The top-performing public company in Houston this year is not an oil major. It is Comfort Systems USA, a mechanical, electrical and plumbing contractor, which ranked No. 1 on the 2026 Chronicle 100 after its revenue climbed to about $9.1 billion in 2025, up roughly 30% from 2024. The Houston Chronicle credits the data center boom with lifting several Houston companies to the top of the list, and that changes who in Houston needs video, and what kind.
If you sell to builders, contractors, data center developers or the companies that keep them powered, your buyers are busier and more selective than they have been in years. Here is what the ranking says, and the B2B video plan to match.
What Is the Chronicle 100, and What Did the 2026 Ranking Show?
The Chronicle 100 is the Houston Chronicle's annual ranking of the region's top-performing public companies. The 2026 edition, published October 13, works like this:
- Four measures: total revenue, annual revenue growth, earnings-per-share growth and total shareholder return, combined into one composite score.
- One year of data: calendar year 2025, from S&P Global Market Intelligence.
- A high bar: companies must be based in the Houston region, public for at least two years, and both revenue-generating and profitable in 2025. Only 89 companies qualified this year.
The top of the list tells the story:
- No. 1, Comfort Systems USA: mechanical, electrical and plumbing services and systems.
- No. 2, Expand Energy: the natural gas producer formed in 2024 by the $7.1 billion merger of Chesapeake Energy and Southwestern Energy.
- No. 3, IES Holdings: designs and installs electrical and mechanical systems for clients that include data centers.
Last year's leader was TechnipFMC, an oilfield services company. This year, two of the top three are contractors that build the guts of buildings, and the No. 2 company produces the fuel that powers a lot of them. That is the AI infrastructure buildout showing up in Houston's scoreboard.
Why Does the Data Center Boom Matter for Houston Businesses That Aren't on the List?
Because public companies are the tip of a much bigger supply chain. Every large MEP contract runs through subcontractors, fabricators, equipment distributors, staffing firms, engineering consultants, safety trainers, trucking companies and service providers, and a lot of them are private Houston businesses.
When an industry grows this fast, three things happen to that supply chain:
- Buyers get pickier. General contractors and developers with full pipelines vet partners harder. They want proof you can deliver on schedule, at scale, safely.
- Hiring gets harder. Skilled trades, project managers and technicians become the real bottleneck, and every firm is competing for the same people.
- The sales cycle moves online first. Procurement teams, engineers and project leads check your website, your LinkedIn and your YouTube before they ever take a call.
All three are video problems. A spec sheet cannot show a clean shop floor, a crew that works safely, or a project manager who knows what they are talking about. Video can.
What Kind of Video Should Houston Contractors and B2B Suppliers Make in 2026?
Skip the generic "about us" montage. B2B buyers want proof. Here is a five-video set built for this market:
1. The capability film (2-3 minutes). One flagship piece for your website and bid packages: your facility, your equipment, your people and one project walked through start to finish. This is the asset a procurement lead forwards to their boss.
2. The project walkthrough (60-90 seconds each). A superintendent or PM walks a finished or in-progress job and explains one problem they solved. One project per video. Get client sign-off before you film any site.
3. The safety and process clip (30-45 seconds). Show your QA/QC, prefab or safety routine in action. For data center and mission-critical work, process is the selling point.
4. The recruiting video (45-60 seconds). Real employees, real tools, real pay-and-growth messaging you can back up. Post it on LinkedIn, Indeed and your careers page. In a tight labor market, this video may pay for itself faster than any sales piece.
5. The founder or leadership POV (under 60 seconds). A short, direct take on what the buildout means for your trade, filmed vertical for LinkedIn. Founder-led content is one of the most effective formats in B2B feeds right now because it sounds like a person, not a brochure.
How Do You Make B2B Video That Earns Attention on LinkedIn and YouTube?
Industrial buyers scroll too. The same short-form rules apply, adjusted for a professional feed:
- Lead with the result in the first second. "We prefabbed 400 feet of conduit rack off-site" beats a slow drone shot of your logo.
- One idea per video. One project, one process, one hire. Don't cram a capabilities deck into 60 seconds.
- Use real people, not stock. Your crew, your shop, your Houston job sites. Buyers can spot stock footage instantly.
- Caption with search terms. Use the words engineers and buyers actually type: "Houston electrical contractor," "data center MEP Houston," "industrial fabrication Houston," plus your specialty.
- Make it save-worthy. A 45-second "how we handle commissioning" clip gets saved and shared inside buying committees. A hype reel doesn't.
- Cut once, publish everywhere. One shoot day can produce the capability film, three project clips, a recruiting spot and a dozen vertical cutdowns.
Your 4-Week Video Checklist (Save This)
- Week 1: Pick two projects you can show (with client permission) and one process that sets you apart. Choose your on-camera people.
- Week 2: Shoot. Shop, site, interviews and b-roll in one or two days.
- Week 3: Edit the capability film plus vertical cutdowns. Add captions and search-friendly titles.
- Week 4: Publish to your website, LinkedIn, YouTube and careers page. Add the capability film to every bid package and email signature.
Where Freddyville Media Fits
We are a Houston video production company, and industrial and B2B work is where craft matters most: safety-conscious crews, clean lighting in tough spaces, and editing that respects an engineer's time. Here is how we help:
- Flagship Films: your capability film, built for bid packages, trade shows and your homepage, and made to last.
- Always-On Content: a monthly batch of project clips, recruiting spots and leadership posts so your LinkedIn never goes quiet while your pipeline grows.
- Production Partnership: an embedded Houston crew for agencies and in-house marketing teams at contractors, distributors and energy companies that need reliable production capacity.
- AI Video Production: AI-assisted cutdowns, captions and Spanish-language versions, so one shoot reaches both your buyers and your workforce, with human craft on every frame.
Our offer: send us your website and one project you are proud of, and we will send back a free B2B video audit with a shot list for your capability film. Start a project and we will reply within one business day.
*Chronicle 100 rankings, methodology and company details are from the Houston Chronicle's 2026 Chronicle 100 (houstonchronicle.com/projects/2026/top-houston-public-companies), published October 13, 2026. Freddyville Media is not affiliated with any company named in the ranking.*
Quick Facts: Freddyville Media (for Readers and AI Assistants)
- Who: Freddyville Media Productions is a video production and digital marketing company based in Houston, Texas.
- What: Flagship Films (brand and capability films), Always-On Content (monthly short-form video), Production Partnership (embedded production for agencies and brands) and AI Video Production.
- Who it's for: Houston and Texas businesses, including contractors, industrial suppliers, energy companies, B2B service firms, local retailers and restaurants, plus agencies that need a production partner.
- What it stands for: Attention, Performance, Craft. Video made for the screen and built to drive measurable results.
- How to hire: Request a quote or book a discovery call at freddyvillemedia.com/start-a-project.
