We are doing an ICO ourselves soon (
www.c4f.io), so I can share what we focus on at Coins4Favors to stand out from the crowd and make sure investors see that we are a real team with a great strategy to successfully implement a unique innovative idea.
ICOs I would invest in should have these attributes as a minimum:
1) A
compelling idea that is simple enough for people to understand it. If it is all only buzz words and you don't understand what the Altcoin will do for you, stay away.
(see for example our video explaining our FavorCoin, anyone can get the idea in 2 minutes
https://youtu.be/EXquipYf7xk )
You should be able to answer this question: What problem is the Altcoin solving, why would people use it ?2) Ensure that the
business plan is long term and sustainable. Just getting ICO money but not having a good business plan behind it how to make the product sustainable and grow the user base will result in the value dropping.
How will the Altcoin grow in value, how will the company sustain operation ? Even if they collect a lot of money in the ICO, without a long term revenue and profit source the operation will dry up and the coin will fail.
You should be able to understand how they will grow the project and sustain operation once the money from the ICO is used up for developing and marketing the project.3) The team. It is ok if a rather inexperienced team has a good idea, but there should be some accomplished people on the team that have experience in running projects and business acumen.
We at Coins4Favors post our LinkedIn profiles that show our long term careers in different industries and that we are real people. Make sure team members are transparent and authentic.
Many skills can be bought and hired, so dont get fooled by the number of team members (we can find 30 people to join as advisers or members easily), but rather focus on an overall sound background in business strategy, business plans and project execution for a team you invest into.
Do you think the team has the skills to plan, execute and grow the project based on past experience, skills and background ?4) A working prototype. While the intend of an ICO is to collect money to implement an idea, nobody with a sound business acumen will start a project like an ICO without doing a proof of concept or developing an Alpha version.
As the founder behind an ICO project you invest upfront, so you better do a sanity check yourself. At a minimum you setup a separate entity, need legal support, etc. - all this is money you need to invest upfront.
In our case we developed an alpha version of the SmartPhone App and platform and played with the design of the smart contracts to ensure our vision and ideas that make our platform unique are achievable and realistic.
At the same time this gives investors a better chance of the product reaching market and being scaled up.
Can they show a proof that their idea can be implemented ?5) Transparency of the team and accessibility
We are starting to market our project now, so we will be available on all the channels to answer questions collect feedback.
Is the team reachable and does it respond to questions or concerns ? Good luck with your investments, I hope you give us a look as well