When an angel is touched by a startup she invested in.

This holiday, a nicely packed box arrived in my mailbox. It was a surprise gift from one of my favorite portfolio companies- Chartmetric .? When I opened the box, it was an ApplePods Max!? What a coincidence! A few weeks ago, I accidently broke my headset and was looking for a nice one.? Timing of this gift couldn’t be better!? This gift made me reflect on the relationship between angel investor and entrepreneur.?

I met Sung M. Cho , CEO Chartmetric at Philz Coffee, which opened their first store in Palo Alto 13 years ago.? I joined Chartmetric as an angel investor and on-call advisor 7 years ago.? Since then our relationship has been evolving nicely. I was witness to the blood, sweat and tears that Sung has poured into Chartmetic to build the most reliable music analytics tool.?

People say investing in startups is like getting married to entrepreneurs. I can’t agree more, especially considering the fact that? the median time to exit for VC-backed companies (8.2 years) equals the average length of marriage in the US (8 years). ?The relationship between startup founders and their investors starts with the first date and extends beyond dates. Eventually they become life-long partners, each contributing to the relationship’s growth. ? This Christmas, with their wonderful gift, the entrepreneur became a good spouse that knows what his spouse is looking for and makes his partner happy by giving her what she really needs.??

A great spouse makes for a great life, but a bad spouse causes pain and worry and they end up in divorce.? I am so happy to have a strong angel investor/entrepreneur relationship with Chartmetric in my life.? I have no doubt that Chartmetic will journey on, despite trials and tribulations on the way and finally become Gartner for Music and eventually be better than Gartner.

The relationship between investors and entrepreneurs is not predictable, just like marriage or any relationship, because they may succeed or fail. But I want to be Chartmetric's life-long partner. I want to be a shoulder to cry on and someone that they can count on in good times and bad.?

For better or worse.??

Thank you Sung M. Cho & Chartmetric team.? I love you guys!