I run a Racket program [1] that uses `racket/gui`, `plot`, `db`, etc. and I don't have long startup times when running the main program in a terminal. Maybe you have an example?
Arch Linux with Racket v8.11.1. Starting a REPL takes almost a second and a simple hello world 300 ms. (No use telling me I should do x, y, z. A language that doesn't get it right by default is not for me.)
[1] https://github.com/evdubs/renegade-way