You're pitching yourself wrong here, and based off your other comment. Those things are not blots. Here are a few counters that pitch better
Every language teaches us new things, haskell might not be my language of choice but it's damn sure taught me things about functional programming and correctness. Those lessons are portable, either to other functional languages (Scala, Elixir) or just to the way you build programs in something like typescript.
Working long hours at a startup and having to do everything makes you a generalist that can pick up obscure codebases quickly. Haskell again is evidence of this.
Watching the startup(s) make bad decisions has given you an appreciation of the importance of selecting appropriate tooling. Working across web and mobile gives you an appreciation of the architectural challenges of the current app and web environment.
Startups fail and make bad decisions, the pitch here is that you've learned from all their mistakes and can help your next employer, big or small to avoid the same ones.
Burnout from 17 hour days, and not wanting to repeat that is evidence of not being as young (or stupid). Work life balance and sustainable pace are vital parts of software development (see also 996[0], for some of the endemic problems in China about this)
Taking a sabbatical, is an opportunity to grow and become a T shaped individual including things beyond tech (In 2021 I learned how to sail, and got licensed, I'm better for it).
Interviewing (and later Performance Reviews) are not exercises in soul searching. They're sales and marketing exercises. Not lying, but presenting everything you've experienced in the best possible way. The reflection and growth should be done with mentors, coaches and therapists.
Always happy to talk about this, my contact details are in my profile (and this applies not just to the OP, but to anyone that wants career advice or mentoring).
FYI, the pronouns are killing me. 'You' and 'yourself' are referring to OP and not vertis, correct? Sussed that out by the 'you would be unwise to take vertis' offer...'
Also, it appears you meant 'it would be unwise to NOT take vertis' offer'.
Every language teaches us new things, haskell might not be my language of choice but it's damn sure taught me things about functional programming and correctness. Those lessons are portable, either to other functional languages (Scala, Elixir) or just to the way you build programs in something like typescript.
Working long hours at a startup and having to do everything makes you a generalist that can pick up obscure codebases quickly. Haskell again is evidence of this.
Watching the startup(s) make bad decisions has given you an appreciation of the importance of selecting appropriate tooling. Working across web and mobile gives you an appreciation of the architectural challenges of the current app and web environment.
Startups fail and make bad decisions, the pitch here is that you've learned from all their mistakes and can help your next employer, big or small to avoid the same ones.
Burnout from 17 hour days, and not wanting to repeat that is evidence of not being as young (or stupid). Work life balance and sustainable pace are vital parts of software development (see also 996[0], for some of the endemic problems in China about this)
Taking a sabbatical, is an opportunity to grow and become a T shaped individual including things beyond tech (In 2021 I learned how to sail, and got licensed, I'm better for it).
Interviewing (and later Performance Reviews) are not exercises in soul searching. They're sales and marketing exercises. Not lying, but presenting everything you've experienced in the best possible way. The reflection and growth should be done with mentors, coaches and therapists.
Always happy to talk about this, my contact details are in my profile (and this applies not just to the OP, but to anyone that wants career advice or mentoring).
[0]: https://996.icu/#/en_US