Robert "Bob" Davoli is an American venture capitalist at Gutbrain Ventures in Boston, Massachusetts. Education Davoli obtained a history degree from Ricker College. As he considered his career options, Davoli began to study computer software by taking courses at Northeastern University. Career In 1981, Davoli started working for Stone and Webster Engineering Corporation as a systems analyst. In 1986 he founded a database tools and consulting firm, D & N Systems, subsequently changed to SQL Solutions, with Dave Newsom. In January 1990, in Davoli's first successful high-tech exit, SQL Solutions was acquired by Sybase 18 months before they went public. Davoli stayed on to run it as a separate operating subsidiary for a year. In 1992, Davoli was recruited to become CEO of Epoch Systems, a Sigma Partners portfolio company with a hierarchical storage management product. In 1993 Davoli sold Epoch Systems to EMC Corporation for $141 million. Davoli left Epoch / EMC about a year after the acquisition and began angel investing and advising local startups. At about this time, Charles Ferguson had founded Vermeer Technologies which was in the process of creating FrontPage, new and innovative software for creating web pages. Ferguson was seeking out the best advisors he could find in the area and was recommended to Davoli, who joined the Vermeer board as an independent director. Vermeer was purchased by Microsoft in January 1996 for $130 million. In 1995, Davoli was recruited to join Sigma Partners, where he became a full partner in the firm. Davoli funded some of the most successful technology companies in the mid to late 1990s. Many of these were founded by entrepreneurs from SQL Solutions and Epoch Systems. Since D & N Systems / SQL Solutions was an early strong player in the relational database field and Epoch Systems was in a similar position in hierarchical storage management, they were both natural breeding grounds from which strong startups would emerge. In 2000, Davoli was featured as the cover story of BusinessWeek magazine for their July 24, 2000 issue, titled “How a Venture Capitalist Does It… Even in Tough Times”. The profile detailed Davoli’s investment strategy and successes, highlighting that between 1995 – 2000, Davoli-led investments of $45.5 million generated more than $2 billion in returns to Sigma Partners investors. In 2018, Davoli founded his own investment fund Gutbrain Ventures, headquartered in Boston, MA, which currently comprises over forty investments. Davoli has