Our Story
Ten Years. One Commitment. No Compromises.
From a River North co-working space to serving enterprise clients across North America — the Skygate Advisors story is about what happens when two friends refuse to accept mediocre consulting.
2014 — The Beginning
Two Friends, One Thesis
Jonathon Davos and Michael Schultz met in the third grade in a suburb west of Chicago. They attended Northwestern University together — Jonathon pursuing computer science, Michael studying business. After graduation, their careers took different paths through the enterprise technology landscape, but their shared conviction never wavered:
“The cloud was transforming business faster than most companies could absorb it. The big consulting firms were too slow and too templated. There was a gap — and we knew exactly how to fill it.”
They founded Davos & Associates in 2014, built around the belief that senior architects — not staffed junior teams — should lead every client engagement from the first conversation to final delivery.
The Principles We Were Founded On
Milestones
A Decade of Building
Founded as Davos & Associates
Childhood friends Jonathon Davos and Michael Schultz leave corporate roles to launch a boutique cloud consultancy from a WeWork in Chicago's River North neighborhood. Their first clients were three Chicago-based 1871 (the premiere local startup incubator, named after the year of the Great Chicago Fire) graduates and private equity-backed software companies.
First AWS Partnership Tier
The firm earns AWS Select Partner designation, validating its technical delivery standards and unlocking access to AWS co-sell programs, joint marketing and the Migration Acceleration Program.
Expanding Practice Areas
Davos & Associates expands beyond pure migration work into DevOps, platform engineering, and application development. Stephen Tylisz joins as CTO, Cameron Rose as VP of Data, bringing data platform and AI capabilities to the practice.
Remote-First Pivot & Geographic Expansion
The firm successfully navigates the pandemic as a remote-first organization, expanding its client base nationally. Operating model is rebuilt around asynchronous collaboration and secure, cloud-native internal tooling.
Rebrand to Skygate Advisors
To reflect the firm's broadened scope and modern identity, Davos & Associates officially rebrands as Skygate Advisors. The name evokes the Chicago skyline, the gateway to the cloud, and the firm's mission to bridge enterprise ambition with technical reality.
AI Practice Launch & Ten-Year Milestone
Skygate Advisors celebrates its tenth year in business with the formal launch of its AI & Machine Learning integration practice. The firm now serves clients across financial services, healthcare, logistics, and retail, with over 150 engagements delivered.
What Drives Us
Mission. Vision. Values.
To deliver the cloud transformation outcomes that enterprise organizations need, with the senior architectural expertise and personal attention that only a boutique practice can provide.
To be the cloud advisory firm that executive leaders trust implicitly — the call they make before the vendor presentation, not after the project fails.
Intellectual honesty. Senior accountability. Knowledge transfer. Outcome obsession. And the quiet confidence to say “we don't know yet, but we'll find out.”
Chicago Built. Cloud Focused.
Client Obsessed.
We remain headquartered in Chicago because we believe proximity to our clients fosters better partnerships. We're involved in the Chicago technology community, AWS User Group Chicago, and support STEM education initiatives within the Chicago Public Schools system.
Become Part of the Story
Whether you're a client looking for a trusted cloud partner or a technologist who wants to do the best work of their career, we'd love to hear from you.