This is not financial advice, neither do I speak from lots of experience. This article can be criticized a lot especially in the light of the current 50% sell off on the crypto market.

It might be luck, but I managed to choose a project with a ~2000% ROI as my fist ICO investment. It made me wonder, “How can I replicate this again?!” Below is the list of things I look for in my next ICO geek.

First is THE TEAM — it is the most important aspect, followed by the Advisory board that we will talk about below. Look at the teams profiles on Linkedin.

• Are they alumni from prestigious schools?
• Have they worked in successful companies, the Google’s of the world?
• How long have they been in the industry, do they have exits in their entrepreneurial career?

Let me explain why it all makes sense to check. The School If they have a cool pedigree they are risking their career by taking on a project that may fail. SO for guys who graduated from Stanford, success is a middle name. Besides, they have connections, so to find easily recognizable advisors will be a piece of cake. Alumni from Ivy League Universities are one hand shake away from investors and important partnerships. I am sure you are getting the point.

1. The Advisory board — I hate it when ICO projects slap no-name-Advisors on their page to fill out space on the website! If I see Advisors that simultaneously advise a couple dozens startups and they sit on the Advisory board of the project that I am researching — then for me it is a dead give-away and a red flag warning goes up. In other words, the quality of the Advisory board is extremely important. If I see big time Investors putting their face on an ICO project website: people like Gil Penchina and Miko Matsumura — anyone who does crypto investment full time — amazing! Great sign. Investors — research investors if they are listed on the website, who they are and their history of success. Partnerships — This one is big too. If the ICO project has a waiting line of customers and proven contracts with big name companies, then the demand is going to bring the price for the token to the targeted milestones, aka THE MOON!

2. MVP and Roadmap. No product — no money from your side. Make this a rule. For me personally, it is just common sense. If you didn’t put all your time, efforts and life savings to build the product to the point I can use it — don’t think that I’ll trust your level of commitment. Although with the current state of the ICO market, whitepaper/roadmap and website ICOs are getting millions of dollars up front for future development. I personally want to see the product in some shape or form first before investing. Additionally, the roadmap has to be as detailed as possible. If you don’t see certain milestones and answers to how the project is going to work — generally do not invest!

3. Blog, social media channels — Pay attention to the tone of the blogpost voice, and check out their Facebook fan pages, Twitter, Slack or Telegram communities. Check out what people are saying on bitcointalk.org See how transparent the Leadership Team is with the community. In regards to Telegram and Slack — the more people following their news in messenger apps the better. Good communities promote their projects, and the word spreads out. To conclude here: no social following means that there is a much smaller chance to succeed and secure the demand. See for yourself how fast a community is getting their requests addressed in social media.

4. Business Case — Make sure the business case makes perfect sense to you and you understand their business model. I can’t tell you how many times I talked with ICO projects that made business sense, but have way too much local geographic applications. Try to judge how this business idea is viable, if it makes sense and it it has demand in the public or business sector. Read the white paper twice, or three times even!

As a side note — invest in infrastructure project not “I am too” dAaps

1. Pre-sale discounts — If the presale happened and crowd sale price is way higher than the presale, I’d be upset. Because it always reminds me of the 2 step pony scheme where initial investors can dump their tokens at the crowd sale and retain 200–300%, having security of their returns. Hype — my way of checking on the hype — search on Youtube — are there any youtube celebrities videos, can you find interviews of the ICO project leaders with the stars of the crypto world?

2. MASSIVE Markets — In other words, avoid projects that go after niche markets. This one is from the Crypto Forum that I attended earlier this week. The advice that I picked up from a well known speaker was — invest in infrastructure projects, not dAaps that are coming after huge markets.

---

Wishing all my friends and subscribers to develop a need for the Ledger Nano S!!! Then please use this link to buy it: https://www.ledgerwallet.com/r/d141
In case if you do not have a Coinbase account yet — here are free $10: https://www.coinbase.com/join/598774916c7d4a00c500d97e

---

Special thank you to my friend and awesome DJ Jason for giving this article a first read: https://soundcloud.com/jkind