Every ICO investor has their own take on researching ICOs. This is NOT financial advice. There is no ICO in particular mentioned in this article. This is my opinion and what I consider to be important factors of consideration in assessing an ICO.

Here is a breakdown of my method. It is not an exhaustive list, but these are the factors I could consciously identify.

I am not a technical investor. These are things that can be checked very easily.

Team MVP Token Utility/Tokenomics Community Legal Efforts

Let me know if you think I am missing any points.

Team (Who are you?)

First things first, we are all concerned about one thing.

Is my money safe?

That is a very valid question. In fact, it would be mildly insane not to consider it.

When I look at teams I try to assess the following:

Are these real people? (Most often this is a yes, but there have been some cases.)

Are they experts in this field?

How many years of experience do team members have?

Take a look on LinkedIn and see if anyone credible has vouched for them.

MVP(What do you have?)

I want to build a perpetual motion machine that can also feel human emotions and solve world hunger.

Cool right?

What we sometimes see are overreaching projects that may not be feasible. The biggest confidence booster is some kind of MVP. This shows that the company is serious and has already committed to, and managed to build a prototype of their promise.

The difficult part is when there is no MVP. This is to be expected, after all the funds are going to be used for development. This is why, when an MVP is not available, I tend to dig even deeper into the team. I need to make sure that they can deliver.

Token Utility/Tokenomics(What do I get?)

What am I buying?

What will I be able to use my tokens for and where are they deriving their value?

It is extremely important to assess the purpose of the tokens. Assuming the product is delivered as promised, what are my tokens going to do for me?

The next thing I wonder is how the tokens are distributed. How many tokens are the team members getting, how much is going towards marketing etc.

I don’t analyze the ins and outs on a deeper level. I just try to get a basic idea of what kind of economy the ICO is trying to establish.

If you are interested in Tokenomics there are many articles online that go deeper into this. I am not qualified to give it the justice it deserves.

Community(Anyone else here?)

If everything else looks good, I now look at their existing community.

Check out their social media, their chat channels, and maybe even talk to some team members. At this point I am trying to understand how big their current community is. Unfortunately, even a great ICO would have a hard time succeeding with no community to support them.

Legal Efforts(Are they committed?)

I try to assess how keen the ICO is on staying legal.

An ICO that is trying to stay legal is an ICO that is in it for the long haul. Whether it means that they have lawyers on the team or that their whitepaper has a bunch of disclaimers, I try to pick out any signs of legal effort on their part.

If I see that the company is utilizing all the tools at its disposal to stay legal, I assume that they are serious about the project, so my money would be in good hands.

Conclusion

As mentioned in the beginning, I am not a financial adviser.

The point of view I am trying to express is that of caution.

I think this is an exciting space, which means there are many players in it — good and bad. Everyone who is in the space should have some type of system that helps them make educated decisions.

I hope you found this helpful! Let me know if you think I missed anything in the comments below.