It is too risky and it takes too much time to do it properly, and I don't trust other people to invest my money for me.
I'm suprised that you would consider that more risky than an ICO. Would you invest in a SAFT? Simple agreement for future tokens.
Shares have a different value because they entitle you to a share of the profits and sometimes to voting and they have full legal coverage. But absolutely nothing will prevent you from loosing your investment if the project is abandoned.
The balance here is between liquidity and legal coverage.
Your right there is no more protection than an ICO of tokens. Although if it is a convertible bond rather than shares you have the advantage of being a creditor if the project is abondand and the company is still incorporated.
If it is a question of balance between liquidity and legal coverage that suggests another approach. Something that has share like legal coverage but token like liquidity. Now this works perfectly with (irish) legislation. It is possible to issue convertible bonds (they can even be publically listed) which could be tokenised. So each token might represent a bond which can be publically traded(on a stock exchange) and will convert to shares at IPO (possibly paying interest/percent of income in the meantime) Take those bonds and issue them as erc20 which will give you the liquidity.
