steps of starting up were invaluable, he says. When it came down to the goals he and his co-founders wanted to set for the company, the benchmarks they wanted to make, they were on their own, he says. "Y Combinator is very much like a school class," Seibel says. "Every week you are expected to show progress on your project." How that progress is measured will vary from team to team, Seibel says, Aberman agrees. "The best way to relate to Paul and prove that you're going to be someone who will build a successful company is to show, not tell," Aberman says of working with Y Combinator founder Paul Graham. "I think that will really resonate with him." 3. Be ready to adapt . Brent Daily of RoundPegg, a company that designs software services for human resources professionals, says he and his co-founders were chin deep in day-to-day operations before they went to TechStars in Boulder, Colorado in 2009. "We had what we thought was a business model," Daily says. "We had a product  that was baling wire and bubble gum, and all of us were making sure that people were getting what they paid for." Over their time at TechStars, Daily says, the co-founders were able to define new priorities for their company. They went into the program with five team members. They left with three. Daily says that the company slimmed down as the team had discussions about where they wanted to go, discussions they might not