How to start an successful ico

[VTS]

Hello!

I would be interested in stories about ico's that didn't work out. (Maybe the project it self had great potential)



What are the main reasons why an ico can become unsuccessful?



On what ico startups need to watch out before they go live?



The theory about ico's is perfectly clear to me, but like with everything in life, theory is one thing and real experience the other. I do believe that failures are a very good sources to learn from. My personal experience is that in many cases people do learn more from failure examples than from success examples.


I ask for unsuccessful ico stories because my company will soon launch an ico for our 2 projects: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2129844.msg21279456#msg21279456 and I would like to avoid "mistakes" that could possible turn out to be unsucessful.


>>> ICO starting tips:
(*List made by community members)

- Be aware before creating an ico, with the only intention to fund another shittcoin, you lower common peoples trust in crypto and you damage the hole ecosystem!
- Make sure your website is secure, i.e don't get 'hacked'
- Make sure your ETH or BTC address doesn't change on your homepage
- You should have a good design
- Detailed whitepaper
- List of team members with their previous projects and social profiles
- If you distribute tokens through web or client software, make sure that those products are rock solid and secured against possible threats
- You should recruit some people who have been popular in this forum for your ICO team
- You must have a fund for first development
- Create a detailed roadmap too, and don't delay it
- Always provide a working and secure product
- Do not focus only on getting fund
- Keep in touch with the investors even you were busy you should provide an announcement of progress. In the ICO Thread and in social medias.
- Choose the right time, because there's a lot of ICO going on every day, is it because of competition
- Ad a pitch deck that will define your business and revenue model to the white paper
- Give details about possible profit
- It will be very interesting for investors if you can show documents or some evidence that your coin will be listed on major exchange immediately after the ICO finish
- Make benchmark analyses of other ico's
- Inform yourself about legal situation (i.e. US citizens regulation)
- Determine the total supply of coins (initial / final) and then stick to it. Don't change the supply in future.
- Inform about pre-mining or any funds reserved by the development team / company
- The coin should have a successful coin exchanger registration
- If you need pre-ico investment offer at least 1 investment security method like escrow + muli-sign
- Make a clear statement what will happen to the collected funds if the ico does not succeed. Refund? Keep the funds?
- List all your projects that you have delivered previously, if any.
- Announcement about the ICO/pre-ICO should be publicize at least a week before the scheduled ICO/pre-ICO
- Compile with local laws /if any (China example)
- Prepare agreements to list the coin at exchanges and communicate any listing done
-Write HOW tokens relate to the project (only speculative, or a security)

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[IAmLucas]

Make sure your website is secure, i.e don't get 'hacked', if you are looking for people to send you ETH or BTC make sure your address doesn't change on your homepage.

[VTS]

Make sure your website is secure, i.e don't get 'hacked', if you are looking for people to send you ETH or BTC make sure your address doesn't change on your homepage.

Thx I added them to the list :-)

[jorrit]

Make sure your website is secure, i.e don't get 'hacked', if you are looking for people to send you ETH or BTC make sure your address doesn't change on your homepage.

Are you suggesting to run second server to verify your page hasn't changed?

Can the page not be signed using BTC/ETH address so reader can verify it's unique?

I am very curious on the best solution to make sure you site is not changed. This probleem is bigger than just ICOs

[coinzoid]

Make sure you don't rush your ICO without a good plan. Otherwise investors will invest to other projects. You should have a good design, detailed whitepaper, list of team members with their previous projects and social profiles. Most importantly, if you are planning to distribute tokens through web or client software, make sure that those products are rock solid and secured against possible threats.

[VTS]

Make sure you don't rush your ICO without a good plan. Otherwise investors will invest to other projects. You should have a good design, detailed whitepaper, list of team members with their previous projects and social profiles. Most importantly, if you are planning to distribute tokens through web or client software, make sure that those products are rock solid and secured against possible threats.

thx! added to list

[IAmLucas]

Make sure your website is secure, i.e don't get 'hacked', if you are looking for people to send you ETH or BTC make sure your address doesn't change on your homepage.

Are you suggesting to run second server to verify your page hasn't changed?

Can the page not be signed using BTC/ETH address so reader can verify it's unique?

I am very curious on the best solution to make sure you site is not changed. This probleem is bigger than just ICOs

You could probably write a script that runs from you home machine that looks for the html tag that contains your ETH address, if it changes then get the script to email you or alert you in some fashion.

[lonelygrimm]

you should recruit some people who have been popular in this forum for your ICO team, you can't do the project with only you and real team in your place and that "newbie" rank it's hard to make people interest, and don't forget you must have a fund for first development, you can't wait until some investors pay to start the pre-alpha development, create a detailed roadmap too, and don't delay it ! 

that's all from me

[VTS]

thx! I added it to the list

[jorrit]

Make sure your website is secure, i.e don't get 'hacked', if you are looking for people to send you ETH or BTC make sure your address doesn't change on your homepage.

Are you suggesting to run second server to verify your page hasn't changed?

Can the page not be signed using BTC/ETH address so reader can verify it's unique?

I am very curious on the best solution to make sure you site is not changed. This probleem is bigger than just ICOs

You could probably write a script that runs from you home machine that looks for the html tag that contains your ETH address, if it changes then get the script to email you or alert you in some fashion.

The script is good idea any way. Signing the website would be full proof right?

[Pierre 2]

My most important expectation is: Always have very detailed roadmap and write how and when you are gonna do things. Delays don't matter
And always give us working secure product if you are claiming its working secure product. Lot of ICOs create just basic apps and tell us its like final product. I hate that.

[VTS]

My most important expectation is: Always have very detailed roadmap and write how and when you are gonna do things. Delays don't matter
And always give us working secure product if you are claiming its working secure product. Lot of ICOs create just basic apps and tell us its like final product. I hate that.

thx I added it to the list

[riffaz]

Just do not focus only on getting fund

[VTS]

Just do not focus only on getting fund

thx I added it to the list

[VTS]

What about own ico software or use of ico platforms? Choosing the right ico platform is for sure major important i would say. What can you mess up by your choice?

[CCCoin1]

Hello!

I would be interested in stories about ico's that didn't work out. (Maybe the project it self had great potential)



What are the main reasons why an ico can become unsuccessful?



On what ico startups need to watch out before they go live?



The theory about ico's is perfectly clear to me, but like with everything in life, theory is one thing and real experience the other. I do believe that failures are a very good sources to learn from. My personal experience is that in many cases people do learn more from failure examples than from success examples.


I ask for unsuccessful ico stories because my company will soon launch an ico for our 2 projects: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2129844.msg21279456#msg21279456 and I would like to avoid "mistakes" that could possible turn out to be unsucessful.


>>> List:

- Make sure your website is secure, i.e don't get 'hacked'
- Make sure your ETH or BTC address doesn't change on your homepage
- You should have a good design
- Detailed whitepaper
- List of team members with their previous projects and social profiles
- If you distribute tokens through web or client software, make sure that those products are rock solid and secured against possible threats
- You should recruit some people who have been popular in this forum for your ICO team
- You must have a fund for first development
- Create a detailed roadmap too, and don't delay it
- Always provide a working and secure product
- Do not focus only on getting fund

Hello,

I am with CCCoin.Network ... we have currently pushed back our ICO due to lack of interest and have given away almost 750,000 tokens as a bounty just to grow the network and increase awareness.

If I can give you any advice --- It would be to go all in on flash and marketing.  As much as you can afford. (Unfortunately) You can create the biggest scam of a project/company in the world and as long as you market it properly it will sell.

In the Startup world and as an Investor you are taught to release an MVP --- minimum viable product --- so you can start making an income ASAP to reinvest back into the product/business.

In the crypto world that is a bad idea --- You need to market your product as much as possible before the release and make your website is “pretty and flashy” as most investors don't understand the technology behind what they are investing... thus they are investing based on appearance.



What we did was
1. We said let's get a workable & secure website out nothing exciting

2. Let's have an ICO -- asap to create some money to reinvest

3. Then take that money and start really building something legit - (For us that is an online e-commerce platform - where people can sell their services - and we will accept cryptocurrency -- in which we will give a discount to CCCoins).


We have only spent about $1,500 marketing --- And that is absolutely - what we would do differently. Because long term we have cost ourselves more in bounties & giveaways than had we just paid a couple big time marketing services.


We thought (and hoped) that we could build a good socially responsible company ...

1. Then create a bunch of social media accounts (Twitter / Facebook / Reddit / LinkedIn / Slack) ...
2. Put out some press releases ...
3. Write a few Medium posts ...

And eventually, because the product was good in nature and unique - that it would catch on.  

Well, it has gone okay, but we have not raised $1mil like (internally) we wanted.  


The good news is – the e-commerce platform is ¾ the way done. That would not have been the case had we paid for marketing. --- However, we will never know how much our ICO could have been had we:

Bought press releases
Bought banner ads
Paid people to do positive reviews of our site on Youtube … etc.
Paid for Twitter & Facebook friends / spammers / bots.
….etc.

 

I would be happy to refer you to some people who have helped us --- and ---not helped at all--- along the way if you want to DM or email. 

[VTS]

Hello!

I would be interested in stories about ico's that didn't work out. (Maybe the project it self had great potential)



What are the main reasons why an ico can become unsuccessful?



On what ico startups need to watch out before they go live?



The theory about ico's is perfectly clear to me, but like with everything in life, theory is one thing and real experience the other. I do believe that failures are a very good sources to learn from. My personal experience is that in many cases people do learn more from failure examples than from success examples.


I ask for unsuccessful ico stories because my company will soon launch an ico for our 2 projects: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2129844.msg21279456#msg21279456 and I would like to avoid "mistakes" that could possible turn out to be unsucessful.


>>> List:

- Make sure your website is secure, i.e don't get 'hacked'
- Make sure your ETH or BTC address doesn't change on your homepage
- You should have a good design
- Detailed whitepaper
- List of team members with their previous projects and social profiles
- If you distribute tokens through web or client software, make sure that those products are rock solid and secured against possible threats
- You should recruit some people who have been popular in this forum for your ICO team
- You must have a fund for first development
- Create a detailed roadmap too, and don't delay it
- Always provide a working and secure product
- Do not focus only on getting fund

Hello,

I am with CCCoin.Network ... we have currently pushed back our ICO due to lack of interest and have given away almost 750,000 tokens as a bounty just to grow the network and increase awareness.

If I can give you any advice --- It would be to go all in on flash and marketing.  As much as you can afford. (Unfortunately) You can create the biggest scam of a project/company in the world and as long as you market it properly it will sell.

In the Startup world and as an Investor you are taught to release an MVP --- minimum viable product --- so you can start making an income ASAP to reinvest back into the product/business.

In the crypto world that is a bad idea --- You need to market your product as much as possible before the release and make your website is “pretty and flashy” as most investors don't understand the technology behind what they are investing... thus they are investing based on appearance.



What we did was
1. We said let's get a workable & secure website out nothing exciting

2. Let's have an ICO -- asap to create some money to reinvest

3. Then take that money and start really building something legit - (For us that is an online e-commerce platform - where people can sell their services - and we will accept cryptocurrency -- in which we will give a discount to CCCoins).


We have only spent about $1,500 marketing --- And that is absolutely - what we would do differently. Because long term we have cost ourselves more in bounties & giveaways than had we just paid a couple big time marketing services.


We thought (and hoped) that we could build a good socially responsible company ...

1. Then create a bunch of social media accounts (Twitter / Facebook / Reddit / LinkedIn / Slack) ...
2. Put out some press releases ...
3. Write a few Medium posts ...

And eventually, because the product was good in nature and unique - that it would catch on.  

Well, it has gone okay, but we have not raised $1mil like (internally) we wanted.  


The good news is – the e-commerce platform is ¾ the way done. That would not have been the case had we paid for marketing. --- However, we will never know how much our ICO could have been had we:

Bought press releases
Bought banner ads
Paid people to do positive reviews of our site on Youtube … etc.
Paid for Twitter & Facebook friends / spammers / bots.
….etc.

 

I would be happy to refer you to some people who have helped us --- and ---not helped at all--- along the way if you want to DM or email. 

Many thx for this huge insight! Much appreciated! And I agree 99% by ico's is about marketing/pr. To ensure a very successful ico you need some proper amount of funds. That is one reason why we chose the very very hard and long way of early stage investment for our 2 products. $1.5k is today just nothing..... $150k+ and you can start rocking.... sadly but true.

I'm always open to referral contacts, if they are worth the time.

[CCCoin1]

I will make a list and DM you some in the next could days.

[Karmakid]

Hello!

I would be interested in stories about ico's that didn't work out. (Maybe the project it self had great potential)



What are the main reasons why an ico can become unsuccessful?



On what ico startups need to watch out before they go live?



The theory about ico's is perfectly clear to me, but like with everything in life, theory is one thing and real experience the other. I do believe that failures are a very good sources to learn from. My personal experience is that in many cases people do learn more from failure examples than from success examples.


I ask for unsuccessful ico stories because my company will soon launch an ico for our 2 projects: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2129844.msg21279456#msg21279456 and I would like to avoid "mistakes" that could possible turn out to be unsucessful.


>>> List:

- Make sure your website is secure, i.e don't get 'hacked'
- Make sure your ETH or BTC address doesn't change on your homepage
- You should have a good design
- Detailed whitepaper
- List of team members with their previous projects and social profiles
- If you distribute tokens through web or client software, make sure that those products are rock solid and secured against possible threats
- You should recruit some people who have been popular in this forum for your ICO team
- You must have a fund for first development
- Create a detailed roadmap too, and don't delay it
- Always provide a working and secure product
- Do not focus only on getting fund

Well this are good lists, I had joined a campaign before and the team was composed of popular people here in this campaign. But, the ICO didn't end up well. There were a lot of supporters during their ICO but only 1/4 of the coins were sold during the ICO. I wonder what went wrong, maybe it's because there's a lot of ICO going on every day, is it because of competition?

[jerkoin]

Make sure you have a well written business plan alongside a pitch deck that will define your business and revenue model. Most whitepapers I've seen only detail on the technical side and ICOs of the projects. And it's so unfortunate that most ICO investors don't care about what the company business model is, they wanna start trading their token and watching 10x or 100x. Period.