Today we’d like to introduce you to Claude Henderson.
Claude, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
So… Xstream’s story I believe is and will be one of America’s best rags to riches story anyone has ever heard. Imagine a group of friends best friends but not great friends riddle with mistakes and failures. These would be the guys that come from questionable backgrounds had run-ins with system some of us even born in it. Needless to say, our group of friends hadn’t quite mastered the art of focusing our effort to achieve anything positive or at least have the faith to see something through as a team.
While some people settle in for the long ride ahead somehow for some reason as broke as we could find ourselves at times, as far as our reality as we might seem to the world the one thing we all agreed on was that we wanted more out of life we wanted to do better we wanted to change the narrative of our lives. We originally guessed that Xstream Indoor Paintball would be able to somehow do that we just had no idea how undeveloped the idea itself was.
The Xstream Team consisted of five Guys originally (the group of friends) Justin, Jarret, Jerry, Derrick and me myself Claude and like I said before the only thing we knew was we were friends so 95% of the bad ideas were good ideas for us because we support each other through anything this one idea in particular just sounded cooler than anything we had going on at the time and although far fetched who doesn’t dream about coming up with or doing something that could make you rich and honestly that’s all Xstream was a fantasy to hide behind so when we needed a bailout we could tell people we working on starting a business. Call it fear, definitely lack of motivation. It was hard to approach this with optimism even to us.
Life ultimately comes down to what you know and what you don’t know but that’s also while we have the ability to learn. I wish that I could say we learned right away but unfortunately, that’s not how things went. We actually all took a year away from the idea we hardly ever brought it up and when we did it would be like the guys asking me how are things with the business. Most of the time my answer was I’m at stand still almost as if I couldn’t learn the information needed to pursue this dream.
When you make a lot of mistake people lose faith in you some people even give up on you when they think of you or speak of you it’s always in a past tense or filled with things you said or attempted or mistake you made so when you tell people your trying some else something new most people write it off they almost never take you seriously and some people won’t even believe you, and that’s where we where. There were no pats on the back. There were no congratulations or words of encouragement when people would talk about Xstream. They say what happened to that “little paintball” idea y’all had, or I told you it wouldn’t work. So there wasn’t a lot to keep us going. So we did what normal adults do we got jobs and for a year, that’s what most of us dedicated our lives to getting the next paycheck trying to maintain some bills.
Before the start of 2020, I found myself asking myself is this it? Is this all life going to be for us some mistake bad memories no major accomplishment not one completed task, and as life would have it, I wasn’t the only one asking myself that question we all were. All of feeling like we wanted to do more undo some of past mistakes and be able to be the blessing and change we wanted to see in life that we feel had skipped over us.
It was then we learned something very cliche that change the culture of Xstream, “You Get Out Of Life What You Put In It”. And just like that, we where back where we started with only a pitchdeck and idea that still needed development. Although this time, I knew we needed to be different we had to become sharks and that we did. We started to develop the mentality we needed to accept and handle the project better which where we where the owners and we had to go out and represent our idea well so we got started.
Picking up the phone scheduling meetings trying to do anything we could to get in front of someone that would hear our idea and help us push for ultimate goal of opening Xstream. That’s when it started coming together. We had waited almost a year to get a meeting with Jacquizz Rodgers an NFL running back but with some persistence, we were finally able to sit down with him and got him to express some interest in the idea. We were also still adding and learning of things every day, which led us to Gensler an architectural firm that’s truly the best in the world at what they do not to mention (they have the coolest office I’ve ever seen) which makes them that much more Dope in our opinion…. I mean we had all pretty much just quit are jobs or had life-changing things happened and still yet he were in in the office of a 2 billion dollar company and they were the first to give us a pat on back telling us that we could be the “Dave and Busters” of paintball.
Our hard work also let us to encounter people great people and businessmen in the business industry such as Don Kerstetter the former owner of Classic Chevrolet and Nissan of Katy. And Darin West who pitched in the majors for a few years and have opened a lot of businesses in Houston. We were able to learn that the more we focused and the more we studied and researched each meeting got better the pitch got better and the idea moved past speculation or what if and even how to what it is now.
Today Xstream is planting itself as well as being watered from several other sources working behind the scene to open sometime within the next year, that hasn’t stopped us from expanding as a company and brand that continues to do the impossible and open a franchise from absolutely nothing but will faith prayer and the ability to learn on the go.
In the coming months are website will go live and Xstream Merch will be available to purchase to general public thanks to are partnership with Native Nurture who has just really motivated us to push are brand even further then it had been. Are following via the market we wanted to capitalize on via social media is increasing by the day and we are growing, building, and increasing the Xstream Team Family.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
I wish I could say everything was easy and it’s super fun, I’m sure that’s the story some people get to tell but most successful entrepreneurs will tell you that’s not always the story. We love those storylines were someone says you know the moment I stopped living paycheck to paycheck and I took a chance I was making five figures a month a bought the house and car of my dreams and it’s been nothing be more wealth ever since. The fact is that story isn’t reality for most people. It’s grind with a lot of struggle when you go to a regular job. It’s on someone is advance the company comes up with promotional things to market that company and payroll and accounting handles the finances. So everything goes from security to sacrifices you can’t do the safe thing even when you should you have to be constantly looking for a way to get yourself out there for people to notice what you have going on and be willing to sit down and discuss it with you. One of the hardest things for us had been getting sit-downs with investors especially because we are in a market the recreational/entertainment that as lucrative as it can be when done right it’s not a common field for most business owners so some people don’t even want to start to understand how you can generate paintball into dollars and when I say hard you got to understand we got our first meetings maybe four months ago and had been trying to get our first one for two years. So there’s definitely some struggle when it comes to business.
Xstream Indoor Paintball – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
Xstream is a step into the future, most people when you think about paintball you think dirt welts and bruises and probably some scenery that’s less than desirable and that’s something we had to get pass early on because that’s everyone’s vision the game.
Just not ours at Xstream, we get it’s 2020 and you want an experience worth paying for and that’s what we will deliver, with three fields that are always streaming to raise the competitive culture of our fields. Our facility will be state of the art to create the vibe that paintball can be cool as well as appeal to the whole family with our very own dining experience complete with arcades. Working with the best to design this Gensler, we are confident we will bring a visually appealing atmosphere as well as place to truly enjoy yourself.
More than just streaming we wanted to appeal to more than just paintball player and we wanted to bring in new customers to the world of paintball if not as player but spectators so we wanted to join the E Gaming World Xstreams XRoom will allow you to come in and get jacked into online streaming profile equipped with mics and cams to give you a sanctuary for or game streaming customers
In recent years we realized that paintball had a huge following just not marketed the right way and we wanted to be able to be the first on spending money to market paintball on another scale so with food, gaming, and paintball out the way we wanted to give back to the professional world of paintball by having a proshop with Xstream merchandise as well as the best products and team jersey from the paintball market.
I think what truly set us apart is that we want to be better than what’s expected from the game itself, cleaner safer more of its own vibe and it’s own experience.
What is “success” or “successful” for you?
I think success can be defined in different ways depending on the person. Some people have incredible backgrounds and when I say incredible, I don’t mean in a good sense they have over come some major obstacles just to be able to maintain a 9-5, they are success. Then there those like that are just lost without guidance but right when the world is about to right them off they are motivated enough to reach their full potential. They are success. And then there are those people who are just set up for greatness they almost inherit it and even though we don’t think that have to work on the thing they thrive on the most is working to remain that visual concept of success. So again, I think it depends on who you ask that question.
Contact Info:
- Address: 5800 Richmond Ave
- Website: In The Working
- Phone: (903)651-3066
- Email: xstreamip2020
- Instagram: Xstreamip
- Facebook: Xstream Indoor Paintball
Image Credit:
Jaziel Torres
Jordan Ritchey
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