Hell, if they managed to muddle along at a startup for seven years (that is, it took seven entire years before it failed) they've probably picked up enough to b

Hell, if they managed to muddle along at a startup for seven years (that is, it took seven entire years before it failed) they've probably picked up enough to be super valuable in non-programming roles. SEO, UX, (perhaps especially) product owner / strategist or (maybe) project manager. With that experience I think they're Doing It Wrong if they shoot for a software dev position, unless that's just really where they wanna be. They ought to consider agencies that have people in those roles (product strategist especially) if all else fails. Some are quite good. Bonus: interviews for those positions are probably less stupid.