Shoaib Shaikh landed in Oklahoma for the same reason thousands of young people do: to earn a college degree. In 2001, Shoaib moved from Mumbai, India to Stillwater, Oklahoma to attend Oklahoma State University and quickly fell in love with the community. A few years, an MBA, and two kids later, he’s the co-founder and CEO of two companies, XploSafe and MaxQ. Both are developing and manufacturing lifesaving technologies for Americans from Oklahoma’s 10th largest city. In this episode of Oklahoma Stories, Shoaib explains why Oklahoma proves that opportunity doesn’t have to come with a premium price tag.
The myth people have about Oklahoma is that it doesn’t have a technology ecosystem. It doesn’t have a funding ecosystem. It doesn’t have the resources. I tell them it’s the other way around.
I was 17 when I moved to Oklahoma. I came from Mumbai. It’s a metropolitan city in India, densely populated. I went from a super busy place to a much slower — but better — lifestyle. It’s just peaceful.
BUILDING A BUSINESS
XploSafe specializes in chemistry-based solutions. We are solving some of the biggest problems in the world, including filters for the next American space suit. The next time a human steps on the moon, our filters are what will keep their air clean as they explore.
Xplosafe is a company that we put a business plan together in college for a technology that could be used to detect explosives. We had OCAST, which is the Oklahoma Center for the Advancement of Science and Technology, a state funding agency that provides research and development funding for applied research. We were fortunate to apply and get some of those funds, which gave us the opportunity to tweak and improve our products and eventually launch solutions that we still sell today. They’re used globally in research labs, healthcare, petroleum and natural gas — all over the world.
RAISING A FAMILY
Being in Oklahoma has given us the opportunity to get so much more out of our time together as a family. You have so much to do. There’s the Science Museum, the zoos, the aquarium, the Gathering Place in Tulsa. You name it. There are all of these cool places we can go as a family.
Route 66 goes through Oklahoma, and being able to ride it from different directions and different routes is just beautiful. There’s a famous barbecue place, The Butcher BBQ Stand. You can go have a bite there, loop around another Route 66 trail, then come back to Stillwater. That’s like an hour to an hour-and-a-half drive. So much fun.
When you value people, when you value resources, when you value family, you create a culture that in general is bound to be happy, is bound to be successful. Life in Oklahoma is a simple life, but it’s a beautiful life.
