I like to start with a boilerplate, usually a Yeoman generator, I'm always trying new ones.
I do that because if I take the time to decide each tool I'll use (always looking for the best on the market) I feel like I will never start the project itself.
The last generator that I used is generator-gulp-angular which is pretty nice, eventhough in my opinion it would be smarter to start with an Angular 2 one. I'm currently waiting a new project so I can try MERN and something with React Native.