In the era of the Indian startup boom, Indian entrepreneurs are proving that the concept of entrepreneurship is not reserved for business school graduates only. We often hear about billionaire entrepreneurs and successful businessmen who began with substantial financial backing but some entrepreneurs take the leap from humble beginnings and make it to the top. One such inspiring entrepreneurial figure is Biplab Poddar, the founder of Oxedent, who received his business lessons not from any business school but from life.
Born and brought up in Nakkati Gachh, a small village near the city of Cooch Behar, West Bengal, Biplab was not fortunate enough to enjoy the financial security of a well-to-do family. Biplab spent most of his childhood days as a regular Indian village kid without any proper schooling or career guidance. Things started to change only when he bagged a scholarship and shifted to Tufanganj, a small block town in Cooch Behar district, to study science in his higher secondary classes.
Without any formal coaching or academic guidance, he was able to crack the West Bengal Joint Entrance Exam and joined Kalyani Government Engineering College, one of West Bengal’s most-reputed engineering colleges. However, it was yet another beginning of a new phase of struggle. In a completely alien environment, away from his home and without any financial support, he faced a new set of challenges. He had to raise money from the people from his village and distant relatives to afford the admission fees and hostel stay. “I had to coax my hostel cooks to act as my local guardians to sign on the hostel sheet and I even could not buy the blankets and bedsheets to sleep in,” he recalled.
It is a no brainer that it was not a life that a 17-year old dreams of but Biplab had to live this life. At a time when all of his batchmates were focused on their academic life, Biplab was interning at different brands in several domains to manage and continue this study. Returning to his village was never an option for him so he started to strengthen his English in order to boost his self-confidence. He started to polish his content writing skills at Gozocabs where he was introduced to SEO writing.
Amid all the struggles, Biplab’s only hope was the campus placement to get to the right track of life. However, life had some other plans for Biplab. He faced rejection from TCS during his 4th-year placement, leaving him shattered once again. “The TCS rejection broke my spirit back then, but I could not give up. I started improving my resume and freelancing regularly, which helped me grow further. It was a challenge to convince my family that I could sustain myself freelancing, but regardless I was doing well for myself,” he shared.
Eventually, he started his career as a digital marketing executive for the Eden Group. He focused on developing his digital marketing skills, looking at the demand of digital marketing in the evolving online marketplace. He, along with his friends, even started a company that ultimately failed but made Biplab realise his strength and passion in the domain of digital marketing. So, he came up with the idea of launching a full-fledged digital marketing agency. He wanted to name it O2 but, ultimately, the agency came to be known as Oxedent.
Oxedent is an eCommerce marketing agency that helps eCommerce businesses to grow with Google and Facebook Ads. They focus on the result-driven performance marketing strategies to make your eCommerce business profitable and scalable. From Google Ads to Social Media Ads to White Label PPC, Oxedent helps businesses get the best results out of paid campaigns. Their data-driven campaigns have supported more than 250 eCommerce businesses to grow in the competition-ridden modern digital marketplace. Moreover, Oxedent’s honest, ethical and transplant business approach makes them stand out among their industry peers.
In the last financial year, the eCommerce marketing agency generated $150K in annual recurring revenue, making them one of the best eCommerce marketing agencies in India. Oxedent is currently on a hiring spree as a part of its business expansion strategy and aims to quadruple its revenue by the end of this financial year. They generated around INR 40 lakhs in revenue in the months of November and December alone. Now, they are looking forward to INR 3 crores in revenue in this FY.
Despite being an accomplished entrepreneur, Biplab has not forgotten his roots and cherishes a dream of giving something back to the village of Nakkati Gachh. He envisions building a school where young minds from underprivileged backgrounds would be able to receive a quality education regardless of their financial condition.
From a bootstrapped business venture, Oxedent has already become a global eCommerce marketing agency with over 15 employees and offices in both India and UK. Biplab-led eCommerce marketing firm is now all set to take the business to the next level.
