If you want to help ensure success, having an expert team with experience on day #1 is going to have more positive influence than having a few, or a fleet, of inexperienced people banging on it.
Much of the world lives outside of the bay, and isn't backed by lavish VC funding. You gotta do what you have to in order to survive. Many exciting innovations have come from the duck-tape and bailing wire community.
I assumed you were talking about those with VC funding and in the bay area when you referred to "startup environments". And that's exactly who I'm ragging on: SV startups who hire a fleet of inexperienced fresh grads because they are cheap. I agree that you're not going to end up with a solid SOA setup, or anything really, unless you're having experienced experts doing it from day #1. I think you have a greater chance of ending up with an impenetrable majestic monolith if a bunch of inexperienced people are working on it.
