Many ICOs have a minimum investment size in the hundreds of dollars or even the low thousands. This is far, far below the hundreds of thousands or millions needed at even the seed level in traditional equity raises. As a result, the pool of possible investors increases exponentially. Moreover, by spreading the investment over a much larger pool of people, the risk to any one investor is more limited. Overall, ICOs provide a funding model that is more prone to scams but also more democratic and better suited to projects that may not have profit motive as their #1 priority. Projects for the social good, which could never make economic sense to a venture capitalist, might still find support in an ICO from people who wish to support the cause and take the opportunity for profit as just a bonus.