I think I'll get back into the saddle a little – figuratively speaking.
By blow up, do you mean literally or figuratively?
It is thus used figuratively of the lowest depth of a person's spirits or the lowest point in a career.
Apart from its scriptural usage, the word is applied to any gigantic marine animal such as the whale, and hence, figuratively, of very large ships, and also of persons of outstanding strength, power, wealth or influence.
While startups may not be life or death literally, they are exactly that figuratively.
