How to survive your first ICO

Looking into investing some of your cash in an ICO (initial coin offering)? The crowdfunding events that let you purchase companies' digital tokens can be lucrative, but they're also incredibly risky. 
One risk involved is the very real possibility that the tokens you purchase simply lose value compared to the ICO price. Some projects die; others get stalled for months and years, and some were just never very good to begin with. 
But there are other types of risks. Since ICOs typically