A good team often (if not always) guarantees success to a project, so it is advisable to consider this point in all earnestness when deciding whether to get involved. Here is our checklist to help you handle this issue.
Team members
1. How many team members are presented on the website and in the Whitepaper? The more the better, for sure, but it is also fine if there are only key participants.
2. Do they have open profiles on Facebook and LinkedIn? It is a good sign when the links are provided in the Whitepaper or on the site. Any means of verification (for example, a network of relevant contact on LinkedIn) also add weight to the team members’ reputation.
3. Are there any links to other resources and projects, where the members were engaged in? The projects should be easily found, and these team members must be mentioned as participants.
4. Are the developers proficient in this particular field? Do they have relevant experience and skills?
5. The more versatile experience and background do the team members possess, the better. Moreover, it is absolutely necessary to have the experts in different fields, if the projects is supposed to serve several industries.
6. Does the project team include blockchain scientists of the highest rank or a partner company that handles the blockchain technology component? Well-known experts and companies can be trusted to more extent. There are the same key points to assess the company, as well the ICO project itself: who are the key team members, what projects did the company develop, etc. Requirements and the number of participants depend on the project: if it is an infrastructure project specifically based on blockchain, than there should be more than a couple of relevant professionals; if the blockchain technology performs merely a decorative (or at least not vital) part, than three developers are sufficient. Pay attention to the links to GitHub and other industry-related resources.
7. Any team members should have a short bio: relevant background, the member’s specific scope of duties in the project and why she decided to get involved. The last point shows that the participants have their own motivation and interest in the project’s success.
8. It is great, if the team’s photos are in place. But don’t let the good looks cheat you: of course, it is pleasant to look at happy smiling faces, but facts, links and backgrounds are much more important.
9. Check the roadshow progress (if any). The team should be socially active and trust in their own business goals — visit industry-related conferences, meetups and exhibitions, publish updates and plans, post photos from various events in their profiles, etc. On the contrary, if a CBDO or a project manager does not mention the project at all, it is suspicious, because a LinkedIn profile is not enough. Sometimes, an account is created only to show off, without links, contact networks and other means of verification.
In a nutshell, one must see, that the team members are real people, genuinely interested in the projects and possessing necessary skills and experience to create a good product. It is important to be sure of the people you trust with your money!
Advisors
1. How many advisors are involved? What are their credentials? There are two categories of prominent advisors: blockchain evangelists who will never deal with scam projects and those are ready to handle anything just to gain popularity. It is important to see the difference: unfortunately, there is no ready-to-use list of reliable advisors, and one should trust its own experience and common sense. Of course, all listed advisors must be real people — better check links and profiles.
2. If the project puts much weight on blockchain, there should be lots of technical specialists engaged. However, you should consider the fact that if two competitors develop similar projects, technical advisors of one team will not support the other.
3. If the project is focused on some other industry along with blockchain there should be advisors from both fields, so that they could coordinate the efforts together.
4. If an advisor worked for some big company, it means nothing. You’d better trust entrepreneurs who have once managed their own companies (in a relevant field), as their know the market and handled most of the challenges faced by startups.
5. Advisors don’t always actually give advice or guide developers — sometimes there are paid only to lend their names to the project. That’s why it is great, when the project supplies details on what value is each advisor bringing. For example, an advisor can help adapt a project for the blockchain technology, consult on financial matters, etc. Sure, it is not always possible to describe advisors’ duties, but if the project claiming AI as one of the product’s feature, cannot boast a single AI/ML/NN expert — well, Houston, we have a problem.
6. Does an advisor have her own profile or website with the list of projects she’s engaged in? It always worth to check such things, while some scam projects’ developers don’t shrug at claiming support of some people who never heard about them.
To sum it up, advisors are just too big time experts to be an ordinary team member. If an advisor have no skills, expertise, knowledge, useful contacts or public image to support the project, than it is doubtful that the project really needs her (if only to show off a greater number of advisors). A project might feature only as much as six advisors, but all of them being experts in their fields, willing to share valuable advice and publicly attesting their support — it will be better than twenty disinterested advisors, involved only half-heartedly. In general, it is quite a challenge to attract advisors, so, here is a golden rule: the more skilled experts, the better, but one should check their credentials herself. If a project team took efforts to provide all necessary details — hoorah to such a conscientious team.
Originally published at medium.com on May 10, 2018.
