Kind of depends on what code you're talking about. Some "failed" startups may have valuable code that can be sold or licensed out, even if it ends being somewha

Kind of depends on what code you're talking about. Some "failed" startups may have valuable code that can be sold or licensed out, even if it ends being somewhat of a firesale. Others may tuck it away on a backup or project folder and never revisit it or only pluck away some useful bits here or there. Others may use it as a template for a completely different business just to "get an app up and running" if what they had prior had some similar pieces. Finally, some may decide to open source some or all of the code. As was mentioned, it's hard for others to use it, though, since it is rarely the case that a startup's codebase is going to be pretty and easy to get going and using, versus some nicely structure, re-usable OSS library.