Finding great advisers 'to fall in love with'.

• Author: Baptiste, Jason L.
• Position: EARLY STAGE BOARDS

Ed. Note: Jason L. Baptiste is CEO and cofounder of Onswipe, a platform for tablet publishing and advertising that was designated as one of Time magazine's "best startups of 2011." He has been named to Bloomberg Businessweak's Top 25 Under 25 entrepreneurs and Inc.'s 30 under 30. He is an adviser to other startups, and this article is an excerpt from his book, The Ultralight Startup, copyright [c]2012 by Jason Baptiste, published by Portfolio Penguin, a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc. (www.penguin.com).

Advisers are an essential part of running lean as a startup because they allow you to borrow experience and get access to places that you may not be able to get to otherwise. Good advisers have years of experience and can help you avoid mistakes. They can make your life way easier. Below are some tips for finding valuable advisers.

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* Start with Your Network: Sometimes a great adviser might be a connection away; in some cases he might be many connections away. You may need to network through multiple people to get to a potential adviser.

* Fall in Love with Each Other: If someone is going to advise you on how to run your business, you have to fall in love with them--and they have to fall in love with you. They have to believe in the business and, more important, in you as its founder. They need to think the way you do and see a little bit of themselves in you. Give off the energy and emotion that will make them addicted to your personality. Be polite and kind, but also be confident.

* Look for Those in Your Field: Stick with advisers who know your domain and are able to advise you on strategy. Advisers are oracles who can see into the future because they have been through...