... I would keep 50% of the funds in BCH, since it is the true Bitcoin.

Bitcoin Cash [50%]

Expected growth [5 years]

Using our friend Metcalfe, here is the math:

1 MB block gives tx_count^2 such that 1 BTC = ~$10k USD
8 MB block gives tx_count^2 such that 1 BCH = ~$640k USD [x100]
1 GB block .... you do the math

Cardano (ADA) [10%]

Two of my friends work for IOHK. One is a Haskell guru and expects ADA to be ETH killer.

Expected growth [1 year]

Taking Ethereum's market cap. [x10]

Ark [10%]

A cool mix of dictatorship and democracy, this dPOS coin looks promising. I heard about it from a friend a couple of months ago, but first thought it is a playground for Bitcoin whales to play with. After a while I realised this thing can't be manipulated so easily.

Expected growth [1 year]

Seeing increasing user adoption, this coin has a big potential. [x10]

Steem [10%]

This one is the most controversial. I have heard a lot of people saying I should stay out of this. Because of bots, because of creators dumping STEEM on the market to fund their project. It's possible steem will be made redundant like Bitcoin / Ethereum in the future, but for now it is the only social network in the blockchain as far as I know. I would use STEEM to power up our coin supporters on Steemit, making them much more influential.

Excpected growth [1 year]

The subreddit subscriber count went x10 in one year. Market cap went up x20. Using Metcalfe, we should see at least a [x5] increase in marketcap to meet the total user count squared.

Verge (XVG) [10%]

This coin went under the radar for a long time. I heard about it 1 month ago from a person that offered to trade his info for my uncensored "dragonslayer" chat. I checked it out and decided to add it to my protfolio, thinking it is extremely underpriced.

Expected growth [1 year]

They are recruiting new users like crazy. Expect this one to at least take Monero's market cap. [x3]

Doge (DOGE) [10%]

The coin for the internet generation. Unlimited supply, still going strong.

Expected growth [1 year]

About 5% inflation, but still huge potential. [x2]

I would put BCH in cold storage - you don't speculate with The Bitcoin, right.
The ALTs I would have on various exchanges ready to ride the opportunities as they arise. ICO participants would vote what to do with them and together we would make miracles.

So, how much would I need to fund 5 core developers for 1 year full time?

Suppose I raise 20k USD, wait 1 month, now having 40k USD (because I invested wisely, right). Then we would start working on our coin, and the paycheck would be set so that it grows over time. Starting with $1000 USD per developer per month, and ending correlated to whatever the growth of our initial investment in the coins was. So if our coins grow 20% in 1 month:

MAR 2018 (-$5000) [$35000 + $8000 growth]
APR 2018 (-$5500) [$37500 + $7000 growth]
MAY 2018 (-$6000) [$38500 + $7500 growth]
JUN 2018 (-$6500) [$39500 + $8000 growth]
JUL 2018 (-$7000) [$40500 + $8000 growth]
AUG 2018 (-$7500) [$41000 + $8000 growth]
SEP 2018 (-$8000) [$41000 + $8000 growth]
OCT 2018 (-$8500) [$40500 + $8000 growth]
NOV 2018 (-$9000) [$39500 + $8000 growth]
DEC 2018 (-$9500) [$38000 + $7500 growth]
JAN 2018 (-$10000) [$34500 + $6000 growth]
FEB 2018 (-$10500) [$30000]

So after 1 year 5 fulltime devs wasted about $10000 usd and now as a reward each gets a $6000 bonus from the money that was left from the initial fund.

How about that?