[schan]

There are plenty of startup founders that got their credit ruined before like Max Levchin. It got to the point where "a ruined credit history prevented him from buying a car, getting a cell phone, and renting an apartment." However, "Levchin kept going without much downtime." Levchin says: "Every time I had torn up my certificate of incorporation… the delay between that and registering a new company was typically no more than 24 hours."

http://gigaom.com/2010/08/06/max-levchin-says-embracing-fail...

Levchin's 24 hours might be extreme to follow, but we can definitely learn from his relentlessness. As for $150k in debt, creditors nowadays are pretty used to arranging settlements. You might be able to arrange some payment plan with them and reduce the debt to under $70k. A big part of it is interest and fees that they tackle on so they would rather remove that and work with you than watch you default. So given you get a job (startup jobs don't check your credit as much) you might be able to fix it in 1-2 years without declaring bankruptcy.

I know how demoralizing it can feel but you are definitely not the only one and will emerge stronger after you get over it. Look forward to seeing blog posts/interviews about how you struggled and overcame your debt when you rise again.