Ethereum Q&A: ICOs and Responsible Investment

ICOs (initial coin offerings) present a new opportunity to raise capital outside of the more limited traditional avenues like user crowdfunding, angel investors, venture capital, bank loans, and your parents' credit cards. The things people should be looking for in their investments: a product, or at least a robust and tested prototype; an established track record in business; use cases and an addressable market; good timing; a focused team that works well together. If you have all of these things, your startup then has a ~10% chance of surviving the next five years. 99% of these ICOs don't have an app, they have a kind-of-not-sure plan, their timing is bad, and their team is three dudes who got together a few weeks ago and have never done a business before. What could possibly go wrong if we give them $100 million... I haven't invested in any of the current ICOs, unless you count Bitcoin and Ethereum themselves. I read the whitepapers, I downloaded the software, ran the software, looked at the code, and understood the problem they were solving.