Congratulations! If you are reading this article then you are stumbling onto cryptocurrency at an early stage! That being said, there is tremendous room for growth within the sector. I am here to provide preliminary research in which you can take the next step with. I am not a financial advisor and the projects I focus on are up for your own interpretation. Please leave comments on things I may have missed or not included! This is a work in progress!
As I am sure there are multiple articles on here regarding how to buy ETH or BTC via your countries exchanges, as well as how to use these to buy/trade/sell tokens on various exchanges, I will focus on "under the radar" token picks that I see to be particularly promising.
This is part of an ongoing series. Depending on the upvotes associated with this article, I will decide how in depth to go with the following.
This article will focus on Hive Platform - https://www.hive-project.net/
Voted the #1 ICO in Europe: http://www.the-blockchain.com/2017/07/20/coinagenda-europe-2017-blockchain-winners-announced/
Problem Statement
Small to medium size businesses are unable to get the funds and liquidity they need when they are waiting on invoice payments from larger businesses/corporations. As of now, the process between financer and business owner takes 90 days and is subject to a variety of fees. This decreases the small/medium businesses ability to buy materials, hire new personnel, pay employee's etc.
The Hive Platform intends to facilitate the transactions between small/medium business owners and those that will buy their invoices as a sort of "cash in advance". The Hive Platform will allow the small/medium business to list their invoice for auction to those willing to foot the bill as intermediaries in the short term. The Hive system will facilitate the verification of the small/medium businesses credit history and identity, as to not cause false invoice selling or default. Buyers of the invoice, using the HVN token, will buy the invoice at a discount and make more tokens back when the payment is completed (i.e. the buy at a discount and get paid the full amount from the larger company). Seller's (aka the business) will be able to have liquidity faster than the current gold standard, allowing them to buy/sell products and hire new personnel. This will enable small/medium size businesses to grow faster and save money during the invoice payment process.
So, can blockchain disrupt this industry? Yes. Blockchain will allow the immediate transfer of funds with minimal fees. Additionally, it will record a complete ledger so that small/medium size businesses cannot sell their invoices more than once.
Here is a summary video:
Youtube Features:
HIVE video - http://www.the-blockchain.com/2017/07/20/coinagenda-europe-2017-blockchain-winners-announced/
ICO Review by Lin K Moon (Follow her) -
News Features:
NASDAQ, Finance Magnates, The Paypers, Bankless Times, EconoTimes, CryptoNinjas, Forex, Distributed.
Before I focus on the team, it is best to go over the token structure.
As of this writing according to https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/hive/ : HVN = $0.020577 USD, with a market cap of $7,716,562 USD and a 375,000,000 HVN circulating (500,000,000 HVN total supply). The business states that this will be a "trillion" dollar industry. Thus, it appears that HVN is extremely undervalued within the total proposed market.
Team: I will focus only on most recent business and degrees based on LinkedIn accounts.
Jure Skolic - Co-founder and CEO - Slovenia
Most recent business: SMARKETING and Allbiz Global
Most Recent Degree: MBA, University of Ljubljana
Dejan Jovanovic - Co-Founder and CTO - Canada
Most recent business: Solution Tek and The Marketing Store
Most Recent Degree: MSc, Electronic Engineering, Computer Science, University of Belgrade
Oliver Muldoon - Finance Lead - United Kingdom
Most recent business: Bitstamp, Noodlum, and Assistant VP of Bank of America Merrill Lynch, UK
Most Recent Degree: Not Listed
Domen Ursic - CMO - Slovenia
Most recent business: Primetime, Casnik Finance, and ICONOMI
Most Recent Degree: Unlisted Degree, University of Ljubljana
Jure Sobocan - Design Lead- Slovenia
Most recent business: Bitstamp, Visual Communications, 3fs D.O.O
Most Recent Degree: BA, Design and Visual Communications, University of Ljubljana
Stanimir Savov - Blockchain Lead- Bulgaria
Most recent business: Orange Dot Ltd., StrangaOne1, ATA
Most Recent Degree: BS?, Telecomunications Engineering, Technical University of Sofia
Georgi Georgiev - Blockchain Lead- Bulgaria
Most recent business: Orange Dot Ltd., Gopler
Most Recent Degree: MS, Computer Software Technology, Sofia University St. Kliment Ohridski
Ivan Dikov - Blockchain Lead- Bulgaria
Most recent business: Orange Dot Ltd.
Most Recent Degree: MS, Mathematics and Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence Specialization, Sofia University St. Kliment Ohridski
Gal Jakic - Community Manager- Slovenia
Most recent business: We Wow Web, Team Jakic (Extreme Adaptive Athlete)
Most Recent Degree: BS?, Kinesiology, University of Ljubljana
Advisors: Not going to lie...the majority of the dev team is a bit concerning in my mind. However, in concert with the advisory team I think this company could be successful.
Ugur Yildirim - Financial Advisor - Slovenia
Most recent business: Elements Capital Partners, Eliztas LLC, ALPEN Invest
Most Recent Degree: Harvard Business School? and MA, Finance Investment, Lodon School of Business and Finance
Vasja Zupan - Business and Strategy Advisor - Slovenia
Most recent business: Elements Capital Partners, Eliztas LLC, ALPEN Invest
Most Recent Degree: Harvard Business School? and MA, Finance Investment, Lodon School of Business and Finance
Richard Titus - Entrepreneur, CEO, coach and senior technology, Internet, and media executive- USA
Most recent business: Andronik Ltd., ARK ICO Advisors, Prompt.ly, Smasung (Senior VP)
Most Recent Degree: MDE, UCLA Anderson School of Management, UC Santa Barbara?
Michael Terpin- Blockchain Adviser, CEO, Transform Group; Chairman, BitAngels- USA
Most recent business: Transform Group, ICOBox, bCommerce Labs, BitAngels
Most Recent Degree: BA (dual), Newspaper Journalism and English Literature, Syracuse University.
Tomislav Mucic- CEO at Netis, Blockchain consultant, Fintech- Slovenia
Most recent business: Nestis D.O.O, Lek D.D. (Novartis)
Most Recent Degree: BS?, Mechanical Engineering, University of Ljubljana.
Sebastian Quinn-Watson - Strategic adviser S.E. Asia- China
Most recent business: Blockchain Global Limited, Eximchain, Infin8 Ventures, OTEC APAC
Most Recent Degree: JD, UNSW Australia, Mandarin language program at Beijing Language and Cultural University and exhange program at Shanghai Jiao Tong University.
Escrow:
Tom Sperry - Investor - USA
Most recent business: Rouge Venture Partners, others?
Most Recent Degree: ?
Again*
Jure Skolic - Co-founder and CEO - Slovenia
Most recent business: SMARKETING and Allbiz Global
Most Recent Degree: MBA, University of Ljubljana
Competitors:
Populous? - Apparently, Populous is a competitor to HVN. That being said, they have a terrible web page and I do not think they have the power of HVN. Additionally, populous appears to have some pretty major issues. Their issues can be reviewed in another steemit artice by 
Overall Thoughts on HVN:
My viewpoint on HCN is positive. I think that they have a good team and I think that they are solving a unique problem. That being said, the majority of their team is from the same Uni in Bulgaria and/or Slovenia. The lack of cultural expansion may hurt the company in the future. They should look to address this problem.
My outlook on HVN is mid-high in the short term, medium in the midterm, and high in the long term.
As I said at the beginning, this is an ongoing series. I plan go over a few different picks that I currently think are undervalued. If you found this post helpful, please upvote!