are you trying to say here? That business and technical people do better working together than ignoring each other? Next you'll tell me business people are human beings and not drones some cruel hacker made to torment other hackers.
It does not matter what you build, you can achieve the same with using either PHP, Python, Ruby or ASP.NET. I choose Python/Google App Engine, free hosting is what was important for me, so I learnt a bit of Python to build me sites http://initlabs.com
I agree. From the standpoint of what you can build a product using alone, any one of those is a good choice. However, I've learned that readability, along with being fun and efficient (from a developer productivity standpoint), is important, and the language makes a huge impact on all of these. I would argue that you can make say PHP readable, but it isn't necessarily going to be fun or efficient (but if someone can get all of those things, more power to them).
If you are hacking just for the sake of hacking then you are absolutely right. You should choose the technology based on how fun it is. But soon you will need to worry about how to pay the server and the bandwidth invoices. That time the business people's opinion will probably sound better.
Even for hacking, it is generally better to choose the technology that your core set of technical people are most comfortable with.
Secondly, developers who might join your company are going to care. Developers are more than the technologies on their resumes. Good ones can learn new technologies quickly. And they might even be happier learning something new.
This view is typical of business people. There isn't anything wrong with that, and it's necessary to a certain degree. But as he scales up, I hope that he can find someone who can help him make a more informed technical decision.
(And for the record, this isn't necessarily targeted at ASP.NET. I can think of worse technologies to work with)