DW8 released a company update today, which showed a staggering 580% month over month (MoM) growth. Much wow, many impressive!

Except they didn't achieve 580% MoM growth, they actually had negative MoM growth.

Here's what DW8 published: The Company is pleased to advise that WineDepot shipped a total of 23,006 cases in April, up 580% on the same month last year (MoM). In total 9,215 orders were processed in April up 350% MoM.

Here's the definition of month over month growth: Month-over-month (MoM) growth shows the change in the value of a specific metric as a percentage of the previous month's value.

So what does this mean?

DW8 have put out a report advising MoM is up 580%, which to your average retail investor looks amazing. Except it's a total fabricated lie. Whilst they haven't published the true month over month data (deliberately, it would seem) their graph shows that total orders processed was down from roughly 13,000 in March to 9,500 in April (down 27% MoM). Total cases shipped was down from 25,000 in March to 22,500 in April (down 10% Mom).

Whilst this may seem like an innocent mistake, this is the sort of fundamental stuff you learn in year 10 accounting. Month over Month growth is one of the most important metrics that startups use to track user uptake, and more importantly, company valuation, as this is the sort of thing you then show to investors for your Series A, Series B or Series C funding when you're a new company. DW8 know what MoM means, they've simply published this update hoping that retail investors don't know what MoM means, and as such they can turn their -27% MoM into a much better looking 580% MoM (compared to last year).

For a company that deals exclusively in the tech startup space this is nothing short of intentional fraud. If you went into a meeting with investors and told them you had 580% MoM and then showed that graph you'd be laughed out of the building. Caveat emptor for anyone holding DW8, as they aren't doing nearly as well as they pretend they are. Is it not scam dream?