“IF A PITCH DOESN’T MAKE YOU FEEL GREEDY, SOMETHING IS WRONG.”

Ayush Agarwal has a long history of nurturing startups — from evaluating new companies for the Madrona Venture Group to leading a multibillion-dollar business unit for Google based on maps and local search ads. A Techstars and Y Combinator mentor, he is also an angel investor for several firms, including the interactive home company Caspar, and the South Asian dating site Dil Mil, as well as FundersClub, an investment platform for angel investors.

Today, Agarwal is head of enterprise products at Facebook, where he leads the development of new enterprise software. At an April 4 talk at MIT Sloan he shared seven tips — “my own, not those of my employer” — for choosing a successful startup investment:

“IF A PITCH DOESN’T MAKE YOU FEEL GREEDY, SOMETHING IS WRONG.”

Ayush Agarwal has a long history of nurturing startups — from evaluating new companies for the Madrona Venture Group to leading a multibillion-dollar business unit for Google based on maps and local search ads. A Techstars and Y Combinator mentor, he is also an angel investor for several firms, including the interactive home company Caspar, and the South Asian dating site Dil Mil, as well as FundersClub, an investment platform for angel investors.

Today, Agarwal is head of enterprise products at Facebook, where he leads the development of new enterprise software. At an April 4 talk at MIT Sloan he shared seven tips — “my own, not those of my employer” — for choosing a successful startup investment: