Building a new business is a multi-faceted challenge, something Tukan Das and Sreejata Chatterjee, co-founders of social media analytics company Leadsift, have learned the hard way.

During its first 18 months, Leadsift struggled to hit its milestones for gaining clients and revenue. But since repositioning itself in December 2013, the company is seeing revenue growth of about 70 per cent a year.

The Halifax-based founders have refined the software they created to scan social media posts and identify people who want to buy a certain product. The scanning allows businesses to reach those people and generate sales.

The team has recently created a new platform called Audience Intent Miner that can gather the buying intentions and insights of whole groups of consumers.

“Every day, we can use Twitter to identify 30,000 people in the U.S. who are talking about buying a new car,” said Das as he and Chatterjee sat in a Halifax coffee shop.

“Eleven per cent of them are mothers with young children and a job. You can assume they think safety is important. If a car company’s vehicle has won a top safety rating, the company can target that news at those working mothers.”

Das claimed Leadsift has an advantage over its competitors because it is the only company in the ecosystem of social listening that can group consumers based on where they are in the buying journey.

Leadsift can extract more than 100 attributes of each consumer, such as gender, age and occupation. Das said gathering the information is not intrusive as it is all in the public domain and does not include personal details, such as phone or email contacts.

The extra information is sought after, and Leadsift numbers eight Fortune 500 companies among its clients.

Although Twitter is and will remain the company’s main source of data, Leadsift also mines information from Instagram, a photo-sharing site popular among young adults. Next year, the company will start mining Facebook and public forums like reddit.com and edmunds.com.

Both Das and Chatterjee appear weary but relieved at the growth achieved by repositioning the company.

 “Running a startup is insanely stressful,” said Das.

 “There are emotional swings when you don’t hit your milestones. You feel the weight of expectation because investors have put their faith and their money in you.

“We’ve learned that it’s all about execution. You have to build a product clients want. You have to get the pricing right. You have to get the marketing strategy right. You have to line up all the steps and be as prepared as possible.”

Two years ago, the founders might have expected their path to success to be smoother after they received development money from investors and bodies such as the National Research Council and the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency.

Das also received $500,000 in investment from OMERS Ventures of Toronto when he used Leadsift to identify business leads for OMERS’ portfolio companies.

He said the founding team has stayed intact because they have learned to prioritize communication. The management team also includes co-founders Hatem Nassrat from Egypt and Daniel Allen from the Bahamas.

The four founders met after they all came to Nova Scotia to study computer science. They started their company in typical student style, with the server under Nassrat’s bed in his university dorm.

Das and Chatterjee, both in their early30s, first met while at kindergarten in Calcutta.

Chatterjee said working with someone she has known most of her life has benefits.

 “I know I can trust him,” she said of Das.

But having four founders can lead to lively discussions.

“We’re all alpha characters, but we’re also loyal and passionate,” she said.

“We know our roles now and work well together.”

Das said the biggest boost from turning the company around has been impressing Leadsift’s early supporters.

“Recently, a few investors have told us, ‘You’re making me proud.’ That means so much.”