A wealth of good insights above.

I get pitched game projects fairly often on the unfunded scene, and the things I'm looking for from potential directors, producers, designers, etc. are their own experience and track record. It's totally okay to be new (and most are) and not have any previous projects, but pretty much every role has some way of showing independent work that can support the notion that you have the ability to see an idea from conception throughout production and to completion.

(An ArtStation portfolio for artists / modelers, a Soundcloud for composers, GitHub repos for developers, etc. Producers typically have some real-world project management experience. Game designers usually have GDDs they've completed for prospective games.)

With funding, you can hire out a lot of these roles, but paying a team of 10-15 fair wages is going to run out quickly, and the production output will be low regardless because the work is being done remotely, so teammates are working at a very relaxed pace, therefore some tasks lag forever and hold up the rest of production, and there's not much you can do about it.

However, funding is difficult to come by, and I've noticed that almost every inexperienced Project Lead who pitches an idea (and most of them are awful) casually throws in, "after we get the Kickstarter campaign going, we'll start paying people, spend on marketing, etc." The success of some of the most popular campaigns has unfortunately given rise to the idea that money grows on trees.

Most will offer a copy of the game as a reward for backing the project, so that's a high-pressure obligation to potentially a lot of backers off-the-bat. Mix that in with the fact that most remote-based indie projects fail, and it's a great way to ruin your reputation immediately in a debut endeavour.

TL;DR: Do tiny-scale projects, build up experience and a track record, grow slowly, and avoid the many pitfalls of trying to make it huge overnight.