I need a reality check, is an ICO right for me to fund a business?

[proparty]

Hi I don't know where else to turn to get comments on the idea I have for a local business using an ICO to fundraise. My question is this, please bare with me..

Can you raise money with a token to fund start up costs on something that's a community project? Or a non-coin/tech related improvement?
The idea I have is to set up a collectively funded food bank/food truck that can provide one free meal a day to anyone in the city who needs it (trying to eliminate the hunger problem here in America), to keep contributions and business running, I incentivize the investors/philanthropists by giving them a partial ownership in the business via a token.

Now, let's say I offer 50% of the Marketcap of the token to the investors collectively, the more you buy the more ownership you have, and the more business we can continue to do. But with the remaining 50% I use to fund the businesses expenses, hiring employees, marketing, food, etc.
Well before I feel like I'm on to something I need someone to give me a reality check, because in my mind (based on my limited knowledge) offering tokens as say 'shares' of the company can be later cashed in as the companies Marketcap continues to expand, or as more people donate/invest.
My reality needs to be checked and that's why I'm asking you. Because if I raise say $1m to start up and use $500k to operate the business for the year and leave the $500k as the investors stake in the company does that create a problem for me as the company continues to grow? OR is that incentive of buying the token, funding food and service for hungry people, and being a partial owner with potential future profit on the right track to funding lots of future community ran programs? Is block chain even necessary?

Help me figure this out, and please give me ideas or solutions to problems I might run into. OR help point in the direction I need. OR tell me it's nuts won't ever work, be honest.

[Lagduf]

that depends on what kind of business mechanism that you have taken it for your company.

In ICO what we are looking for is a product and this is the main thing for a company to raise the funds. Investors need a utility to be used by them for something else or generate profit to give the investors the dividend like what already given by some major platforms. They will not invest in something that will waste their time and money.

It's better for you to understand what's the ico https://www.investopedia.com/news/what-ico/

[bhadz]

You didn't mention how you're going to do business with your startup. It looks not even a business at all if you're feeding people one meal a day, this looks more of a charity and investors that will put money into your startup will get ownership and how they'll make money from that? there's no clear business model that you're actually doing including the marketing and hiring of employees. Most of things that you have mentioned were all cash-out flow and the only cash in flow is the investors money.

[tsaroz]

You didn't mention how you're going to do business with your startup. It looks not even a business at all if you're feeding people one meal a day, this looks more of a charity and investors that will put money into your startup will get ownership and how they'll make money from that? there's no clear business model that you're actually doing including the marketing and hiring of employees. Most of things that you have mentioned were all cash-out flow and the only cash in flow is the investors money.

I think he meant to do a charity.
I'd not recommend charity to use ICO as a fundraiser as they have their own costs involved and there's about no use of coins and no use of offering the coins. That sort of charity should come up as a charity that may also take crypto donations. If available, you could also provide your info and ask for donation in Gofundme, which is a better platform to get charity.

[bhadz]

You didn't mention how you're going to do business with your startup. It looks not even a business at all if you're feeding people one meal a day, this looks more of a charity and investors that will put money into your startup will get ownership and how they'll make money from that? there's no clear business model that you're actually doing including the marketing and hiring of employees. Most of things that you have mentioned were all cash-out flow and the only cash in flow is the investors money.

I think he meant to do a charity.
I'd not recommend charity to use ICO as a fundraiser as they have their own costs involved and there's about no use of coins and no use of offering the coins. That sort of charity should come up as a charity that may also take crypto donations. If available, you could also provide your info and ask for donation in Gofundme, which is a better platform to get charity.

I don't think so. You can't make money with charity unless you're just doing it with that intention. He mentioned startup so basically, there's a business that actually lies with his question and description. Whether he do charity or not, there's always a cost to develop his own coin because most projects hire developers that will create their token through their chosen chain. I hope that op will answer it and show his business idea if it's not a charity type.

[michellee]

I am not sure if ICO is the right one for you or not because the era of ICO almost ends or even it's ending. I think you can explain your plan to your investor, but in this situations, that won't be easy to gain trust from the investor because they will think that the project will not work well like before. Maybe you need to run your project first and continue with step by step of your plan, so your investor will see that your project is serious with the idea, and you want to make the project success in the long term.

[MUG1WARA]

ICO is not a good choice for your project but if you have something tangible to be seen by investors maybe some investors will support your project in running an ICO

[ice18]

Most ICO investors today prefer a technology related startups that can operate online to make the world a better place wireless, trustless and most importantly decentralized I dont think they will trust to put a huge money to an idea like yours, what if you did not manage it well and went bankrupt? I recommend a bank loan or a venture capitalist in your area to fund your business if you really determined to do this then you can do it. 

[Blue_oxen]

Most ICO investors today prefer a technology related startups that can operate online to make the world a better place wireless, trustless and most importantly decentralized I dont think they will trust to put a huge money to an idea like yours, what if you did not manage it well and went bankrupt? I recommend a bank loan or a venture capitalist in your area to fund your business if you really determined to do this then you can do it. 

True! Most of the traders nowadays don't believe in any ICO projects since there were too many scammed one in the past. Furthermore, by launching ICO but there is nothing you can provide to attract investors, you will not receive a lot of investment! His recommend above are more relevant for your situation!

[bgaf]

I think you wanna say its a charity project where the goal is simply to collect money right? The objective fund is not possible if you can secure and make sure that you are really doing a project that beneficial to those who are in need. But this is not easy you know, cause no one will be interested on a charity case project that they will not get any benefits at all. Think about it, you will raise fund right? How do you think investors will invest on that if they can get some profits out if it. Its not that because its charity type but you should consider also how the platform will work for them too.

[Akiko]

Not a good way you are the only one who will benefit from it once you start your business . You never mention how's your plan to add value of the tokens they are investing you don't even say how will you manage to give back to investors the interest they should have trusting you with the money.


Having a tokens as share is not enough since there is no real use of that tokens so its not worth it to exchange their money.  then you as project owner will have your own business  while investors will only have shitty  tokens.

[Pumuckel21]

So in the investors will only own tokens and not directly a part of your company, which is a big difference. Therefore you must add good value to your token, cause otherwise, it  would be useless to invest in the token than directly in your company.

[Twinkledoe]

Not a good way you are the only one who will benefit from it once you start your business . You never mention how's your plan to add value of the tokens they are investing you don't even say how will you manage to give back to investors the interest they should have trusting you with the money.


Having a tokens as share is not enough since there is no real use of that tokens so its not worth it to exchange their money.  then you as project owner will have your own business  while investors will only have shitty  tokens.

I think better forget your project if you will raise via ICO. That's the reality check here! Or if you really want to pursue your project, tap private investors instead of running an ICO.  What you presented here is very weak and seems that you are not ready to handle the business. No clarity is given as to what particular business you want to venture with.

[Tomohisa]

You need an actual product, an actual thing that already in work to impress and convince investors to launch a successful ICO. If not, you won't able to meet your ICO's goal. Many ICO first come out as very straight forward but because they lack anything works and all just concept, work-in-progress so they fail and ICO becomes a place that only scammers tries to run their pathenic (((ICO))).

[Wayrey2020]

You do not have any business with ico at all.
To fund a business, the first source of income should be your capital, followed by funds from private investors, then followed by crowdfunding processes.

You need to have a good project to stand a chance to earn funds through crowdfunding.

[proparty]

You didn't mention how you're going to do business with your startup. It looks not even a business at all if you're feeding people one meal a day, this looks more of a charity and investors that will put money into your startup will get ownership and how they'll make money from that? there's no clear business model that you're actually doing including the marketing and hiring of employees. Most of things that you have mentioned were all cash-out flow and the only cash in flow is the investors money.

I suppose I'm relying on good faith of the investors to continue to contribute money into a business that feeds people for free, the more investors that are attracted to the idea the larger the market cap grows thus improving their ROI long term. Which is different then giving it away to a charity and never seeing a return at all. It is all cash out, the only cash in is the investors contributions and donations here and there. It'd be set up like a non-profit, but as soon as the money stops flowing, the business is done. 

[smyslov]

I suppose I'm relying on good faith of the investors to continue to contribute money into a business that feeds people for free, the more investors that are attracted to the idea the larger the market cap grows thus improving their ROI long term. Which is different then giving it away to a charity and never seeing a return at all. It is all cash out, the only cash in is the investors contributions and donations here and there. It'd be set up like a non-profit, but as soon as the money stops flowing, the business is done.  

The business that you are going to set up is not new and you are going to fail because you did not gave us an explanation on how the investors can get his investment and how the community can benefit from your project, if this is only a charity project, then do it as a charity works with no investment involve, investors are investing in a working platform, products or services.

[Kupid002]

You didn't mention how you're going to do business with your startup. It looks not even a business at all if you're feeding people one meal a day, this looks more of a charity and investors that will put money into your startup will get ownership and how they'll make money from that? there's no clear business model that you're actually doing including the marketing and hiring of employees. Most of things that you have mentioned were all cash-out flow and the only cash in flow is the investors money.

I suppose I'm relying on good faith of the investors to continue to contribute money into a business that feeds people for free, the more investors that are attracted to the idea the larger the market cap grows thus improving their ROI long term. Which is different then giving it away to a charity and never seeing a return at all. It is all cash out, the only cash in is the investors contributions and donations here and there. It'd be set up like a non-profit, but as soon as the money stops flowing, the business is done. 

so how investors will be benefited with your ideas if your business Wil only give foods for free?
Its mean they can only get the  ROI they want base on the market value which you don't even know if the project that you will be created will have a value in the future , or it will  the demand you are assuming to have.

[el kaka22]

ICO had lost its attraction among this forum members after uncountable scammy projects. So, ICO may not be a right thing for anyone who are even honest with dreaming about real business with innovative concepts. The chances for an ICO to reach its hard target of funds to be raised could be less than 33%, I mean you may get disappointed if you plan for ICO instead of focusing on developing your project to a least level with available funds.

ICO may be a right choice for the people who may expect reserve funds for their project development. Because, they may reach their roadmap even without funds to be raised out of ICO. Or, you may need to work in a way to gain faith among this community and then you may get your ICO plans may get succeed.

[Convery]

Big companies joined ICOs mainly because it was a smart way how to legitimate your money when we look back into history, we realize that most of the money comes from money laundering.