I'm just a few years older than you and followed an eerily similar path you described.
My dad got a Leading Edge 486SX when I was 4 and I got hooked on computers from that point.
I did the part-time student deal for several years at community college while working for a computer repair shop. In the long run I decided to attend a nearby University for a year in pursuit of EE. Due to the curve passing grades were in the low 50s and I immediately knew I did not want to spend $10,000 a semester where that was the acceptable standard. Obviously there is a lot more to it than just this, but I won't bore you with my life story
I did my fair share of chasing start ups as a product developer. Maybe we should combine our skill sets and make the next big thing
What I learned... was in the end it didn't matter if I had certifications or a degree. I already had learned how to survive and make a living based on the skills I picked up in the field, going through the college experience, and other side work. Presently, I'm working for a fairly respectable company doing nearly all fields of IT Support and that was not where I was expecting to be right now.
I have no certifications and no degree. I was quite worried I'd have a hard time finding a position with good pay, benefits, and hours working a job I'd actually enjoy. I was surprised that in under 3 months of searching I found my current position.
Finding a job in IT is definitely unique in the respect that you can find great paying positions without a degree/certs as long as you have the experience/skills required for the job and can prove it.
With that said it is still important to remember that they don't hurt to have. It helps to be articulate in person and in general to have good 'people skills'. There is no shame walking into an interview and telling your possible future employer that you are self-taught. If anything it will be more impressive to them when you can answer their questions and pass their tests. As long as you have skills, the motivation to work, and can show people that you are golden.
If you have the experience it is just up to you how you want to go about obtaining the position you want. You could get Certs that prove you have the HTML, CSS, php, JS experience just so you could put that down on your resume in hopes it bumps it up higher in the pile.
Personally, what I did was created a resume that wasn't your typical black and white list of skills, abilities, and work history. I setup a webpage to represent myself and to show that I have the correct skill set to work professionally in IT. It was also a good speaking point in interviews as web development is not my focus whatsoever.
All of the work you did previously for start ups is work you can use in your portfolio and claim as your own as long as you were the original creator. If the company went under then there is no entity that can claim copyright to your work. Any sort of contract or agreement you made with them is null and void the moment the company is dissolved. And usually if a company is already in the process of dissolution there is a good chance they don't care or don't have the resources to stop you anyways. I used one of the start ups I worked for in my work history primarily because of the type of experience that was involved. I got to talk to a lot of investors, work with incubators, recruit members, pitch the product - I had an extremely active role as one of the founding members and this put me out front for every business interaction we took.
So by all means, put together a portfolio with your resume. If you don't have your own website I highly recommend making one that represents you as a person and your work. In my opinion presentation and execution is all that really matters in the real world.
As Ed said - check out some Web Dev listings - if you think you can handle the responsibilities listed in the postings then there is no harm in applying for jobs to see if you get a phone interview. The worst that can happen is no response or they tell you sorry you don't fit their requirements.
You'll find a good job that suits you with or without certs as long as you want (or need lol) it bad enough.
