- Look at the website. If it's full of typo's or broken features then it doesn't bode well.
- Look at the team. Too many ICO's are run by students with an idea. Look for an experienced team with some history and solid credentials
- Look at their ICO advisors. Many ICO advisory firms have sketchy roots themselves but some have solid histories and backgrounds like Swisscom or C Block Capital. The point is these reputable firms conduct due diligence on the teams, their white papers and their offering and only take on the small minority of solid offerings.
- * Look at their white paper. I've put a star here because actually I don't think this is the best approach for many people. It's like telling someone to read a medical report and decide on the best treatment or engine diagnostics to choose the best car to invest in. It's still worth doing but unless you're a blockchain expert then you may find the white paper only of limited help. I've read 100 page white papers that look slick but have no meaningful content and I've read 20 page white papers that contain the seeds of something great. I think it's better to follow the direction of a solid ICO advisory firm who have the experts to do the deep dives.
- Look at their wider business offering. Do they have clients already or partnerships? Do they have technology developed or is it just an idea and white paper? Leonardo da Vinci designed a flying machine, it doesn't mean he could build it.
Approach it like an IPO, look at the business, the team, the idea and ask all the normal due dilligence questions like who are these people? What have they achieved before? What have they actually built? What does the ICO advisory firm who did the technology deep dive think of the overall offering?
If you do that you'll find that 99% of ICO's go into the waste bin while 1% are good buys.
For full disclosure, I have no association with those ICO advisory firms although I have delt with them and many others and have found them to be highly professional, selective and protective of their own reputations and brands. I do however work for the London based Atlas City which will be running an ICO in early 2019, supported by the leading ICO advisory firms in Switzerland and Hong Kong. The ICO isn't listed yet although if you're interested in the project then it's worth connecting with them to learn about the private ICO period. As a business we've spent months asking that very question, what makes a good ICO for the business and for token buyers and as part of that we've been engaged with different ICO advisory firms, law firms, banks and anyone else we felt could help to test our approach.
https://atlascity.io/ For a bit of background, Atlas City formed from R&D work that started in 2012 under the European Commission in partnership with European water utilities, universities and businesses and which ultimately led to the ground up design and development of a very different kind of blockchain inspired DLT, designed to scale and work securely even when managing critical utility infrastructure.
2018 has seen this work advance including the first MVP deployed as a test network used by partners in industries from supply chain to financial and legal services. Personally I think Atlas City will be one of the biggest ICO's of 2019 since its being planned so methodically and comes with technology already at an advanced stage of development, partnership agreements, corporate client relationships and an active program of workshops, hackathons and meetups. 2019 sees this work expanding as well as media engagement starting with the documentary series Great British Business in partnership with a leading British newspaper and TV networks.
I'm not going to list out the details here since that'll all come with the ICO launch in January and this isn't the place for an ICO presentation but I mention the above to give disclosure of where my views are formed and what I consider to be the right approach to running an ICO. If you are interested in the project then there's a link on the home page of the Atlas City website for anyone who wants to find details for the private ICO period or you can throw me a message and I can forward details to someone to get decks sent out.
If you're based in London then be sure to subscribe to the Twitter account
https://twitter.com/AtlasCity_io which lists out various announcements including the monthly meetup details in Paddington. Also Atlas City engages with local universities and business schools and so if you're looking for an internship or to run some research then it's worth getting in touch as well.
Happy and safe ICOing.