ruined, really? my understanding is that usually venture-backed companies like that are not started by loans co-signed by the founders, but instead started by investors. If that was the case, the founders/managers running the place would have walked just as free as the Engineer would have; the investors would have just lost the money they invested.
(the entire system is biased towards letting people 'just walk' - unless you are so small that you need to personally co-sign your loans/leases/etc... like I do.)
I mean, I'm not saying a employer who pays people salary instead of stock options is evil; I mean, as long as everyone knows the score ahead of time, that's fine. (In fact, that's what I do with my employees. The downside of this is that as you can't attract people who are as experienced or otherwise desirable as you could with options, and people leave you for better paying gigs as they gain experience sooner than they would if they had stock options.)
I'm just saying, the way most (not small-time) corps are structured, the founders have an opportunity to protect their personal assets in case of corporate bankruptcy. And even in the case of small companies like mine (I have a corp, but the protection means nothing; nobody gives me jack without a personal co-sign. I'm tiny.) American bankruptcy laws are pretty liberal, assuming it's business debit, and not tax debit, so sometimes you can still walk. (I do know several people who were 'ruined' by screwing up their taxes enough to get a giant, long-term debit.)