"I would advise preparing your own comparative analysis with your own benchmark tests that fairly address what you will actually run - perhaps some sample code in perl, java and whatever else that does a small but functionally and technically representative piece of the functionality the business will actually do."

This seems to me asking a bit too much work, even for a pitch to the VCs. Unless the OP has written benchmarks, it's unlikely he'll have it done in time for the pitch.

But the main thing I'd like to ask is, hasn't anybody done this already? Some links pointing in this direction would be great.

I see myself being in the OP's shoes sometime soon, and would love to get educated on this.

So basically, where is the perl propaganda? The success stories linked above was good. Is there any benchmarking propaganda?