Great things in business are never done by individuals. They’re done by a team of people. — Steve Jobs

When you consider an cryptocurrency for investment, one of the crucial elements to research is the team behind a project. Investor risks are not only those of getting into a fraudulent venture, but also a chance that the project will never become workable and popular, and you end up with nothing but useless tokens.

There can be little doubt that initial coin offerings (ICOs) and digital currencies have made some significant waves in the world of investment and business funding over the last 18 months. And it can be quite lucrative too; a recent report revealed that blind investment in every ICO to date, including the failures, would have generated an average return of 1,320%.

Such astonishing figures show why so many institutional investors are turning to ICOs and cryptocurrency these days, but, in a world that has also seen plenty of failures, all that glitters is not gold.

The team as a whole needs to have a plan; a financial plan and a business plan. How are they going to build, roll-out and monetize the solution? What is it going to cost, how long will it take and what will be our income and outgoings? Teams not only need to be able to plan, they need to have the experience and the resolve to get through the tough times and have a thorough understanding how best to resolve issues; sometimes this is best done by using capital, sometimes it isn’t. Having a team with members that have seen it before, will certainly help.

But it’s not just financial knowledge and planning that is key. Knowledge of sales and marketing, knowledge and experience of building and managing global (technology) businesses, knowledge of blockchain technology, understanding the legal and tax implications of your solutions and business plans — all of these things will make any digital currency more likely to succeed. And, often underestimated, a great team, will have a great network that can bring further knowledge, networks for growth and further creative thinking to the table and rocket the project from a great idea to the moon.

In the end, the team makes up the project and it is clear that the best teams in the space create the most disruptive and groundbreaking projects.

Let’s begin with our analysis of the top teams in the space.