When looking for an investment opportunity, I would focus on the following things: media coverage, community, finances, famous people or companies behind the project. 5 years ago I would've said that you should look at their whitepaper, but now I think it's a waste of time. It might be an unpopular opinion, but I believe that the concepts don't matter if there's no way the team will actually succeed in implementing them, and projects that are very similar but have lots of funding can become successful even if they're not original.
Out of those things, I would say famous people are the least important part. I get that because of Elon Musk many people think that viral marketing is possible via other famous people but we had so many celebs going out of their way to promote projects all the time and it ended up not being that great.
This is enough proof that celebs promoting a project is not enough at all, it is something that you should not rely on while you are investing. Aside from that, fundamentals, roadmap, code, media coverage, community, and so forth are all great parts of it and I definitely agree that you should check them out before you make an investment.