Open sourcing requires a ton of work. You have to rewrite a lot of code that is custom, one-off, hard coded. You'll then have to write a lot of documentation an

Open sourcing requires a ton of work. You have to rewrite a lot of code that is custom, one-off, hard coded. You'll then have to write a lot of documentation and provide some support to get it off the ground. Lastly, there could be potential legal ramifications as well. Most startup code relies on 3rd party services as well which doesn't make open sourcing viable. If you're a dying startup, the last thing you want to do is spend your remaining resources on open sourcing your code. I don't think open sourcing failed startups is that common. Some do. But the vast majority do not.