Initial Coin Offering (ICO) is a modern way using which funds are raised for a new cryptocurrency venture. It's often used when the founders want to bypass the rigorous and regulated capital-raising process required by venture capitalists.

When a cryptocurrency startup firm wants to raise money through an ICO, it usually creates a plan on a whitepaper which states what the project is about, what need(s) the project will achieve upon completion, how much money is needed to undertake the venture, how much of the virtual tokens the pioneers of the project will keep for themselves, what type of money is accepted (bitcoin, ether or actual money), and how long the ICO campaign will run for. During the ICO campaign, enthusiasts and supporters of the firm’s initiative buy some of the distributed cryptocoins with real money or virtual currency. These coins are referred to as tokens and are similar to shares of a company sold to investors in a more traditional ICO transaction. If the money raised does not meet the minimum funds required by the firm, the money is returned to the backers and the ICO is deemed to be unsuccessful. If the funds requirements are met within the specified timeframe, the money raised is used to either initiate the new scheme or to complete it.

In addition to comments by @spsiddarthan and @hipkiss91 , you will be creating a "coin/token", which you will be selling, to investors.

Most ICO's have taken place on the Ethereum Platform, however challenger platforms are begining to come forward, eg NEO, as an alternative.

Assuming you are going to use Ethereum Platform, your team will need to creat an ERC20 Token. This token will be "sold" to investors during your ICO. When your token smart contract is created, make sure it also audited by experienced ERC20 devs to ensure there are no bugs in the contract.

Bugs can lead to hacks of your token/ICO, and you dont want potenetially $millions to be stolen/stuck/ etc.

I am also exploring this avenue, but the most experienced devs are charging big $$$$ to create the token and do an audit.

Perhaps we could get members here to pool expertise/resources together?

Let me know if you need any more help, or are intersted in organising some devs, as my own project has massive potential. I also just need help to move my project along.

Thx

An ICO or Initial Coin Offering is the same as an Initial Public Offering (IPO), which is the conventional way people made money. An IPO only happens when the company in question wishes to go public and the stocks get traded on the stock exchange.

ICO's happen straight away, in some cases before a business or product has actually been built. An ICO usually involves a Whitepaper, explaining the product and technology, and details of how to send them money, in the form of other cryptocurrencies (BTC, ETH, LTC maybe some others). Finally, how do people get the coin/token that is being offered in the ICO, well once you've sent X amount from your wallet, and assuming it is compatible with that coin/token then you will automatically receive the ICO coin/token when the ICO has ended/soon after. In some cases it is required to download there own proprietary wallet (free) which works in a similar fashion.

There are websites like the following to keep track of ICO's: icoalert.com