Hi, I'm James Yu

A startup just had its big launch. The fundraising is over and the champagne has been poured. For some, this is the great beginning. But, for others, it's the zenith.

The problem?

Momentum is easy to lose, especially after a big adrenaline rush.

Momentum is that invisible force that makes it easy to execute when things are moving, and difficult to get anything done in a languishing environment. The problem is that the natural resting state of companies (and really, anything) is to lose momentum. You have to actively work to maintain momentum.

On Y Combinator's homepage, Paul Graham emphasizes that the program doesn't end on demo day. A network of support continues throughout the life of each company.

But, there's an underlying message: just because the dinners have ended doesn't mean you should stop working hard! Building a company isn't a 3 month affair.

Demo day is only a passing milestone--the important work is when you build on the foundation to create a sustainable business after the launch dust settles. Many startups, even the most hyped ones, sputter after launch. They fail to achieve the momentum necessary to carry the ball forward. And this is a shame, because many of these companies haven't even had time to test their business hypothesis.

So, how do you maintain momentum?

1. Don't pin everything on one moment

It's a red flag when companies place too much importance on a single event like a launch, partnership, or funding. These have significance, but, by themselves, they do not equal success.

A string of these events, coupled with sustaining a culture of execution leads to success. After hitting a milestone, your eyes should already be fixed on the next one.

After a successful demo day, my co-founders and I at Parse were already looking ahead to the next big milestones in the months after. There was no time to waste.

2. Set both short and long term goals

Setting and achieving goals is crucial. There are always goals for your company to achieve, and to get there, you need action. You need to set achievable short term goals alongside big goals.

Hitting small goals gives you the momentum to hit other small goals. Soon, you'll find that you're well on your way to hitting the big goals.

Some people find it difficult to set a timeline for goals, simply because life doesn't hand you a timeline on a silver platter. So, set artificial deadlines! You'll be surprised by how much the simple act of circling a date will motivate you.

3. Don't get complacent

Reid Hoffman compares building a startup to jumping off a cliff without a parachute while building a plane. If you get complacent, you'll hit the ground hard. Every startup is trying to prove a business model. Every day, you should be working hard to achieve that proof.

Getting lazy after a big launch is like relaxing after assembling only one wing. You still need to assemble the other wing! Not to mention the engines.

4. Build a culture of doers

When momentum is lost, there usually isn't one person at fault. Every single person contributes to how well a company executes. The key is to be a doer and hire people who are doers.

These are people that will be able to conquer any task. Even if the task is outside their wheelhouse or seemingly insurmountable.

In the end, building a startup is hard work. Momentum is the flow needed to launch and vet your product in the market.

Don't lose your momentum!

We're also hiring at Parse. Check out our jobs page.

When starting a company, it's essential that you get involved in every aspect of the business. This is true whether you're a hacker, designer, or MBA. No exceptions.

The obvious reason for this is that getting your hands dirty will force you to understand all parts of your business, and eventually, your industry. This is knowledge that will give you key business insights, paying dividends down the road.

But, the equally important reason for doing everything is that it will enable you to hire the right people to expand your business.

Lots of people will tell you to only focus on "high leverage" activities—things that are strictly in your wheelhouse. Delegate everything else. While this is true as you scale, it's a grave mistake when starting out.

How do you hire A+ people if you have no idea what their jobs entail? And after hiring them, how would you evaluate their work? The most sure-fire way is to understand the skill from a firsthand perspective.

Now, I'm not saying that hackers should spend copious amounts of time attempting to make world class logos in Adobe Illustrator, or that designers should pick up a computer science book and attempt to code a scalable distributed database from scratch.

What I'm advocating is that entrepreneurs should obtain a baseline working knowledge of each business segment.

To do this quickly, there are three aspects to focus on:

Techniques
What techniques do people employ to execute on a skill? For example, designers employ storyboards, wireframes, and mockups. Engineers understand data structures, do code reviews, and thoroughly test their code. Marketers understand lead generation, funnel analysis, and know how to segment an audience to reach them more effectively.

Tools
Tools are the way people execute a technique. Learn how these tools are used and how they fit into daily workflows.

Results
Most importantly, study great work. Google for it. Talk to people who are in the field. If you want to understand design, find some great works that are admired. For marketing, seek out successful campaigns from other companies. Always ask yourself: what makes this good?

The best time to gain firsthand experience is when your company is small. Don't waste the opportunity to gain insights from doing something outside of your comfort zone. In the beginning, it's okay to do work that doesn't scale.

So, the next time you need to balance the books, try doing it yourself. If you need a new layout for your blog, try fiddling with some HTML to make it work. Need to run a marketing event? Just try doing it. Don't be scared of making mistakes. Mistakes are how you learn.

And only once you learn can you effectively scale.

Every so often, I meet an entrepreneur who has big ideas for their startup but who never seems to get anything done. It's a pattern that I see in smart people who haven't had experience building real world products.

"It's gonna be huge! Revolutionary is only the beginning of how you would describe it."

This is when they launch into their vision. And it is a grand vision, full of moving parts and exclamations. Their excitement is contagious.

A few months later, I'll have another chat with them only to discover that they're overwhelmed and nothing concrete has happened. The problem is that they're thinking big but failing to start small.

Repeat after me: big things start small!

If you try to tackle too much in the beginning, you'll get overwhelmed. Not only that, but you'll lose precious time optimizing your product with too little data. This is, after all, the main reason you should always start with a minimum viable product.

You need to be able to shift decisively from brainstorm mode into execution mode. It's fine to pontificate about the big world changing vision. But, at some point, you need to clear the cruft and make a beeline to launch, then iterate quickly with real customers.

People are always surprised that Parse was started with a simple landing page to gather user feedback. And, when we launched the beta, it was an iOS and Android SDK that let you save structured data. There weren't user accounts, social integration, or other features that we have now.

Our goal is to be the foundational platform for all mobile apps. However, we started off small, with a focus on the core of what was valuable. We iterated with our users to add everything that you see today. If we had built all the things in the beginning, we would not have had the benefit of the wisdom we gained each step of the way.

In essence: think big and start small. Make a concrete plan with small milestones that roll up into a grander vision. Without that, you risk never shipping at all.