Quarterly Revenue Growth

Q to Q. Step by step. Like tin soldiers.

Companies (and their investors) measure revenue growth in two distinct venues. They look at the summer quarter last year versus the summer quarter this year. That's called year over year growth, or YOY (also the name of fine delis around the world).

They also look at sequential growth. Like...from Q1 to Q2, how much did we grow?

Why is this a Thing? Well, many companies are, in fact, seasonal. They can shrink from Q3 to Q4, because really...how many people in Wyoming buy lawnmowers in December? Yeah, not many.

So in that case, the year over year numbers matter most. But other companies just growing (think: early Facebook) are just sequentially driven growers who only care how last quarter's metrics stack up to this quarter's metrics. And so it goes.