AURI clients are a highly diverse mix of entities, ranging from farmers to entrepreneurial startups to legacy businesses expanding their offerings. Yet many share a common trait that drives them and their ideas forward.
“Everyone we work with is different,” says AURI Executive Director Shannon Schlecht, “but they share a passion, creativity, determination, and willingness to take risks that many might be hesitant to take.”
From innovative food products targeting today’s consumers to groundbreaking technologies with broad impact potential, AURI’s client base is wide, touching nearly every Minnesota-grown agricultural commodity or processing coproduct.
For more than 35 years, AURI has supported the development of new uses for agricultural products by delivering unique business and technical assistance to help businesses and entrepreneurs respond to market opportunities. AURI’s assistance typically comes early in the process, which helps tilt the odds of success in the client’s favor.
“I’m constantly amazed at the ingenuity and innovation we see across the state,” Schlecht says. “It comes from everywhere–farmers, cooperatives, scientists, and your neighbor next door. Minnesotans and Midwesterners have a mentality of making things better for the next generation and of truly wanting to solve problems they see in their lives or that are emerging. That is a great mindset, and I think it speaks to what we see every day.”
Change Agents
Taking risks often comes with substantial rewards. Collectively, AURI-supported clients have made significant impacts on the state’s economy.
Economic analysis from July 2020 to June 2025 shows that AURI clients made an estimated capital investment of over $129 million, with an additional $604 million in planned future capital investment. AURI clients generated estimated new annual gross sales of nearly $189 million.
In addition to investments, AURI-supported clients had a real impact on people and communities. During the 2020 to 2025 time period, AURI clients retained 686 jobs with the expectation of adding or retaining over 760 jobs in the future.
“AURI has been the start of unlocking innovation to small companies that are up and coming to large companies that need a different avenue,” says Tom Smude, owner of Smude Enterprises of Pierz. “They’re always looking for that new way to help that business succeed.”
“We service a lot of projects each year. Some are very successful, and others are less impactful, but what we do is provide both a technical and business perspective to fill information gaps and provide honest assessments,” Schlecht explains. “Those upfront evaluations to build right-sized projects with businesses, in turn, help build better outcomes and impacts, and are reflected in our annual results.” Schlecht says receiving client feedback on how AURI assistance has affected their business is valuable information on which AURI continues to build, leveraging that Midwestern mentality to refine and improve the support offered.
Emerging and Innovative
One of AURI’s focus areas is food. In 2025, AURI’s food team worked on 100 projects centered on innovative products. That assistance included working with Subash Yadav and Alexis Poce. They are growing their business producing momo, a dumpling familiar to Nepali cuisine, typically filled with meat or vegetables. Mr. Momo started as a food truck but has since moved into a production facility in Minneapolis.
Mr. Momo produces chicken, lamb, and vegetable momo, as well as a line of sauces for retail and restaurant customers in the Twin Cities and beyond.
“AURI really works with businesses at the point they are at financially,” Yadav says. “We are a startup, and we don’t have a lot of extra money, so to get the level of service for such a low cost was extremely helpful.”
Bioindustrial development is another focus for AURI. A rapidly emerging area of potential to add value to Minnesota agriculture is biogas generation. AURI has made significant advancements in helping businesses and farmers better understand the renewable energy potential of biogas generation through anaerobic digestion.
The Minnesota state legislature provided AURI with one-time funding to assess the opportunity. Schlecht notes that the organization has greatly expanded its knowledge, networks, projects, and tangible outcomes as a result. He adds: “The one-time funds really jump-started our efforts to advance this overlooked renewable energy opportunity for our agriculture sector.”
Minnesota has fewer than 20 digestors on farms today, but with a robust livestock sector, ample ag-based biomass, a strong food processing sector, and clean energy goals, “this all feels like it could develop into a new renewable energy opportunity for Minnesota’s agriculture sector. Biogas provides another renewable energy product and revenue stream in addition to ethanol and biodiesel,” Schlecht says.
One company working to make the intersection of agriculture and energy a reality is Swinergy. Based in Minneapolis, Swinergy transforms livestock manure into renewable energy. The company uses anaerobic digestion to process the manure into renewable natural gas (RNG) and fertilizer. The system captures about 90% of greenhouse gas emissions and reduces processing time from a typical 60-90 days to just 13 days.
“Our solution is a win-win-win,” says Eugene Alvey, Swinergy founder and CEO. “We help livestock operations better manage their emissions, leading to environmental benefits, water quality improvements, and the generation of renewable natural gas for growing energy needs.”
Swinergy’s system integrates with existing farms. The company manages system installation, operation, maintenance, and renewable natural gas sales. Swinergy is currently fabricating its first commercial system for a 4,800-head swine farm in southern Minnesota. The system is expected to produce pipeline-quality gas this upcoming summer.
For the Long Haul
Success for new business or expanded product lines for existing companies rarely takes a linear path. Success doesn’t always come easy, nor does it come quickly.
“We’ve gotten used to the hockey stick curves with the technology sector, but agriculture and food typically follow a slower growth rate,” Schlecht observes. “We see a lot of success with companies exploring product extensions or looking at feedstock uses in a different way to get some incremental value. The business relationships and trust that AURI has built over its 35-plus years of existence provide the foundation and expertise to help both start-up and existing companies make more informed and ultimately impactful decisions.”
AURI’s non-biased insight and experience can help unlock growth, or it can help a business or an entrepreneur avoid costly mistakes.
“We all see the world differently, have different experiences, and AURI gets to be an entry point to help assess a lot of those perspectives,” Schlecht says. “We try to match those perspectives with our expertise or with others in our networks that can catalyze an opportunity.”