RPM has always believed we provide the highest level of value to our portfolio companies by taking a team approach. As a team we make our top priority our portfolio companies. We do this by establishing an active relationship with the management of the company. This allows us to understand the company's business in a deeper way that supports our ability to assist in building sales pipeline, recruiting, strategy and product development, and securing follow on financing.
To serve our portfolio companies we have built an extremely vibrant network of sales and business-development contacts, along with other influencers, in the manufacturing and automotive base here in the Midwest. This allows us to open doors for companies in our portfolio and accelerate their launch in their respective markets by helping them achieve early sales and business-development partners.
This equates into a firm with National reach, but anchored by Midwest roots. This reach is extended beyond the Midwest through our relationships with many of the most influential venture capital firms in the country. These deep relationships are established on the basis of a reputation for being able to deliver strong results for our portfolio companies in the Midwest customer base. This in turns provides us with strong paths for helping to secure follow on financing for our companies as the progress from pre-revenue early stage companies into maturing high growth companies.
Further, as both a source of deal flow and for the benefit of our portfolio companies, we strategically cultivate relationships with prestigious university researchers and technology-transfer officers at such institutions as the University of Michigan, University of Illinois and Purdue University. This is accomplished by building direct relationships with principal investigators and providing them with support in the form of market intelligence and product feedback giving them the basis for establishing a company or providing value for companies in the marketplace.
The burgeoning success of our current portfolio reflects the value of these relationships.
