Ask HN: What happens to founders after their startup fails or fizzles?

They consult.

Most startups fail so any reasonable founder will be prepared for that eventuality such that it doesn't ruin their life or family. Keep a fund for rainy days or years. Don't put your house on black.

Many paths.

Unless they’ve over leveraged personally they won’t have debt. In fact many will have made money through sales along the way. I worked for one founder who cashed out and got a Porsche… everyone else lost money. He disappeared though since he burned so many bridges.

You go get a job to make ends meet or you start another company generally. Unless you’re super high profile it’s not really going to tarnish your image and even then someone like Neumann still got investors again.