You're welcome. I have had to wind a couple of companies down that weren't successful and both times we did everything possible to help the employees and even the couple of contractors we had. I learned this ironically at GE when I worked there early in my career. We had layoffs of staff, both professionals and non-professionals and the level of effort and resources GE had us put into helping those people left a huge impression on me.

One thing I have seen in the startup community over the last 20+ years is generally people do their best to help the employees. Although there are some pretty infamous examples of the opposite, those seem to be the minority.

Also in terms of references, caymanjim is right when it comes to enterprises, but small businesses and startups I find are usually a little more reference friendly to a degree. Personally when hiring people though, I generally skip any reference checks for the exact reason he listed, as they are a waste of time. However, for a critical position I do generally call around to people I know and see if I can learn anything that might affect my decision, but for the average position I wouldn't bother.