Ring City

Houston morphs into Aggieland: 33 companies on Texas A&M's Aggie 100 call H-Townhome

Each year, the Texas A&M University Mays School of Business Center for New Ventures and Entrepreneurship releases the Aggie 100, a list of the fastest-growing businesses owned or led by A&M graduates.

The 2011 list was recently released and 33 Houston-area companies made the list of 100. Sixteen of those enterprises are headquartered within Houston city limits, with 17 more in the surrounding areas.

Topping the list at No. 1 was Tranzon Auction Resolutions, a national auction and sales company founded and managed by two A&M grads that's based in Cypress. Tranzon saw 276.83 percent growth between January 2008 and December 2010.

Also in the top 10, Houston's Opportune LLP, an energy consulting firm founded and managed by Aggies David Baggett, Jr. and John Vanderhider. It ranked fifth with a 101.91 percent growth.

Other local companies on the list range from attorneys to software developers to engineers to retail suppliers.

A company qualifies initially if under the ownership or leadership of a former Aggie, but from there the criteria gets a bit stricter. It must have seen longevity, success and growth over at least five years in business, and it must adhere to the Aggie Code of Honor in practice. Qualifying companies are then ranked by percentage growth.

Ashley Crane, assistant director of the CNVE, says that there are companies that repeatedly make the list. Some have been on the list for four or more years, and one has made it six times in the seven years that the Aggie 100 has been published.

About half of the companies on the Aggie 100 participate in passing resources and expertise on to future generations of entrepreneurial Aggies. Through speaking engagements with student organizations and within classrooms, thousands of students in the business school and throughout the university are reached in the days leading up to the annual awards luncheon.

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Money Matters

This is the income you need to live comfortably in Texas in 2026

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Single U.S. adults need at least $80,000 to live comfortably; in Texas, the figure is much higher.

A new national report looking at the income it takes to live comfortably in each of the 50 states has revealed Texans need to earn slightly less now than a year ago.

SmartAsset analyzed what a single individual, as well as family of four, must earn to cover minimum basic needs adjusted using the 50/30/20 budgeting rule. The resulting estimate represents the annual, pre-tax income needed to live comfortably in every U.S. state.

A single, full-time worker needs to make $90,563 to live comfortably in the Lone Star State, the report found, which is down a meager 0.2 percent from last year ($90,771).

Under the 50/30/20 budgeting strategy, that means a single Texas earner would have $45,282 to spend on necessities like housing and utilities, $27,169 for discretionary spending, and $18,113 for emergencies or retirement savings.

Texas ranked 34th nationally in SmartAsset's list of states with the highest income needed for a single adult to live "in sustainable comfort" in 2026. Only five other states — Tennessee, Maryland, Louisiana, North Carolina, and Mississippi — saw a decline in the income needed to live comfortably this year.

For a family of four to live comfortably in Texas, income requirements change significantly, according to the findings. To support a two-child household, a family needs $203,424 in combined total household income to be considered financially stable. This is down slightly from 2025, when SmartAsset reported a family of four in needed $204,922 to live comfortably in Texas.

This is a comfortable lifestyle for a family of four in Texas, according to the report:

$101,712 dedicated to necessities and living expenses
$61,027 dedicated to discretionary spending
$40,685 dedicated to emergencies, savings, or debt repaymen

According to the report, a family of four now needs to make at least $200,000 to live comfortably in 40 U.S. states, a figure that is far out of reach for many American families.

"As housing, grocery, transportation and other essential costs pressure household budgets, earning a six-figure salary no longer guarantees financial comfort in much of the U.S.," the report said. "A single adult now needs at least $80,000 a year to live comfortably in every state, while the threshold exceeds $100,000 in nearly half of states. For a family of four, the income needed to live comfortably is as much as $329,000."

Still, earning the minimum income to live comfortably in Texas doesn't guarantee financial stability in the Lone Star State's major cities. Earlier this year, SmartAsset determined single residents in Houston need to make about $90,000 to qualify as financially stable, while families of four need around $205,000.

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