As you mentioned, looking into the team members is important. You may easily identify a goof, it is a fraudulent project. The way funds are used could also be examine. Although one shouldn't expect the get every information on funding and spending of the startup. One have to know that startups are not liquid or entirely transparent with money. If it were, it would be publicly traded stocks. It's not a problem with it though, private money is fundamentally different from public money. You shouldn't expect everything to be available as such structure could easily be replicated. And most founders are scared of that.