I'd rather follow and invest in projects that are funded by private investors over other because private investors are in for long term, they don't do quick dumping like ICO and IEO projects, oh another good one is binance IEO but that's more like a gambling right now because you may not get qualified
Or self funding just like other members said. I don't follow ICO projects anymore as most of them ends up in failure. Not all, but most, with high percentage it will just be another ICO years ago that won't reach a small cap and just give back a percentage of the investment to the early purchasers.
Back then, I try to look for projects backed with a running company and with product, I ended with one with success but failure in reaching a higher value so after 3 years of waiting I got tired and withdrawn everything just recently.
I consider NFT investment as my best investment right now. I already made ROI in just months and I can now relax even if something bad happens in the future.
There will always be a new project that will come out and I think we should also not stop learning.