Or will they feed off of Bitcoin's carcass and take off?
95+% will bust too for sure. Alts are always follow BTC in it's rise and fall.
This is the reason why you should never invest or keep in crypto currencies more than you can afford to lose.
I agree with this. Crypto investment should be a part of a broad and diversified investment strategy. Within altcoins, check out the ICO for RLCoin, an enterprise solution for loyalty:
www.rlcoin.io. The product has existing traction with 250 clients and partners in Europe and Asia.