When you get a little older your risk profile often changes. You have kids who you hopefully think are far more amazing than work and providing a secure lifestyle for them becomes more important than a potential lottery ticket of super-riches. You probably find it a bit harder to "drink the kool aid" that your tech project - while really really cool - is in fact "changing the world" and deserving of "passion." If you take a big risk in your mid 20s and blow up you have a long lifetime to recover. Past your mid-30s you become more aware that you have less time to recover financially from big setbacks.
As an almost 40 geezer I think it's amazing the startup ecosystem exists for the younger crowd and wish it was more fleshed out when I was at that point in life. But I just have different priorities for myself now.
I hit a similar psychological patch a bit later than your friend (low. 30s). I would never tell someone to have kids if it's not what they want in life just as a punt to see if it fills a void. I will say that after having kids I found a level of meaning in life I never expected (I was never anti-kid but being a dad wasn't something I dreamt about either and I had the standard fears/reservations). It's not 100% but I have vastly less angst now that I'm not fulfilling some grand cosmic mission with my life. I've found happiness a different way.
I spent a few months as a tourist superficially observing goings on so I have the "bona fides" to make structural criticisms of the global development/aid system and suggest killing it. Ah the humility of this generation.
I've had the "privilege" of getting access to the paid product via work some years ago. I found that they did accurately predict 100 of the next 2 crises (ie if you say every day disaster is imminent some days really bad things randomly occur). But beyond the quality of their content, Stratfor intimates they have some proprietary pipeline to govt classified intelligence when they have no more access than any other person with Google and a subscription to the NY times. Wikileaks embarasses itself and does Stratfor a great service by perpetrating the marketing hoax that Stratfor is anything but a bunch of guys in Texas rehashing public news sources for gullible corporate consumers.
Wiki leaks is embarrassing itself. Stratfor is a silly bunch of blowhards who repackage the Economist for gullible subscribers who think these jokers are some secret intelligence agents.