Initial Coin Offering (ICO) is the cryptocurrency equivalent of an Initial Public Offering (IPO), where a company goes from private to public status by selling shares for equity. This is typically done to get funds without the need to go to a Venture Company (VC) or bank. An ICO solves the basic problem of initial coin distribution.

Early investors in the operation are usually motivated to buy the cryptocoins in the hope that the plan becomes successful after it launches which could translate to a higher cryptocoin value than what they purchased it for before the project was initiated. (Source)

What you need

1. Detailed White Paper

2. Clear Development Roadmap

3. Open Source Published Code

4. Clear and fair pricing and sale

5. Price discovering (pre-sale)

6. Developer percentage

7. Independent Review

8. Good Faith and Marketing Approach

What token buyers want

1. Big ideas

2. Great, futuristic, impossible problems

3. Fair economics

4. Token having genuine use

5. Roadmap to success

6. Incredible team

7. Active Community

8. Being part of something transformational