Thank you for taking some time to provide feedback, I appreciate it and will do some research.

In the end, I'm trying to figure out how to provide value to investors in products and fund the development of the products we have concepts for (developers need food too!). These would mainly be products built on existing blockchains or if needed a forked blockchain with some changes needed. We have concepts for project management, law enforcement, and estate/property transactions to name a few. Some will work out and some will not.

I would like to provide value and minimize risk to the start up and the people investing in the products. Looking at traditional models they seem to be full of risk or don't provide value to people that are investing or contributing.

Traditional loans to fund product development can be very risky, if the product is not well received by the market you are still on the hook to pay back a loan with interest, this would be a big personal risk to the borrower.

Venture capital investment requires giving up control of the company to an investor. I want the company to return value to the people that contribute to the company, the people doing the work and innovating. I don't want them to be controlled by an investor that is focused on returns.

Crowdfunding, as far as I can tell will not return value to the people and organizations that are investing. It is basically asking for money with no chance of a return.

Selling off percentages of the company seems risky to both the company and the investor, the company can be controlled and direction can be dictated by large percentage shareholders. On the other side, the small investor has no real control over what the company does, and they don't really know what their investment is being used for or if it will provide any return.

This is part of the reason cryptocurrencies interest me, there is an incentive to invest effort or value to get a return from the currency. I think I understand the concept of the ICO and ITO to an investor, in that they are hoping for increased value of the tokens/coins at a later time. I understand the value to miners of a new coin in that they are able to produce value for some work. The token or coin serves as a value store and something that will allow for transactions between parties. I realize that not every product will require its own currency, but I see them as a litmus test for product viability and a more efficient way to figure out if a product is something the market wants.

I'm struggling with how to offer products in such a way that investors can feel confident their funds will be used as described and not get ripped off. That they will receive a return value based on their investment, and provide developers with the resources needed to allow them to work on their ideas.

I've thought of setting a goal for funding, something like an all or nothing campaign. Of course, this would be combined with an escrow multisig account to ensure that transactions occur as defined. I guess it would be more like crowd investment than traditional crowdfunding.

Does anyone know of a launch, campaign, or something similar that I can look at or if another company is doing something like this?

TIA,

Damien