I believe using escrow is a good idea, though finding escrow agents is not an easy job. It's quite important, as it provides some kind of "credibility" in the community, and participants know that their funds are safe. A good escrow is normally a reputable member of the community, and there are some people providing this service on the "Services" board. https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?board=52.0
Always look out for good step to approach an ICO.

The basic criteria for an ICO:
1. Optimize your website
2. White Paper
3. Good Team
4. Good Marketing Strategy
5. Influencers Network (most important) like the telegram

The purpose of a legitimate ICO is to kickstart a project into fully scaled development with venture capital or private investing.
If you have enough knowledge about ICO you could not be scammed. So read alot.

I hope this makes sense, Mr.Tomatocage?

Right now the network is a bit too slow for most mainstream applications.
"Bitcoin is processing a bit less than 3 transactions per second. Ethereum is doing five a second. Uber gives 12 rides a second. It will take a couple of years for the blockchain to replace Visa", Founder Vitalik Buterin said.

Ethereum never had the intention to have a value like bitcoin, but investors invested anyway spotting the opportunity. If we talk about the growth of Ethereum this past year, we can surely see that it has grown to more than 4000% while bitcoin has grown about 600%.

It is definitely possible that Ethereum could overtake Bitcoin one day, taking into consideration that Bitcoin is being so often debated, while Ethereum just works silently in the background. However, Bitcoin’s price still remains way bigger than the one of Ethereum.

If you’re a trader or investor, be realistic about the bubble. I know you hear this a 100 times when you’re trading but: don’t invest what you can’t afford to lose.
I have some Ethereum, not as a long-term investment, but because the price is going up and I need it to invest in tokens which I can quickly flip as soon as they come on the market.
That’s just the type of market we’re in.